For some years now I have been trying to buy or build a media player device that would allow me to play both music and tv shows and movies that already exist on my Plex server as well as watch (and listen to) live tv through the same audio device, with no success. Any solution I tried required me to do something in order to switch inputs, even if that was just to pick up a remote to change a setting. I also wanted to eliminate ads. I expect to see ads if I am watching broadcast tv, since ads are what pay for the programming. I do NOT want to see ads on an idle screen, such as one sees on an Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick. I’ve finally found what for me is so far a perfect solution – that solution is Plex HTPC (Home Theater PC). (I recently tried Android TV on a Raspberry Pi, which worked pretty well, but you guessed it – now I’m seeing Google ads! The setup procedure was pretty wonky for the Android tv setup too, and it’s unclear how long it will be supported since there’s exactly one developer maintaining it.)
While it would have been nice to be able to use one of the 5 or 6 Pi4Bs that I have in stock, I thought that might be asking a bit much. My son recently bought a refurbished Dell Optiplex 3050 micro pc off Amazon for less than a hundred bucks, so I decided to give that a try. It works great. I did a fresh minimal install of Xubuntu 24.04, then installed plex-htpc. After a bit of panel customization to make it rational for a home theater pc, I can honestly say it’s the best solution I’ve found by far. So the ad-free media player is complete. Still missing the music part though. Wait, I can cast music from plexamp on my phone or laptop to the plex-htps? No way it’s gonna be that easy…YES IT IS!
I have an Amazon Fire TV soundbar on two tvs that sounded better than the stock tv speakers, but tv audio going through my stereo system with subwoofer blows that away. It’s a totally different experience. I now have 2 Dell Optiplex 3050 micro computers running plex htpc, with a third one on the way, which I will take on vacations. Yes, I hate ads that much.
The most difficult part of the whole process was finding a remote to use with the Dells. I tried three different devices that had a tv remote form factor, but none of them had the basic functionality I was looking for – namely, navigate through plex menus, pause/play, volume up/down, etc. I finally ended up using these Rii 2.4GHz Mini Wireless Keyboards. While they don’t have the tv remote form, they work very well for this purpose, at least for me. Since they are 2.4ghz rf, you don’t need to point them. They can just sit on the table and you hit whatever button you need, and since they are basically just a keyboard, all the keys work as you’d expect – space bar for play/pause, V+ and V- for vol up and down, esc to go back a screen, left and right arrows for fast fwd/rew. I have two of those as well, with a third on the way. They just work, so might as well stop looking.|
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