Hacker News Reader

Comment by retrac | Hacker News Reader

> make it smart via an Apple TV

I repurpose the old laptops that I seem to accumulate for this. Just about anything made in the last 10 years can handle at least 1080p video, and will have an HDMI output. I add a small wireless keyboard and use my regular desktop environment. But you can add a remote and use one of the open source media centre suites.

I do wish more TVs had a monitor-like sleep mode and accepted the command for it over HDMI. And were actually low power when they sleep. That seems to be pretty spotty.

View on HN

We do the same and it works well. We prefer a handheld keyboard/mouse to control it. We've tried several and the Lenovo N5902 [1] is our favorite by far.

It's also useful to have the Unified Remote server [2] running on the media computer so you can control it from your phone when you need to.

[1] https://www.newegg.com/p/09N-00A7-00001

[2] https://www.unifiedremote.com/

Thumbs up for the Lenovo keyboard/mouse combo. I preferred the trackball one, but the "trackpad"-y one works well too. It feels good in hand, it's nicely sized, fits easily in the drawer of nightstand table, and works well :).

(not sure if it's discontinued btw; I struggled to find it in Canada last few years; but there are seemingly-identical unbranded alternatives usually available on amazon, e.g. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08H8LH7GP/ )

I think they are discontinued.

I needed another one for work a while back and ended up buying one of these (at $15, not the current price): https://www.amazon.ca/Computer-Accessories-Wireless-Keyboard...

It's actually relatively good, but not as good as the N5902.

For anyone in the market for a remote, I have one of these[1] and it's pretty awesome. I'll have to check out the Lenovo as well.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WJGSXT8

I've been using these for close to a decade now. We have two. They're so good, but very hard to find now. When the time comes, I'll scavenge parts from both to keep one going.

How do those compare to a Rii?

https://www.amazon.ca/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-Compatible-Raspb...

Of course it's not a real keyboard and mouse but it works fine.

I do use an universal remote most of the time though (Harmony 700), but I use the Rii when I exit Kodi and I'm back to my HTPC's Linux environment. The Rii is then enough to open a browser and YouTube, for example.

Same here. I try to find 3-4 year old laptops with decent graphics cards. It has served well as family gaming pc (casual and retro games) and with attached external drive we can watch family videos, photos etc. Not to mention ad-blocking. Every time I'm at someone's house and have to use a phone to stream things on the TV or to use those point-n-click remotes to type things I lose patience now :)

Good idea for the laptop. You could use a smart plug (one that runs esphome, for instance, athom.tech sells pre-flashed ones) to wake the TV as well. And maybe the computer too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com