As someone who had been doing exactly this setup for a years, even before streaming was a thing, the key issue is the lack of ease.

When I was watching my own collection just streamed through local intranet, using VLC and a “remote mouse”, the problem always came down to the interface or the remote. It is vastly easier to navigate through menus, etc. on a TV using a remote than even a remote-shaped keyboard. Even when you had everything set up reasonably well in Kodi or something, there was always the issue of having a remote to control the TV and then a remote to control the TV’s PC. Using a keyboard, even one of the small mouse-keyboard combos is a hassle and is ripe with issues when trying to manage anything that needs to be navigated at the PC’s resolutions, especially if you are 8-10ft away from the screen on a sofa. Then, trying to let friends and family use your setup is not even worthwhile. It’s easier to just say, “I don’t have TV” than try to explain.

Case in point, a few years ago, I discovered Jellyfin and it completely changed the way that I watch media. Instead of ensuring that the TV laptop was properly connected to my main desktop where all the drives were connected, and running all shows and movies through numerous playlists, I had Jellyfin doing all the heavy lifting. When it came to adding Jellyfin to my TV, I added the app to the TV, and it all worked exactly like Netflix. One remote, one simple interface, working on nearly every device (PS5 interface can get fracked 😤).

No more ensuring that every TV in the house has a cheap laptop connected to it. No more buying the extra TV-PC remotes with scattered connections and continually having to reconfigure each time I decided to try something else in the setup. No more ensuring that playlists were accessible to each laptop, updating all the laptops, Windows internal connection randomly stopping on the downstairs laptop, trying to duplicate favorite film and TV to extra drives to have on hand in case I’m watching something with friends and the network folders stop registering randomly. Everything just works. Add Jellyfin app to the TV or Roku, or iPad, or whatever, and I have access to my entire collection with ease.

I’ve been doing this for literal decades at this point, and the ease that comes with “install the app and watch” is the reason that people don’t just connect a PC.

I want my tv to turn on instantly; not to wait for a pc to boot, have to log in, and only then opening my streaming app. Such a hassle.

I personally have a tcl with custom launcher, debloated the most I could, on a network with adguard, streaming only from jellyfin (Wholphin client) and Navidrome (Chora), and sometimes Youtube (Grayjay). I click the power on button, it instantly turns on into Wholphin most often, then I click the play button. Litterally 2 seconds. What's the big deal? Ok, it still has traces of google and other stuff, but it sounds like a decent compromise. Ofc, if someday somebody out there makes a custom rom I'll be the first one to install it, but until then..

I mean, a shield TV pro with custom launcher is really really good. Kodi, stremio and what have you, makes it very easy and enjoyable to watch tv. And Nvidia just keep on shipping updates.

While I agree wholeheartedly with this comment, I felt the need to add a footnote to it.

if you currently use mainstream media services such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc., be careful going this route because some service providers are known to intentionally drop the quality of your stream If it realizes you're on a browser instead of an official app. I know Netflix for sure does it because I've seen it first hand.

As an early adopter of the whole whole "just plug a computer into the TV thing" going back to the early 2000s, I will say that its kinda shocking that no one has developed a really solid 10-foot interface that doesn't need a shit-ton of tweaks to work right.

I understand that people want to just be able to plug shit in and go. I have an HTPC hooked up at my house, but for family members that aren't interested in tweaking shit and troubleshooting, they get a firestick with stremio on it.

I'm sorry, but that's a terrible setup for 99% of the people. I don't want a big loud box near a tv. How would you even control it ? If all you are going to do is launch those apps, most people would be better off with apple tv. You can even install jellyfin there if you have your own home server and stream to it.

I have a $150 N100 Mini-PC with Lubuntu and an always on Kodi for that.

I even got a wireless remote for it - turns out Kodi's keyboard shortcuts are standard so there are wirelless remotes that just identify themselves on USB as a "keyboard" and just have the remote buttons mapped to the correct shortcut key for that function. The remote looks the same as any other remote (though if you press the power button it switches OFF the PC and then you can't switch it ON again with the remote).

It works pretty much like a dedicated TV media box and it's my living room were you can't really tell it's a PC unless you know what to look for.

As an upside, it's also my home NAS and bittorrent server, remotelly managed from my official PC via SSH and web (the bittorrent server has a web interface).

I've actually been using TV media boxes for over a decade (long before Smart TVs) and this is the best setup I've ever had.

I'm excited for kde big screen, it should be coming out this year.

I'm 100% with you and this is my mantra, but at this very moment am having trouble finding a TV that can operate without ever connecting to a network and would appreciate any brand/model reccs in the 55/60" range. All I need is HDMI.

The trouble for me in this sense is that I have an AVR, I'd like CEC to work and I'd like an interface that was actually designed for a remote.

I've done this before, and frankly it's just not as good. It works reasonably well, but an HTPC has never served as well as a purpose built piece of hardware or software, even if that's the TV itself.

If I really wanted, I could buy a hospitality TV and use the RS232 to control it from the PC but I'm tired thinking about the ways that's likely to fail.