So I’ve been torrenting for over a year now (just in time to get attached to RARBG and get my heart broken) and mostly loving it. Now that I have access to actual high quality files I’ve been looking to improve my home setup. I was wondering what setups people have and what I should aspire to.

In the old days I would just stream with chromecast and then I got into the Laptop to HDMI cable setup but now I know the joys of a 5TB hard drive plugged directly into my TV and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. My TV isn’t all that big (only 45") and it’s only 1080p. It’s an older TV too so it can’t play HEVC files which limits what I can play in this setup. I’d love to be able to access the 4k HDR content out there. Does anyone have any advice on what kind of TVs are out there that would work well with this or other potential setups?

  • VentraSqwal@links.dartboard.socialEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I’m guessing you have to plug a separate hard drive into the Nvidia Shield Pro to stream files that large? I’ve been thinking of going that route since Netflix has started being sucky. I don’t want to support them, but I miss their 4k Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos/5.1 content for my own basic, little home theater.

    • pacoboyd@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Nvidia shield makes a decent Plex server in a pinch. You can use an external NAS or plug an external HDD in directly.

      Almost everyone that runs Plex also runs some sort of NAS though. Personally I run mine off TrueNAS and have an unRAID backup.

      • VentraSqwal@links.dartboard.socialEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Damn, Nvidia Shield Pro is kind of expensive, $200. And so are some of the NAS’s I’ve seen pop up on google. Trying to get both sounds like this will end up being a long-term project over a couple paychecks lol.

        • pacoboyd@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Sometimes you can pick them up used for $100 or so. It really is the best smart TV device short of a mini PC. Basically it’s responsive and “just works”

        • Catsrules@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Well that is kind of the premium way to do it.

          If you have a computer of some sort the cheap option is to just run a Plex or Jellyfin off that. Maybe get an external hard drive if you need more storage.

          Then just get a cheap streaming device that has the Plex/Jellyfin apps. Even some TVs will support them natively.

          You could potentially get everything up and run for free if you already have a computer with enough storage and a TV that supports the apps.

          Sure you might be limited on some formats without some transcoding.