Twitch to TV
So a current consistent item of frustration is trying to get twitch onto my TV. This seems like it should be a fairly easy thing to do, except that EVERY time I try to do it the easy way it fails.
For context: I have an older 42" Samsung TV, and a Roku Ultra 2020.
This should mean that I can just install the twitch app and play it on the TV, simple right? Well it would be if Twitch had a Roku app, they don't anymore, when Amazon bought Twitch, they also removed the app in favour of having the app on their own shitty hardware ( I assume, as I have not actually bought any fire stuff).
This means that I have about 4 Options:
1) Look for an alternative app
2) Look for an alternative way
3) Wire a computer up to my TV
4) Buy a fire-shit
Option four is off the table for me, as more a matter of principal then anything else, if you can't support an already created application, what faith should I put in you to create a new one and have it work well?
Option one turns up an app Twoku, which is independently created/maintained. It's an ok app, it's clunky, and it (as far as I can tell) only uses it's log in feature to load your followed Streamers, and not to pull the stream, and remove ads if you're subscribed. Most of my complaint about the app is that sometimes it just crashes. For the last 2 weeks, it would not load, it would just crash and return me to the home screen. Finally about 2 days ago it started working again, with no rhyme or rhythm or reason. I've started to look into if I can fork the repo, and develop it to try and fix the things I don't like, but I'm not even sure if I have the right repo off of github. Nor do I have any idea how to develop a roku app. So I'm hesitant to start.
Option two is one that's I've looked into a couple of times, and had purchased an off brand Android TV to try this route. In short, it's WAY more clunky then the Twoku app, and because of the added issues that arise out of switching inputs (CEC is barely supported on my TV). It made the whole experience terrible, to the point that I'm not interested in trying it again soon. I might try this route again when I get the gumption to buy a SteamDeck, but for now this route is "exhausted".
That leaves option three, which is less then ideal since you lose a lot of the convenience factor of having an app. A separate computer does not, as far as I'm aware, support CEC, nor can I control it via a remote, but it would let me watch the stream at the source resolution*/FPS, which is something I have struggled with when testing other hardware. This also means that I have to spend $100's on a computer that's gonna do 1 thing, which seems like a waste of money.
So here I sit between a rock (breaking app) and a hard place (Justifying $100s on a Twitch computer). Hopefully Twitch will hire the Twoku developer and make a proper app for roku, or another option will arise, but for now, I guess I'll need to get the gumption to fork the repo.