this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Selfhosted

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39
Jellyfin Dongle (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hi guys!

I'm looking for a replacement travel dongle to play my Jellyfin movies whenever I'm traveling. My goto device up to this point has been a Chromecast (with GTV I think). But it's becoming increasingly clear its playback is very unreliable, hanging mid-playback for long periods. I blamed it initially on bandwidth issues over very long distances (the server is on a different continent at the moment!). But playing on the laptop via browser or via the jellyfin media player flatpak works just beautifully. So it clearly seems to be issues with the Chromecast as it's connected to the same Wifi and TV as the laptop.

So I am thinking...what other devices could I look into as Chromecast replacement? There's over 3yr old recommendations about a Walmart device (but I don't live anywhere near the American continent). The other go-to device would be an Nvidia Shield, the canister-looking one. But that still seems a bit hefty for traveling. After all these years, is there any device you'd recommend to use as light-to-bring dongle for traveling?

Thanks!

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[–] red_bull_of_juarez@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

There was an ONN (or Onn.) box for which there are guides on how to root it, which I think is this Walmart box. You might be able to find it from a source in your country.

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thanks...yeah that's the one. I'm not sure where to source it from, either in Europe or in Asia.

[–] deliriousdreams@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

Possibly? I don't know for sure because I can't find a store front selling it, but it does appear that these devices are region locked and that there are people in Asian countries sharing ways to end around the region lock.

[–] deliriousdreams@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

To be fair, I believe that's the "Walmart" one op talks about in the post. I believe they do sell a version of this same set top box in the UK and possibly other parts of Europe. So it may be a viable option still.

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is it called ONN in the UK too? Thanks!

[–] deliriousdreams@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No. It looks like it has a different name.

https://tv.mythomson.com/en/Thomson-Streaming-Box-Plus/270

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Thanks a lot. I'm not really sure what are the shipping times. I'm briefly in Europe, so this might be an option...if they're quick to ship.

EDIT: After some checking in XDA, I think this model might not be supported for installing LOS. But I might be able to use it without root perhaps...I only need to change the launcher (and remap the home button to the new launcher maybe), disable updates and install f-droid. And the just install jellyfin.

[–] deliriousdreams@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah. I wasn't sure it would work for your use case necessarily, but I did remember seeing that a version of the Walmart onn box was available in Europe, so I didn't want to discount it altogether.

Either way I do hope you find what you're looking for and if I come across suggestions that might work I'll try to post them here.