- cross-posted to:
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
Hello PieFed! I feel there’s not enough content in regards to tech or self-hosting focused on us Canucks, so I started writing a blog last year. A lot of it fits into anywhere as it’s all centered on self-hosting and cybersecurity but I specifically write some posts & chunks of posts, directly for my fellow Canadians!
Welcome to Core Lab =) Operated & Self-Hosted in Canada, by a Canadian.
I personally ‘cut the cord’ back in 2012 , tired of the high costs and limited options of Canadian cable. Over the last 14+ years, I’ve moved from trying basic OTA antennas (Mohu Leaf anyone?!) to advanced automated self-hosted setups using Plex/Jelly and/or Real Debrid integrations!
I wrote this guide to save you the trial and error. It filters out the outdated advice and shows you exactly which hardware and streaming protocols actually work for reliable, high-quality streaming in Canada in 2026. Let me know if you have any questions or if this guide helped you out!
Disclaimer: This post does contain some affiliate links, but no ads ! I’ll never have popup or in-line ads…
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One should also consider the privacy implications of the devices (and services) they use as well. Android TV will have all of Google’s tracking implemented, along with advertising sprinkled through the system.
I pulled my Android TV off the internet a few months ago and now just use an old laptop running Linux Mint (there are probably better distros) as my TV box. A wireless keyboard with trackpad serves as the remote. Services can be accessed through a browser (Brave or Firefox with uBlock) or an app, if available. Sure, there’s not 4K Netflix, but my wife doesn’t care if she can see Rory’s pimples or not on an episode of Gilmore Girls.
A good point indeed!
Two current methodologies in practice these says, mostly.
- Dump your ‘smart’ devices (Including the spyware TV) into their own “IOT” style VLAN and block it from touching your own network but allow it to reach internet, or NOT.
- Network wide adware/spyware/analytics blocking via adguard/pihole/unbound etc…
I’ll end up writing a guide for this at some point ;)
I’m with the other person, disconnect the smart TV altogether. Ads and trackers still can get through network blocking.
Remove the “smart TV’s” from the internet all together.
I’m surprised there’s no mention of Kodi and addons like Umbrella. I find the Jellyfin/arr suite a pain in the ass compared to that setup with a Premiumize debrid account.
I have to change addons once in a while, but it is very little trouble to maintain overall.
was constantly fighting with Arrs and just ditched that whole mess, Plex especially, years ago.
I haven’t used Kodi since about 2014 so I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving advice about it to be honest. That and IMO it became cumbersome to manage with a higher barrier technically, for entry compare to plex at the time, and now we have jellyfin as an option of course.
The last person I know using Kodi switched to jellyfin about 2-3 years ago.
I have a step by step guide on how to deploy the aarrrs and even a docker compose generator =)
I’ve built a stack like 4 or 5 times in the last decade or som using various guides/AIO stacks, but the WAF for that mess was pretty low.
When Kodi w/addons finally gets shut down, maybe I’ll give it another shot.
Just a fyi your Onn 4k Pro portion is out of date. You can buy them in Canada as of mid last year, so no more region locks.
Will add that given your context you’ll want to mention the 100mbps built in Ethernet port and the firmware bug that causes most usb A gigabit adapters to not fully utilize the bandwidth and there’s only certain chips that will give you a gigabit.
Hey thanks for the update & reading the post!
I know they are available, when someone can find one! But people are still reporting the region lock issue right up to Nov 2025! https://troypointinsider.com/t/onn-setup-out-of-country/125239/32
I also had this snippet in about the ethernet: “😲Warning - The Onn 4K Ethernet Bug & The Fix: The Onn 4K Pro has a known firmware bug with generic USB Ethernet adapters. If you want hardwired Gigabit speeds, you MUST use an adapter with the ASIX AX88179 chipset (like Cable Matters), not the Realtek ones.”
I use wireguard and duckdns.org, instead of paying for a static IP (even though I am fairly sure my ISP turned the rotating off as the fibre connects have a static IP but I don’t have fibre yet). In my I past I had a very basic over the web TV package from my ISP but at the beginning of 2925 that was canncelled, talk about easiest cancel plan when they try to down grade me more to keep me in the package I just said no I do not pay for US channels I do not use. I had the TV package just in case something big was happening and I wanted to watch CBC or if there was a CFL game on. I just pay for Gem every month and TSN+ during the CFL season.
I have been telling myself I just need that one last part for my home theatre pi and then it will be ready for a while, but something is always preventing me from getting it or something did not work. I just need to get an NVMe drive now and then I will be ready for it, I think. I have a system set up with pi’s 2 pi 5’s each operate pihole among other things, but one of them also hosts my *arr apps and Jellyfin server. I have a pi 0 2 hosting wireguard so that I can watch my movies and shows away from my LAN. Trump’s 51st state thing broke me and I started sailing the high C’s again, no looking back but if you do not want to be like me set up pihole so when you go to a channels web app on a “smart TV” or a box you do not get bogged down with the same four ads.
But do support Canadian and pay for and watch CBC gem content. Not saying go crazy and watch the news all the time but they do have some great shows.
Yeah honestly CBC Gem isn’t expensive in the grand scheme of things (Especially if you get the annual sub on sale) and has pretty good Canadian content!
