Non-Amazon/Roku HDMI stick?

Plex Players Streaming Devices
, ,
1

Newbie here. Neither my Apple TV3 or my Humax YouView box can (easily) run Plex player so I want to run Plex player on a stick to plug into HDMI. I don’t want to use an Amazon firestick as I am concerned about privacy.

Are there any other ‘stick’ hardware solutions that can run Plex player via open source software? Or is it possible to use an Amazon Firestick and totally ‘de-connect’ it from Amazon? Similarly with Roku.

I appreciate I am being choosy but do want to ask the question at the start of my Plex journey.

Thanks all

2

There is no “stick” if you want Open Source. The best you can get in that department is LibreElec with the Plex4Kodi add-on, running on a Raspberry Pi (or any other hardware where you can get Kodi to run reasonably well).
(But it’s not a smooth ride, as I have experienced painfully when I gave my parents a RasPi3 and expected it to run smoothly, when using the remote control of the TV where it’s plugged into.)

For the rest you can only pick which company is to deliver the OS.
Android (Google), FireTV (also Android, but from Amazon), nVidia Shield (also Android), Apple TV 4

2 Likes
3

Technically speaking, ASUS makes an HDMI form factor mini computer. I have one…or did until it stopped working. Lol

It runs windows 10. That would allow you to run Plex media player. it’s not open source but would keep you out of the Amazon ecosystem.

1 Like
4

You could probably wipe Windows off one and replace it with LibreElec and the Plex Kodi Add-on, though. That would potentially reduce the overhead from the OS.

1 Like
5

Not sure. If you try it let us know the outcome!

6

Yeah… it’s a little outside my budget for just “playing around”. I’m overall happy with my Fire Stick 4K (I have other streaming services I subscribe to, including Amazon Prime). If I wanted a more dedicated Plex playback device I’d want more horsepower, like a NUC.

However, it doesn’t cost anything for me to do searching online. The Asus stick is just another manufacturer’s version of the Intel Compute Stick devices, and they do seem to be OS-replaceable like this.

  • Here’s a post about installing LibreELEC on a NUC, and the author says the procedure works for a compute stick, too.

  • Here’s a full-blown github project for installing LibELEC on small/single-board PCs. It’s focused on making a console emulation device, but Kodi wouldn’t be much outside that.

  • Here’s a guide to altering existing Linux ISOs into installers for the Intel Atom platform (which the Asus and Intel computer sticks use).

7

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.