After spending the last few days, tinkering and trying to put together an HTPC for my family, I wasn’t able to get a smooth enough experience to match even our old, ad-filled, laggy, Roku. In particular, every streaming service I tried needed to be controlled almost exclusively by mouse, as everything has been reduced to electron apps/websites with little-to-no keyboard or controller navigation support. As such, I’m looking for other options, although considering how quickly these platforms change and how outdated a lot of the information available on them is its hard to single out the best options.
In particular, I’m looking to be able to:
- Use Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+. Ideally other services too, since we tend to juggle subscriptions.
- Control it with a remote, controller, or similarly simple device
- Be able to cast to it from a phone
Does anyone have much experience with options for this - esspecially if you’ve tried multiple and can compare?
Nvidia Shields are another option, and there are some Bluetooth keyboards with trackpad that could work for these options + the PC
What I’d love to see is a Wii remote style interface. It would be much easier than trying to snake your way over to the thing you want to select
I have a shield connected to a projector through an av receiver. I love the setup for its audio visual fidelity, but I love the simplicity of operation almost as much. The shield remote turns everything on and off and handles all my streaming services + steam link flawlessly. Wonderful user experience.