For over a decade I’ve been watching TV Series and Movies from a Media Box connected via Ethernet to my home NAS (which is generally an old notebook or even my router - once I got myself a decent router - with some external hardisks), which is actually a pretty simple network to set up using Ethernet Over Powerlinr adaptors (which were already good enough for it back when they only did 20 Mb/second and now that they’re 1000Mb/s will handle even the huge resolution lightly compressed stuff that one can now find as booty out there).
The setup has been recently upgraded to a Mini-PC with Lubuntu and Kodi, which is in my living room (right next to my Internet router to which it is connect with Gigabit Ethernet) and is also my home NAS and Bittorrent server over always on VPN, with a wireless remote for using in my living room to control Kodi (so it works the same as a TV Box for watching media) whilst the background stuff I control from my main PC remotely using a mix of web interfaces and ssh command line.
I had never had this good an environment for TV entertainment and I’m not even using any of the *arr suite or Usenet to source content so a lot of it is really just doing the same stuff as a decade ago but with better hardware and a more modern UI for media playing and (most importing) a way faster Internet connection.
Anyways, the point I’m making is that nowadays one can actually upgrade a little bit from your setup (which, by the way, is superior to what I had before my Mini-PC upgrade) cheaply and even get themselves very close to the same experience as the corporate stuff (media box with remote and a nice UI to play stuff from a media library) whilst maintaining maximum control and getting no shit from enshittification.
PS: I couldn’t recommend more getting a wireless remote if you want to just be able to sit down on your sofa and have a no hassle media box experienced (even whilst behind sits a far more complex home infrastructure that what people who outsource that side of things to the likes of Hulu have). It real helps with having a shit-free under your total control entertainment experience without sacrificing the part of that experience that comes from having a modern interface for media selection.
Before this Mini-PC TV Media Box I had an actual dedicated TV Media Box which lasted for maybe a decade, and at some point its remote broke, so rather than throw the whole thing out I made my own IR-translation box with a WiFi-Enabled micro-controller (so it had an IR emitter pointed at my TV Box and that was controlled by some software running on the microcontroller that exposed a REST interface on the WiFi) and also made my own Android app to remote control the TV Media Box via that translation box.
A dedicate remote and a remote control app on a smartphone or tablet are just not the same thing in practice.
Whilst I don’t tend to have my phone on my living room, I do have a tablet there, but a dedicated remote is much more straightforward to use because it just directly works with zero delay: there is no need wake it up and unlock it like I would my tablet, I will never need to switch apps like I do on a tablet if I was using the tablet for something else, the user interface in a dedicated remote is as standard and familiar as it gets, and that remote can just stay there in my living room all the time for anybody to use just for that purpose alone whilst the tablet will move around to be used for other things and even taken away from home.
The smartphone/tablet remote control app is a more flexible option that can pack-in as many or as few controls as one wants, but that is a tradeoff for it being overall more of a hassle, less practical and slower to use for the most frequently used commands. Ultimately I just want to select a video and start it, possibly stopping it or pausing it, with the least hassle possible and with no unrelated tasks (like getting the tablet from somewhere else, having the unlock it or switch tasks on it) getting in the way.
So in my experience, having tried both ways, the dedicated hardware remote is a superior option which is why I recommended it.
For over a decade I’ve been watching TV Series and Movies from a Media Box connected via Ethernet to my home NAS (which is generally an old notebook or even my router - once I got myself a decent router - with some external hardisks), which is actually a pretty simple network to set up using Ethernet Over Powerlinr adaptors (which were already good enough for it back when they only did 20 Mb/second and now that they’re 1000Mb/s will handle even the huge resolution lightly compressed stuff that one can now find as booty out there).
The setup has been recently upgraded to a Mini-PC with Lubuntu and Kodi, which is in my living room (right next to my Internet router to which it is connect with Gigabit Ethernet) and is also my home NAS and Bittorrent server over always on VPN, with a wireless remote for using in my living room to control Kodi (so it works the same as a TV Box for watching media) whilst the background stuff I control from my main PC remotely using a mix of web interfaces and ssh command line.
I had never had this good an environment for TV entertainment and I’m not even using any of the *arr suite or Usenet to source content so a lot of it is really just doing the same stuff as a decade ago but with better hardware and a more modern UI for media playing and (most importing) a way faster Internet connection.
Anyways, the point I’m making is that nowadays one can actually upgrade a little bit from your setup (which, by the way, is superior to what I had before my Mini-PC upgrade) cheaply and even get themselves very close to the same experience as the corporate stuff (media box with remote and a nice UI to play stuff from a media library) whilst maintaining maximum control and getting no shit from enshittification.
PS: I couldn’t recommend more getting a wireless remote if you want to just be able to sit down on your sofa and have a no hassle media box experienced (even whilst behind sits a far more complex home infrastructure that what people who outsource that side of things to the likes of Hulu have). It real helps with having a shit-free under your total control entertainment experience without sacrificing the part of that experience that comes from having a modern interface for media selection.
Instead of a wireless remote
Check out Unified Remote app on Play Store or Apple. It’s rock steady . Never have issues. It’s one of the few apps I’ve ever paid for.
Basically control Your desktop from your phone. including text-to-speech for typing. It simply hands down a must have.
Before this Mini-PC TV Media Box I had an actual dedicated TV Media Box which lasted for maybe a decade, and at some point its remote broke, so rather than throw the whole thing out I made my own IR-translation box with a WiFi-Enabled micro-controller (so it had an IR emitter pointed at my TV Box and that was controlled by some software running on the microcontroller that exposed a REST interface on the WiFi) and also made my own Android app to remote control the TV Media Box via that translation box.
A dedicate remote and a remote control app on a smartphone or tablet are just not the same thing in practice.
Whilst I don’t tend to have my phone on my living room, I do have a tablet there, but a dedicated remote is much more straightforward to use because it just directly works with zero delay: there is no need wake it up and unlock it like I would my tablet, I will never need to switch apps like I do on a tablet if I was using the tablet for something else, the user interface in a dedicated remote is as standard and familiar as it gets, and that remote can just stay there in my living room all the time for anybody to use just for that purpose alone whilst the tablet will move around to be used for other things and even taken away from home.
The smartphone/tablet remote control app is a more flexible option that can pack-in as many or as few controls as one wants, but that is a tradeoff for it being overall more of a hassle, less practical and slower to use for the most frequently used commands. Ultimately I just want to select a video and start it, possibly stopping it or pausing it, with the least hassle possible and with no unrelated tasks (like getting the tablet from somewhere else, having the unlock it or switch tasks on it) getting in the way.
So in my experience, having tried both ways, the dedicated hardware remote is a superior option which is why I recommended it.