Currently I use firetv stick but I hate the ads. I only use it to launch arte, jellyfin and smarttube so it’s OK. But if I would have children it would be very bad because it’s filled with shiny trash everywhere. I wouldn’t want my kids (or anyone) to see that stuff.
I am looking forward to plasma bigscreen in june but I can’t add more value to it right now than donating to kde. Is there something else? I’ve got a Samsung TV which is on the same level of badness as firetv. It could be worse but it’s far from good as well
IMHO, Android still has the best ecosystem of TV remote navigateable apps. The problem is just Google.
I have a ‘Google TV’ android based TV.
It started out terrible, but after removing or disabling almost all apps and installing couple replacements, it’s great now.
Most importantly:
- FLauncher replaces the Google launcher and thereby removes almost all ads and ‘recommendations’
- TV Bro is a FOSS webbrowser for TVs that has build-in add-blocking
- SmartTube is a Foss YouTube client that just works great and brings Add- and Sponsor block
- Stremio with Debrid Media Manager and Torrentio (both using a Debrid service!) for streaming in general
- Jellyfin if you have a home server
All of that is FOSS and would work completely without Googles involvement, if you find a way to flash a custom ROM onto a TV or TV box.
Alternatively: Anything with an ‘air mouse’.
An alternative to Android, I have used before, was just Linux with oversized app icons and then a G20s (Pro) remote. These cheap chinese G20s remotes work great as a mouse, similar to a Wii mote. Especially with the G20s Pro you can even set numerical passwords for everything and then just type it on the remote. They also have microphone that only works when you press the button. So if you have some tts service on you device, this is also a solution. I haven’t found a solution for it yet, but I believe, using T9 typing as a text input would also be a great solution when using these remotes.
There are also air mouse with a full keyboard built in, like the W1, W3, Q40… But I think, they are all a bit too heavy and too big, feel clumsy at the slight benefit of having a keyboard.
And then there are devices like the A8, which are just small keyboards with a touchpad, that also work as an air mouse, but fail as a remote IMHO. But that entirely depends, on how much typing you want to do on your TV.
I prefer no OS, just use it for HDMI ports like any other display
Samesies, dumb tvs forever.
I just use a full fletched DE on a Mini PC. Works best for me - for navigation I use a keyboard/trackpad combination thingy.
Would something like that work for you?
Thanks for pointing out that Plasma Bigscreen is getting an official release! I tried the AndroidTV for Raspi but encountered too many bugs, specifically CEC isn’t yet working.
Sad to say but my current recommended TV OS is… Tizen. I have TizenTube for YouTube and Plex/Jellyfin apps for everything else.
We are planning to join the Plasma release schedule starting with Plasma 6.7 (in June), which will make it possible for distributions to ship it in their repositories.
Yeah, didn’t realize this myself. Android TV is just something I’ve been tolerating. I also have a Linux living room gaming PC running Pegasus Frontend and it’s annoying that I often have to break out a mouse and keyboard. Linux HTPCs and couch gaming PCs haven’t really been a great UX so far, so I’m excited to see Bigscreen finally release.
I did previously try Steam gaming mode, but it doesn’t work with a USB remote from my tests. It also treats non-Steam games as 2nd class citizens that can’t be cleanly organized and categorized. Another huge downside is it’s proprietary and collects data.
Bazzite has been a fantastic living room gaming PC for me. Even when I have to switch to desktop mode I can still control the mouse and type using the on screen keyboard. I can count on one hand the times I’ve used a mouse and keyboard in the past year and most of those times it was just because it was more convenient for what I was doing.
That said I’m still excited about Plasma Bigscreen for an always on media watching device that allows me to unplug my TV from the network.
Yeah, Bazzite is great for anyone already using Steam. My main personal reason for not using Bazzite is the fact that Steam can’t be easily uninstalled.
Apple’s TVOS has zero ads and is very simple, but it’s also Apple.
My other choice would be a good Android TV box on an NVIDIA Shield or something since you can use third party youtube launchers and third party apps. I haven’t personally used it though so YMMV.
I’ve been running kodi on a raspberry pi for years as my media center and It’s great. There’s an official jellyfin app for kodi too.
Are you also using the jellyfin app with your kodi. I find the app very slow on my RPi3 running with kodi.
Definitely not WebOS. I have an Nvidia Shield that runs Android TV, which is nice because there’s a wide selection of apps and you can install custom launchers, Tailscale, Jellyfin, SmartTube. The downside, as I recently learned, is that your parents probably will have a harder time switching between the TV’s native OS and the Shield.
So I recently got a Google TV, which is (just?) Android TV, and that allows me to install Tailscale and Jellyfin, but since it’s 1 system, it’s easier for some folks to use. I also installed Projectivy Launcher for my parents to get rid of the default ad-ridden launcher. I haven’t yet had time to try to install SmartTube, but I think I read it’s possible…
Curious to learn more about https://plasma-bigscreen.org/ I didn’t know about that. Thanks!
My main has been Linux desktop loading up steam big picture. But I don’t use streaming services, I serve everything up with jellyfin using the Kodi add-on. Used to be a htpc, now it’s steam deck.
In the lounge room we have an apple tv 4k which is where the kids can stream ABC Kids and the swiftfin client. We used to have a NVIDIA shield there but we moved to apple tv because goddamn the ads on Android tv make it one of the most horrible tv experiences possible.
I haven’t used it in a couple of years, but I always liked Roku’s platform. Simple to use, easy-to-ignore advertising.
But the last couple years I’ve been on Android with Projectivity Launcher. No ads (except for some times when I’m dumped into the standard front end), customizable.
I have a Roku TV right now. Most of the ads aren’t too bad compared to the Fire tv, but you still get the obnoxious ones that take over the top third of the screen… BUT it’s probably the least aggressive of the ads I’ve seen from different devices, so…
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Arch w/KDE Plasma desktop, of course.
“Smart” TVs should be kept off the internet and only used as video output for actual computers.
I did initially, but then changed my setup a little bit.
My rpi (4b, I think it’s 8GB, but it might be 16. I don’t remember). Also serves as my on site backup for my media. So Jellyfin is connected to the NAS, and the rpi has two drives in a toaster and I have a cron job that syncs new media from the nas to the rpi whenever I add new stuff.
So kodi is direct playing from the hdds in the toaster.
Ubuntu on a Linux machine and a g60s Bluetooth remote. Done.
For proprietary streaming apps where I want to be able to see what’s going on because I’m allowed a higher resolution than a 720p blurry mess? Apple’s TVos seems pretty great. Zero ads, smooth, devices are overpowered for watching just TV. It does have apps for Jellyfin and Plex though I’d have to suggest infuse instead which is a $12 annual subscription for 4k or any proprietary audio codecs but it does work pretty well.
For everything else some version of libelec or corelec depending on the device in question it’s being installed on. There are also external launchers that keep Android but remove most of the problems.
If you want plug and it works then AppleTV. If you’re interested in putting in some work maybe a custom launcher on an android install. Beyond that libelec, coreleck, and Kodi.
Kodi maintains a big csv list of hardware (and software) with capabilities and suggestions here: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=376035
I use nVidia shield TV with a dumb video projector. I haven’t bothered with a custom launcher.
