Easy answers:
It traps people into add filled UIs and it makes it more difficult to access pirated content.
Since Amazon now creates some content, they want to be paid for it, and/or sell more Prime memberships.
carlbs
84
Iâve heard talk here that people are worried about the Shield because NVIDIA seems to have completely focused on AI and wonât be supporting the Shield anymore. Still, I wouldnât worry about it since it will be the Cadillac for a long time no matter what the company does. I donât use Firesticks anymore either, and my main device is a MeCool (4/32) and they are notorious for not doing upgrades either. Other devices are basically ONNs now.
TXRon
85
A simple solution I started about a year ago in my effort to break away from ChannelsDVR which is imho my favorite way to watch tv. CDR is $80/year⌠But I thought I already own Emby lifetime account with all the bells and whistles. Jellyfin is Embys little brother but completely free however none come setup for you and it will take some time/setup on your part and maybe not for everyone. Plex is another option but more locked down imho.
There are several ways to tackle this but this is my setup. I run a mini pc as a server and all my m3u/epgâs reside there. You dont have to be a server admin to do this and you really dont need to actually run a server and any always on pc will do with im guessing 8 gigs of ram or more. The n100 minis are 6 watt and cheap to buy and run. Mine has 32 gb ram and I normally use only 10% ram. Thats with multiple tvâs drawing off it and recording. When I started I actually used a ugoos ut8 and it was ok for one or two tvâs.
Whats Happening here⌠The pc is you main hub so to speak, it does most all the work and takes the load off your android devices⌠clearing up buffering if you have any. I run a vpn at the pc. No android boxes need a vpn for emby etc as its already protected and re-broadcast on your lan. With a free program called xteve on the pc you input the iptv sub credentials, multiple sources if you want. Then within xteve you can cut out un-wanted channels etcâŚxteve combines all the subs info into one outputâŚtwo if you count the epg file. The beauty here is called re-streaming. Simply put your provider only sees one sub drawing, no matter many how many times you âre-streamâ it. So you only need to buy one connection and use as many as you want. You take the output files from xteve and place them in your playersâŚemby, jellyfinâŚtivimate pretty much any player including vlc.
Might sound a bit complicated but its really not, the main thing is a pc to do the work. This works with emby on roku as well. emby is in the roku store and I think jellyfin is as well.
carlbs
86
WowâŚyou lost me at âŚ
But Iâm sure itâs secure tooâŚ
This would entail a TP level tutorial
mdoiron
87
Is there any expectation that in the future the ONN Box will support Atmos? Would it require a firmware update, a hardware update, or is it just a licensing issue?
Miki
88
This is what I found for you.
The Onn 2023 supports passthrough for:
The only app so far that still doesnât work with Dolby Atmos is the Netflix app.
If your TV has Dolby Digltal Plus decoding by its HDMI ports but doesnât support Dolby Atmos metadata, then you will only have Dolby Digital Plus passthrough support by:
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Connecting the Onn to any of the TV HDMI ports.
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Connect the soundbar to the HDMI-ARC port of the TV.
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Go to the Onn audio settings and select Auto, then go to one tab where you can see the audio codecs detected by the Onn from the TV.
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Make sure in your TV audio settings you also select Auto or passthrough, you need to test it out.
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If the soundbar has Dolby Atmos inside Dolby Digital Plus support then you will have to connect it directly to the soundbar, it doesnât matter what your TV supports, it will bypass that.
Unfortunately, I just purchased a Fire TV so I could eliminate my fire box. I did purchase an Onn just because it was so cheap. Looks like I will be adding a âboxâ (Onn) back into the process.
Is there a way to block the âupdateâ process?
Hi Troy. Is there any software out that allows firestick owners to remove the firestick software and replace it with google tv / android os? This is of course with the android drivers we have now. It seens like our fresticks are going to be like the old white boxes for computers. No software, all hardware. Certainly a programmer could modify the fire os to a more generic os that was capable of running google tv android. I would buy it if fire os goes down. I never use amazon apps. No great loss. I really only sideload. What do you think? This could be a big opening for a coder.
The new OS will probably not be applied to existing devices. The new OS will only appear on new devices that are sent out in the future. Existing devices will work as expected and be updated for a long time to come.
3 Likes
Amazon actually gave us a clue to this happening 2 years ago. What will happen is eventually it will be as hard to sideload a Firestick as it was in the very beginning when we had to use a computer & basically flash the Firestick 1.
I stopped recommending Firesticks 18 months ago after 1 particular evil update.
Now I have switched to the far more friendly Google O/S & instead recommend the ONN Box & not the Stick which is no longer in production for those on a Budget, bedroom TV or Kids TV. I personally own 1 & also have a Sony Bravia 75" Google TV which is the only Smart TV I have loved.
Otherwise I continue to us a 2017 NVidia hoping for a new better model than the 2019.
Razman
94
I dumped all of my Amazon devices last year due to their crappy hardware and tech support and went with NVIDIA. Totally blows away any Amazon device. Iâll never go back to mediocre devices again.
1 Like
Wizzard
95
My FS 4K Max is basically for back up now if I need it. My FS 4k, is for messing around. Since I got the Onn in December, itâs all Iâve used as I mentioned in another post. It out performs my FS in every way.
Gary58
96
This is the beginning of a complete implode of Amazon imo the firestick brought them so much repeat business i think it is a step toward the demise of there operation may be years away but just my opinion
Gary58
97
You have a lot of work in that much discipline. Incredible job
The writing was on the wall a long time ago. With nearly every software/firmware update, you have to constantly tweak the system to get side loading to work again or to get other features working such as Wolf launcher. With these updates, they clearly donât want you to side load and run numerous third party app.
Accordingly, I purchased the NVIDIA Shield Pro. I have never looked back and have never had any problems with any updates whatsoever. Furthermore, just because a streaming device is âpopularâ doesnât mean it is the best performing one. The NVIDIA Shield Pro is a good example. Itâs high price keeps it out of the âpopularâ category. Nonetheless, it is probably one of the best performing streaming device out there. It was worth the price to me. No more headaches.
1 Like
m00se
99
Hey there - I was extremely interested in your emby setup with the mini pc. If you donât mind I would like to know which specific mini pc you bought. I have an urge to redefine my system here in my small apartment. Iâd only be controlling 3 TVs with whatever I do so this is more an exercise in educating myself more and spending money I donât really need to LOL. Please forgive me if Iâm pestering you for info but the idea of networking my sh*t intrigues the hell out of me 
Thanks in advance
TXRon
101
I use this RYZEN model however they make a N100 model that is similar and would work just fine. I like these two because of the all in one setup. Drives are not included. They hold 2 HDDâs and 2 SSDâs. With that said any small pc will work(prefer with 16 gb ram or more) and you will need to add storage via usb. Most all mini pcâs will come with windows 11, however I wipe that out and install linux. Windows imho is just too bloated.
