I’ve decided to test a radical change to my living room streaming setup.
For years, I’ve used an Apple TV 4K for streaming, and while it’s been a great device overall, I’ve always wanted to try swapping it for a home theater PC. In my early cord-cutting years (circa 2010), I used a cheap Intel Atom-powered Lenovo nettop (now obsolete) to access Hulu’s website (still free at the time) and avoid its subscription fees on connected TV devices. Plugging a cheap mini PC into your TV today could yield similar advantages.
This experiment could fail for a variety of reasons, and I’ve already hit some snags in my initial setup. But if it works, it could offer a lot more control over the streaming experience along with some potential cost savings over time.
The case for a home theater PC (in 2025)
I’m going into this mini PC experiment with a bunch of use cases in mind:
Ad-skipping powers: With a desktop web browser, I can use MultiSkipper to fast-forward through commercials on Hulu, Peacock, Tubi, and other ad-supported streaming services, and I can use uBlock Origin to avoid ads on YouTube. This could...
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