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Jellyfin Dongle (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hi guys!

I'm looking for a replacement travel dongle to play my Jellyfin movies whenever I'm traveling. My goto device up to this point has been a Chromecast (with GTV I think). But it's becoming increasingly clear its playback is very unreliable, hanging mid-playback for long periods. I blamed it initially on bandwidth issues over very long distances (the server is on a different continent at the moment!). But playing on the laptop via browser or via the jellyfin media player flatpak works just beautifully. So it clearly seems to be issues with the Chromecast as it's connected to the same Wifi and TV as the laptop.

So I am thinking...what other devices could I look into as Chromecast replacement? There's over 3yr old recommendations about a Walmart device (but I don't live anywhere near the American continent). The other go-to device would be an Nvidia Shield, the canister-looking one. But that still seems a bit hefty for traveling. After all these years, is there any device you'd recommend to use as light-to-bring dongle for traveling?

Thanks!

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[–] 19 points 11 months ago (4 children)

It's a little bulkier than a Chromecast but for my TV at home I use a Raspberry Pi 5 with Konstakang's Android TV LineageOS images installed. It works pretty well and I could see it being fairly portable.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    That sounds like something I would be interested in replacing my chromecasts at home with. Are you able to configure a remote control to work with the pi?

    Because I'd like any transition to be seamless as possible. Thanks for sharing!

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    • [–] 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Have you tried a USB-C to HDMI cable for you phone?

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    • [–] 9 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Nvidia shield is incredibly old. I'm not saying it's bad, it's just that I don't want to buy an electric device that has been developed "10" years ago and could be replaced next year

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    • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (9 children)

    There was an ONN (or Onn.) box for which there are guides on how to root it, which I think is this Walmart box. You might be able to find it from a source in your country.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    To be fair, I believe that's the "Walmart" one op talks about in the post. I believe they do sell a version of this same set top box in the UK and possibly other parts of Europe. So it may be a viable option still.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    Is it called ONN in the UK too? Thanks!

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    No. It looks like it has a different name.

    https://tv.mythomson.com/en/Thomson-Streaming-Box-Plus/270

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    Thanks a lot. I'm not really sure what are the shipping times. I'm briefly in Europe, so this might be an option...if they're quick to ship.

    EDIT: After some checking in XDA, I think this model might not be supported for installing LOS. But I might be able to use it without root perhaps...I only need to change the launcher (and remap the home button to the new launcher maybe), disable updates and install f-droid. And the just install jellyfin.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Yeah. I wasn't sure it would work for your use case necessarily, but I did remember seeing that a version of the Walmart onn box was available in Europe, so I didn't want to discount it altogether.

    Either way I do hope you find what you're looking for and if I come across suggestions that might work I'll try to post them here.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Thanks...yeah that's the one. I'm not sure where to source it from, either in Europe or in Asia.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Possibly? I don't know for sure because I can't find a store front selling it, but it does appear that these devices are region locked and that there are people in Asian countries sharing ways to end around the region lock.

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    • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Been using the Mi TV Stick for a while, without any issues.

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    [–] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

    Maybe one of those HDMI "stick" PCs you can get? There's x86 Android builds you can run or you can do like I did with my media PCs and boot into Openbox and just launch a fullscreen browser right to Jellyfin and control it from your phone. (My main setup uses Emby but should be able to do the same with JF).

    I've actually got a portable Jellyfin server I take with me. Built on the OrangePi Zero 2W with a USB->NVMe acting as media storage (as well as the Jellyfin DB). It's got several other services running as well as a second Wifi adapter so it can also act as a travel router.

    For playback, I pretty much just use my laptop or phone but have thought about adding one of the "stick" PCs as a client for it.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah that's what i meant, one of those android dongles... But which one is good for it. And I wouldn't be able to bring the server with me, as it has about 10Tb now between movies and TV shows.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Yeah, I don't know about pre-installed with Android that aren't ad platforms masquerading as consumer hardware. I'd never use one unless it was supported by LineageOS or something. My comment was more "roll your own" in nature.

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