I currently use an Apple TV 4K, which is - as far as I’m aware - more or less the best streaming box you can buy. However, it’s the version without ethernet, and Steam Link has become a dog over wifi for some reason. So I figured I’d look around to see if there’s an alternative solution.
Hardware-wise, I have a Dell Optiplex 3020 or a 2014 Mac mini (running Debian), to choose from, but have no real idea where to go from there, beyond the vague notion that KDE have put big screen mode back into beta. I did have a play with that a few months ago in a VM, but was struck that there were (obviously) no applications that made any real use of it.
Does anyone out there run anything they’ve built themselves? If so, what?
I tried all kinds of things like android TV and libre elec before I finally settled on a solution that works for me. In the end, I put MX Linux on an old laptop, created desktop entries for services like jellyfin, freetube, a few paid streaming services, RomM, as well as others like kolourpaint for the kids; made the icons very large; all desktop entries launch services in chromium fullscreen; then, I got a USB remote/mouse thing and mapped the inputs a little bit using input remapper; I keep a USB keyboard in the cabinet in case we need it. A little janky but in the end it works flawlessly and all services stream in HD. If I had a nicer machine I might go with CachyOS or Mint and I bet it’d be a little smoother with those distros.