so im tryna quit using my chromecast and start using a raspberry pi with linux to use as my streaming box instead. So what is the best price-to-performance ratio on a raspberry pi for that purpose? I'm mainly gonna watch youtube but being able to watch something in 4k would also be nice, and it needs to have a wifi chip so i can access my jellyfin server

thank guy

for media streaming, pi's turn out to be quite weak and expensive. most people tend to go with a mini pc or thin client, as they are cheaper and better performing.

ahh okay gotcha thanks

An older orange pi for sure, you'd want to find one that has a working decoder with Armbian, but then you're off

I use a RPI 5 for this purpose but it's hard to recommend it at this point. Some videos play just fine but others struggle and drop frames. Seems totally random at times. I can promise though that 4k will not play watchably. 1080p is the max you can do and like I said, even that can be iffy. It was mostly a fun project to setup but also annoying at times due to concerns with ARM compatibility, but I really wish the performance was better. If I could smoothly watch 4k without being tracked all of it would've been worth it and then some.

Edit: if anyone has a good recc for a power efficient and budget friendly mini pc, I'd love that myself.

I would agree a used Intel 8th Gen (or newer) with vPro mini pc will be cheap, reliable, low power, silent, and easy to support.