Streaming Setup

After years of tinkering, I think I've finally
settled on a streaming/tv/movies setup that works
for both me and my wife. I'm writing this up in
the hopes that someone quarantined by COVID-19 can
improve their setup during their isolation.

Let me start off with a few requirements that
shape my solution:

* I don't download movies or shows illegally -
if you do, I'm not going to yell at you or anything,
but I feel I make enough money to buy small
things that I want.

* The setup must be relatively easy to operate
by people other than myself. It also must have access
to the shows my family wants. We subscribe to a variety
of services and all of them must be supported.

* Over the Air (OTA) Television must be well-integrated.
I am in a location where many OTA channels are available
with my modest outdoor antenna. Well-integrated means
DVR support and not having to change inputs on the TV.
*Many* people don't know how much is out there for free in the U.S.

* Hard wiring using Ethernet is ideally supported. I live
in a densely populated area and WiFi is simply too
overloaded for reliable streaming. 2.4GHz WiFi is
unusable for more than basic browsing, so if wireless
must be used a solution has to support 5GHz (ac).

Your requirements may be different and thus you
may arrive at different solution.

Things I Tried And Ultimately Abandoned:

Several years ago when we first cut the cord, we
used an Amazon Fire TV Stick. It worked, but we
got caught up in Amazon's pissing match with Google
that led to YouTube being unsupported on Fire
devices. Also, the stick itself was just crappy
and frequently restarted or froze up.

As the Fire Stick became worse, we switched to the
newer Chromecast device which supported 5GHz WiFi.
It also displayed puzzling bugs ever so often and
while the phone-as-remote thing is cute, eventually
you want a physical remote. And, due to the aforementioned
pissing match, Prime Video didn't support Chromecast.

Sidenote here: how have we as consumers come to accept
how woeful everyday software is? I digress...

The other issue with both the Stick and Chromecast
is the lack of integrated OTA TV. I bought a crappy
Chinese DVR and hooked up to my TV's integrated tuner.
It "worked", but switching inputs just because you
want to watch something OTA is not the experience
I want. I could talk for a while about my OTA
antenna setup but in the words of Alton Brown,
that's another show (phlog).

Enter the Channel Master Stream+ Android TV box.
When I saw it online it seemed to check all the boxes.
The Android TV ecosystem had the apps we wanted
and it had an integrated tuner and OTA DVR powered
by Google Live Channels. This meant free guide
information (in exchange for your data no doubt)
and a very user-friendly DVR. However, the cracks
started showing soon. When I bought it, I was
promised that Netflix and Prime Video support would
come "soon". Here I stand over a year later and I had
to sideload the APK for Prime Video and Netflix still
isn't supported (we used the Chromecast on another input).
The device hasn't seen an Android update in a year
and thus is really unsafe to use. I think this
box was a great idea with shockingly poor execution.
Channel Master is still credulously selling it on
their site as an all-in-one solution. It is not.

Eventually the lack of Netflix and the rapidly
bit-rotting OS got to me and I went searching again.
Unfortunately now I have a big paperweight because
I can't sell a device that doesn't do Netflix to most
normal people. Also, who knows what happens when
apps no longer work because the device is so out
of date and/or Google decides to kill Live Channels?

What I Settled On

* Roku Ultra LT
* HDHomeRun Scribe Duo

Roku has been the leading platform for streaming
service support for a while so all the apps I wanted
just worked. The user interface is simple and I have
not yet noticed major bugs. It has Ethernet support
as well as a physical remote. The only thing it
doesn't do is OTA TV (out of the box that is).

The HDHomeRun is a device that takes your OTA signal
and streams it over your home network. They have apps
for Roku and most major platforms. The one I bought has
integrated storage and the DVR capability is available
for a modest fee. I don't mind paying that fee because
I want them to make money off of customers rather than
advertising. Now, any device in the house can watch OTA
TV, including my Linux machine using a spartan but
workable interface provided by the company that makes
the HDHomeRun.

This post is already way too long so I'll wrap up by
saying feel free to ask me questions about my setup
and other things you're considering. Stay healthy
out there gopherspace!

@jboverf@mastodon.sdf.org

-or-

[my username here] [at] sdf.org