Re:Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
by kitsunesoba on Tuesday November 30, 2021 @01:07PM
(#29395322)
Plex definitely connects to third party servers, primarily for verifying subscription status (some features are tied to a subscription) and to make connecting to your Plex box from outside of your local network easier (no IP addresses or something like dyndns).
Kodi I’m not sure about. It was originally XBMC (XBox Media Center) and is open source so even if there’s so phone home element, it can be built without that. Another open source option is Jellyfin, which is a fork of Emby from before that project was closed off.
Re:Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
by throwaway81523 on Tuesday November 30, 2021 @05:49PM
(#29398457)
Why does plex have subscriptions at all? I understand (at least theoretically) that not all software is free, but charging for it the normal way (you pay money and buy a copy that you then use without it phoning home) works perfectly well too. Anyway I had had the impression that Plex also sends at least the metadata of your video library to its home server.
I didn't realize Kodi was XBMC or that you could build it yourself. Thanks for that info.
Re:Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
by babypuncher on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @12:02PM
(#29406076)
Plex pulls the metadata for your library from public sources like thetvdb.com.
The server and clients use plex.com to authenticate users.
There are alternatives like Jelly Fin that should better alleviate your concerns.
Re:Ask HN: Are there any 4K “dumb” televisions?
by brokenmachine on Tuesday November 30, 2021 @11:56PM
(#29400837)
Kodi doesn't phone home.
Never heard of Infuse but don't Plex and Kodi both contact the vendor's server? That is enough to make me not want to go anywhere near them. I do know there are home media center distros for the RPI and PC and they are supposedly nice. I'd be ok with using one in principle, but I haven't cared that much about media UI to bother. I just use command line mplayer on my laptop if I want to watch a video, and that's good enough for me. I can understand other people wanting a more TV-like experience, which is also fine.