Please make your products work with URLs • Hacker News Board

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#171

Post by satyrnein » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:02 PM UTC

zeta0134 wrote: post #30

jchw wrote: post #17

I hate smart TVs with a burning passion. They accomplish literally the bare minimum to keep people happy and sometimes not even that. Samsung’s Tizen OS is the most genuinely frustrating experience I’ve had with a consumer device outside of printing. Advertisements on my home screen that can’t be disabled, dubious privacy, bugs that require me to reboot my TV, and of course security so bad that they recommend install…

I've long since run with the notion that if you must have Smart TV features, do it with an external box. Last time I checked the Roku devices were decent for this, but there's a bunch of alternatives, and some lovely FOSS stuff (Kodi comes to mind) that is much more privacy focused. The TV itself is a black box of mystery, and does NOT get to go on my network. It doesn't need my wifi password, and I certainly don't w…

I used to do this with an Nvidia Shield, but I've since switched to a Roku TV (meaning TV with Roku software built in). With this setup, I have a single remote that turns the TV on/off, can play Netflix or other apps, adjusts the volume of external speakers, switch inputs, but still come back from any input when you hit home.

I could not figure out how to do this with any other combination, and this strikes me as fairly baseline usability.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#172

Post by causality0 » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:02 PM UTC

satysin wrote: post #155

jchw wrote: post #17

I hate smart TVs with a burning passion. They accomplish literally the bare minimum to keep people happy and sometimes not even that. Samsung’s Tizen OS is the most genuinely frustrating experience I’ve had with a consumer device outside of printing. Advertisements on my home screen that can’t be disabled, dubious privacy, bugs that require me to reboot my TV, and of course security so bad that they recommend install…

I agree with your frustrations about smart TVs but I also like the setup I have with my TV. I bought an LG OLED last summer (a 55" C9) and to be honest I don't hate the software (webOS) on it. However my setup is not really normal . Firstly my TV is connected via Ethernet to my router and is restricted to only Netflix, the LG web store and my internal network. I don't watch live TV, instead my viewing is limited to N…

I fear that soon we're going to need an open-source alternative to Plex. Increasingly aggressive monetization seems to be creeping into the Plex experience. I keep finding things I don't own and don't want showing up on my home screen. "Suggested movies" and "Suggested podcasts" and the like. You can prune them back but a few months later you find some other garbage you don't want.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#173

Post by macjohnmcc » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:03 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #17

I hate smart TVs with a burning passion. They accomplish literally the bare minimum to keep people happy and sometimes not even that. Samsung’s Tizen OS is the most genuinely frustrating experience I’ve had with a consumer device outside of printing. Advertisements on my home screen that can’t be disabled, dubious privacy, bugs that require me to reboot my TV, and of course security so bad that they recommend install…

I miss the days when my TV didn't need rebooted and didn't crash. I want a TV that is basically just a multiple input dumb monitor. I don't even want a tuner built in.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#174

Post by WrtCdEvrydy » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:03 PM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #130

JohnFen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's your threat model? Avoiding tracking and phone-home things.

Then in that case you will have to go open source like a Plex or Kodi box. Raspberry pis work nicely for this.

Even PLEX includes Google Analytics now I believe.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#175

Post by gregmac » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:04 PM UTC

zeta0134 wrote: post #30

jchw wrote: post #17

I hate smart TVs with a burning passion. They accomplish literally the bare minimum to keep people happy and sometimes not even that. Samsung’s Tizen OS is the most genuinely frustrating experience I’ve had with a consumer device outside of printing. Advertisements on my home screen that can’t be disabled, dubious privacy, bugs that require me to reboot my TV, and of course security so bad that they recommend install…

I've long since run with the notion that if you must have Smart TV features, do it with an external box. Last time I checked the Roku devices were decent for this, but there's a bunch of alternatives, and some lovely FOSS stuff (Kodi comes to mind) that is much more privacy focused. The TV itself is a black box of mystery, and does NOT get to go on my network. It doesn't need my wifi password, and I certainly don't w…

I've gone through many incarnations of HTPC's, plus tried with SageTV, Roku[1], Chromecasts, and several others... and can absolutely recommend the Nvidia Shield. It has a good 10-foot interface via Android TV (as opposed to regular Android), is kept updated, is a Google Cast target, has official apps for all the major streaming platforms, can run Plex and Kodi (for local content), and it's also possible to sideload APKs. Most importantly, it "just works".

I was never able to build a HTPC that worked with all the video sources I wanted (Plex, Netflix, Youtube) and was possible to control without ever having to touch a keyboard/mouse (or resort to a janky air mouse/remote thing). With the Shield + a Logitech Harmony Hub, a single dead-simple remote controls entire setup (Shield, TV, external amp, plus a BluRay player that I never use anymore).

[1] Note: I only have a Roku 2nd Gen. The newer ones look a lot better and are probably a fine option now, but I still really like the Android TV "Home" experience a lot more.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#176

Post by anderspitman » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:05 PM UTC

mbreese wrote: post #139

mtarnovan wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like you're mistaking HTTP for HTML... The article makes no mention of HTML/JS.

No, this is very much an HTTP thing. When you request a resource over a URL, you should get the resource... instead with their site you get an HTML page with a bunch of javascript includes... that then retrieves content. It works, but it is opposite of what they are arguing for. Now, this is this person's personal site... they can do what they want. But it's pretty ironic to put a rant about working with URLs on a si…

The URL does work. I don't say anything in the post about reading what's on the other end. What you're saying would be like if I had said in the article that I should be able to give the Roku a video format it doesn't support and expect it to work. My website should work for anyone using a browser with default settings. I never claimed it was a static HTML site. It's an interactive JavaScript application.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#177

Post by kbenson » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:05 PM UTC

As of at least 5-6 years ago when I was doing independent development on the Roku there have been apps/channels in the Roku channel store that can accomplish what the author is trying to do, and many for free.[1] Perhaps the author should have looked into the applications that area available?

1: https://channelstore.roku.com/browse/apps

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#178

Post by dewey » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:06 PM UTC

Apple TV and VLC works exactly like that, I use it all the time.

1) I copy some URL on my phone or computer

2) I open the VLC app on my Apple TV and select the URL field

3) My phone buzzes because it recognizes an input field

4) I paste the url and press play

The nice part is that you can also use that to watch Acestream content if you run some Acestream container on your NAS / Computer exposed via a http proxy and just paste that URL into VLC on the TV.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#179

Post by anderspitman » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:07 PM UTC

gregsadetsky wrote: post #108

AndrewStephens wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this is one way to write a web page.

Perhaps it would have been overall simpler to link directly to the page's markdown content..? :-) https://anderspitman.net/entries/16/entry.md

Not a bad idea TBH. I should configure my server so that opens in the browser instead of downloading.

Re: Please make your products work with URLs

#180

Post by Spivak » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 10:08 PM UTC

ryanbrunner wrote: post #73

I have a love / hate relationship with Chromecast. When it works, it works well, and it is nice to just press a button and whatever I'd like to use is up on my TV. It does feel a little magic. But even when you're using compatible tools / devices that should work together, sometimes they mysteriously don't, and there's absolutely no way to know what's going wrong. Approximately 25% of the time, my Chromecast device j…

The intermittent connectivity problem might be the result of a chatty network. mDNS is really sensitive to this and clients don’t wait very long before deciding that they got all the responses from devices.

If you stick your Chromecast and your phone in their own broadcast domain I think the problem would disappear. Unfortunately it’s not a solution to whatever is spamming your network but it would tell you that that’s the problem.