First, this being Veteran's Day in the US, please take a moment to remember those that serve, those that served, and especially those that gave it all in their service...This is their day.
I had a couple of hours this morning to revisit the tvpc. To this point, I was able to install FreeBSD 15.1, install the linux version of Brave browser (which has the libraries to be able to view drm content), and the project kind of stalled there. I thought that it was possible to just run a browser directly on X, but was never able to pull that off. So I did the next best thing.
I installed the i3 tilling window manager, and then configured it with only the browser with three tabs:
- odo - my jellyfin server;
- netflix - the only dedicated streaming service to which I subscribe;
- prime video - Since we pay for amazon prime, why not?
I'm not a huge fan of amazon prime video. They appear to have a relatively small percentage of actually free, with no advertising, content. Much of their stuff is either pay or has ads, neither of which is acceptable in my opinion, since I am already paying $15 a month for prime...I have the same complaint about most streaming services as well as with cable. The most egregious part is that they are charging for both movies and per-episode viewing fees for television shows. One of my favorite science fiction series is Babylon 5. This is nearly a 35 year old show, and amazon is charging $1.99 per episode, which is nearly $220 for the episodes and however much for the 5 movies. Which is why I bought the DVDs years ago, and they are ripped and loaded onto my NAS. But I digress.
So here is the bottom line. I have a working tvpc, and now I need to get a double-sided remote, similar to this. Once done, I will deploy it, and connect it via HDMI, using the television as its monitor.