Hey peeps,

New to the ATV/GTV scene and just got myself a 4k Walmart Onn TV Box. Must say, I'm super impressed - for $20 it's like having my phone hooked up to the TV but with a slick remote replacing the aged-out multi-buttoned mess that came with the LG TV.

What I was really after was a wireless way to hook my computer up to the tv primarily for the purpose of videos/entertainment. I actually started on my RPi4 with Steam Link doing desktop Mirroring. It worked, but I'm not sure my XPS13 is the best streamer and the setup is not v plug n' play.

I'm not a big Netflix/Prime/Streaming app guy and I mostly just do things the old fashioned way by downloading first. If there were a Spotify-like streaming service that had everything I'd prob signup to that, but as it is I don't see the point in subscribing to things that have films/tv I don't want to watch...

Anyways, I've played with a few different ways of interacting. Started with 'casting' videos: mostly tabs and video files. I've found that video is a bit hit and miss. Subtitles can be troublesome and only two apps I've tried have been reliable (Videostream/Android MX Player). I'd say this is a fairly stable option but performance is not 100%, you still get a little occasional frameskip and configuration options are minimal.

Then I realised I could install media apps. So I got bloomberg, al jazeera, France24 and DW, all of those work amazing! I used to pay $50/month to get access to those channels and now I have them all for free! I literally have cable tv delivered to my house wirelessly (over 4g/lte)!

So given this thing is basically a cheap android phone with HDMI hookups, I thought I'd try and setup proper networking. Got network shares on my computer, an ext hdd sticking out of my router and wow. Just, wow.

Works right off the bat with both VLC and MX Player. Of course setting up SMB can be a pain, but once you get it going there's really nothing that beats it as far as the above options are concerned. Running things over the network like this seems to provide an almost fool-proof way to ensure compatibility with all my files, while importantly delivering optimal performance and configurability. What I essentially wanted was desktop-level controls on my tv but in a nice remote friendly format, and this is it.

Next step Kodi,..

So that's my journey so far. Local Network seems to be the way to go, using it basically like a satellite/cable TV box.

Have you guys come to similar conclusions? What have your journeys been like?