My old Android TV is almost 10 years old and despite ADB modding it shows its age. So I took a look around and quickly found out how bad things have gotten in the Smart TV space.
Dumb TVs are out of the question because of their high prices - they’re for commercial use after all.
What I want is a nice big TV (around 65" to 75") with a real colorful, sharp display and an OS that does not annoy me with ads (I despise ads) and recommendations while still fulfilling my needs, which are
- Crunchyroll
- Prime
- Ad-free Youtube client like smarttubenext
- HDMI for console gaming
- Absolutely no stuttering and frame rate issues when playing videos in apps
- Preferably no stuttering menus
- Reasonably priced
Anything else is completely uninteresting to me.
And yes, I know about the nvidia shield, but that thing is 5 years old and I don’t want to ride an already old horse that might be replaced very soon due to its age (even though there’s currently no signs of that on the horizon). I also don’t like using more than one remote…
I have no issue with modding it as long as that’s reasonably possible - just to get rid of most bloatware, annoyances, ads and such.
Any ideas?
Lineageos works on a few android tvs, iirc
I just ordered my first TV ever, and its a smart TV of course. My first choice would be to not connect it to the internet, but my wife wouldn’t like that. So i think ill just put it on its own network and block as many domains that it uses to phone home with as i can, without breaking functionality.
I really wouldn’t write off the Shield completely. It’s a few years old, but it works really well. My TVs are all disconnected from my network, and each has a Shield attached. The Shield can stream 4k HDR from Jellyfin, play ad-free YouTube with SmartTubeNext, and handles remote game streaming at 4k/60 with Sunshine/Moonlight. It’s really a versatile little box.
Buy a good inexpensive TV. The manufacturer can make them cheap because they’re losing money and hoping to gain it back with ads and analytics. Don’t connect it to the internet. Get a Steam deck or small form factor PC (Intel NUC or variant) install Linux, profit.
I’ve bought a few small form factor PCs, and again Steam Deck works great, for $300 and then a great TV. And I don’t have to put up with any ads, any crap applications that barely work, it’s just browsing ANY website I want, playing ANY PC game I want. It’s honestly the best outcome and I’ll never go back at this point.
Don’t let yourself accept the subpar TV applications that are just a website with awful frontends, that run like shit and that the companies creating these apps have 0 incentive to make properly because their app isn’t there for a good experience. It’s there to track you, just like the TV.
This is what I do. A pi with Kodi or Jellyfin or similar plugged into HDMI is fine, it doesn’t matter what OS is on the TV if you’re never using anything but the one input.
LOVE my Jellyfin.
You could get a “smart tv” but use it as a dumb tv, no internet, no wifi, just have it hooked up to a single input… Then that input could be whatever you want.
For myself I just cast my livingroom laptop screen; no limitations on what i can watch; I suppose if you wanted something dedicated you could setup a micro computer with a wireless keyboard/mouse combo
Yeah, I kept my TV offline and plugged in an Nvidia Shield I debloated (really you just need to replace the launcher). You can do the same with any Android/Google TV device.
And if OP is gainst using multiple remotes, you can actually setup modern TV devices to use a single remote. I forget what the protocol is called.
CEC. Typically works well. Sometimes buggy.
I did exactly the same but didn’t even have to go through any hustle setting up the launcher. I installed PROJECTIVY launcher and it set everything itself basically.
I bought a mini PC and plugged it into the TV. I use a “wireless mini keyboard with trackpad” to control it. My husband and I have been using it for years. Beelink’s mini Ryzen PCs are quite solid in my experience. I have Linux on mine. Firefox with ublock origin. No ads, like ever.
Connect steam deck and you’ll have pc and console in one! Steam deck dock has usb a port which can connect to keyboards, it runs Linux
Actually, I already do that. I have two two steam deck docks, one in the living room and one in the office. I still like having the dedicated device for streaming though. Especially since I tend to download movies/shows sometimes. Can’t be filling up the steam deck storage with non-games!
I also sometimes use the deck in handheld mode while my husband watches TV.
The solution is to have two steam decks! When one is gaming, the other can be streaming
You probably realized I love steam deck
Yeah, smart TV, never connect it to the 'net, get a used shield pro, ADB and side load F Launcher. No ads.
Shelds remote can control the TV volume and its connected via HDMI and the Shiekd Pro remote switches both off and on. I use Kodi, Prime, Smart Tube Next and a couple local TV apps.
Not what u want but that’s where I am and it works well.
Be interested to see the responses
As others have said, the best option is to buy the TV you want, update it to the latest firmware, then disconnect it from the internet and use your own external devices.
This is because the companies making the best display technology (much of it proprietary) at an affordable price have no incentive to sell “dumb” variants of their TVs when the “smart” version makes them way more money.
I remember seeing an article a little while back about this guy who had a similar issue. He ended up using a Raspberry Pi to avoid the ads.
Imperfect Linux-powered DIY smart TV is the embodiment of ad fatigue
Oh dang! This is cool! I would love to get rid of a few streaming sticks I still use, sadly, and move over to something like this. I mainly use Plex so hopefully that would be an easy switch. Thanks for sharing!
Buy the tv that suits your needs and then use a streaming device: Roku, Apple TV, Raspberry Pi, any modern video game console, etc. Back in college an acquaintance worked at Hulu and confirmed that no one works on the smart tv app. This was like 15 years ago, so things may have changed but I’ve never enjoyed the smart tv experienced (always been super slow Ford me).
Reading your post, all I can think of is to get a decent TV and a small form factor computer, install LibreELEC on it and you have a standalone Kodi box.
Lots of plugins available (YouTube, I think Crunchyroll too), absolutely no ads, no slowdown, fluent and capable UI. It can be strange that all the plugins use Kodi’s framework, but they all work just fine. Some needs some additional things to do to work, but you really set up your plugins once, and they are good to go. I’m using Kodi for 3-4 years continuously as my main media machine and all the plugins updates regularly. You can play back local or remote media through network share seamlessly. Just get a PC with enough hardware to do 4K video. (I’m watching at max 1080p, but for that, a 3rd generation Intel i5 was more than enough).
Just buy a commercial display and plug in your streaming device of choice.
If you get an Android TV you can modify it to be ad-free and run pretty much every app you need. Sony TVs use Android TV
My ten year old dumb tv died recently. I got a samsung smart tv and just never connected the internet, like everyone is suggesting. I have my playstation and an old laptop with kodi plugged into it. I personally hate smart tvs (even without internet, it’s still more annoying than old tvs) but this works well enough.
Edit: the Samsung tv remote works with my Playstation, too, and I could probably set it up with my computer but I like using the wireless mouse and keyboard.
I have a Sceptre 4k dumb TV. 55 " $200
