Hello!
Regarding what Gamers Nexus recently disclosed regarding LG TVs in their latest video I think its finally time to do what I can to mitigate it.
I cant root it since the firmware is too new and I cant afford a new TV either. My best bet would be blocking all LG IPs network-wide and disconnecting it from the network. (Although I understand even that might not be enough, its the best I can do right now)
I was thinking of using an old Raspberry to atleast access youtube and my media server, however I dont know what would be a good OS/distro to run this on. Preferably I would want to use something like an old PS4 controller as the remote.
Anyone here who has any suggestions or living room setups to suggest? Any and all tips are welcome.
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This is the setup I’ve built so far:
I use KonstaKang’s LineageOS Android TV build running on a pi 5: https://konstakang.com/devices/rpi5/LineageOS23-ATV/
No Google play services store at all, I just use ADB to install apps
This is the launcher I use, it’s way nicer than the stock Lineage one: https://github.com/meddouribadis/arclauncher/
I use SmartTube as my YouTube client: https://github.com/yuliskov/smarttube/
I have this Bluetooth remote app on my phone for the rare occasion I need to type a password or something: https://f-droid.org/packages/io.github.jqssun.btremote
I also have KDE Connect on both my phone and TV so I can play/pause media from my phone at any time and send files (like new launcher wallpapers) easily without adb.
Old laptop, debian, Firefox, g60s remote. Done.
Im on a 2013 m93p thinkcenter tiny. Still goes hard
Im on a 2013 m93p thinkcenter tiny. Still goes hard
Heh. That’s my gaming machine. Win 8.1, 2x4 GB sticks, i5-4785T, 2x Xbox 360 controllers, SSD.
I can play retro games, emulation (Wii, Gamecube, PS 2 era), indy’s and PC AAA upto about 2015ish. Boots in under 5 seconds, smooth 60fps @ 720p (which is good enough for me). For a $100 “piece of ewaste”, it goes hard AF.
Keep your GTA 6; Lego City Undercover local co-op is where it is at.
Not a popular answer, but Apple TV is the best out of the box experience. Zero ads, massive longevity. Mine is like 7 years old and still running the latest tvOS.
If you have the cash and inclination, Nvidia Shield is the hackers choice. Zero hardware upgrades in years tho, but software aplenty.
Just don’t let your smart TV access the internet in any situation, there’s no need. It’s just a stupid display.
Zero ads
The launcher is a massive ad for Apple’s services though.
What? There’s one icon that says “TV”. You can move it to the bottom and you won’t see any apple stuff beyond that.
Apple TV’s launcher was recently “updated” to showcase whatever latest content is being pushed through Apple’s own services. Which is advertisement.
What ”launcher”? The TV app? You can just move it away. There is no launcher anywhere, every service along with AppleTV+ is just a separate application
Launcher, home screen, app screen, whateveryouwannacallit of an Apple TV unit.
Remember, we’re talking about a replacement for shitty ad-infested “smart” TV interfaces - not an app. Apple’s TV app is not relevant here.
Apple TV the device has no ads, zero, nada.
You are very wrong. We have two Apple TV units. They absolutely have ads now. The homescreen background used to be clear, and now it’s a non-stop showcase of bullshit games, shows, and other nonsense that nobody asked for.
Wtf? Where? I have three and zero ads.
If I select a top row app, that application can “advertise” what’s new on the top half of the screen. That’s it.
If I select a top row app, that application can “advertise” what’s new on the top half of the screen.
Yes. They are advertising to you. That’s what “ad” is short for: “advertisement”.
Apple TV units have ads.
Are apple TVs not phoning home?
If anything I’d imagine they’re one of the hardest companies to block, considering most apple users have a thousand idevices that could smuggle messages, even with all communications turned off.
Not at this scale. Remember that Apple is a hardware company first. They make money from hardware and app stores.
Google is the worlds largest ad company who dabble in hardware and services to increase their ad revenue.
They’re still a public company, and Im sure the heat is on their C suite cause they haven’t had any successful hardware releases since the M series processor was first released.
Not selling “anonymous” data would look to shareholders as thrown away profit, which they’re even able to sue for.
So I’d be insanely surprised if they weren’t surveiling their users - but unlike google and all, they own their entire closed-source software and hardware empire, so the likelihood of catching them is also valuably low.
And Google spyware is all open source?
Google’s just using linux for its price, but the GPL of AOSP does a lot of heavy lifting for reverse engineering efforts like this.
edit: not that that matters at all to apple spying on users - like them scanning all Iclouds openly wasn’t even that long ago
Every cloud provider scans their storage, because the law is like that.
People have gotten their MS accounts closed when Onedrive was still called Skydrive due to automated scans finding suspicious activity
Damn, I forgot we all live in America - and so do all tech companies in the globe
People do pick up Pixel phones to install GrapheneOS on. How many people pick up Apple phones/tablets and are able to install another OS on it and have it as functional as GrapheneOS?
Same with smartwatches which from the Android side can be used offline with apps like Gadgetbridge to retrieve data without giving your watch internet access and not using the official apps.
Apple is very account and OS centric wanting to funnel everything through them. Exception has been MacOS devices which has had better luck with stuff like Asahi Linux.
Just to check, would Apple’s commitment to DEI policies look as thrown-away profit to shareholders?
I got an even better question for you: Is that relevant here?
Cause I don’t think it is at all, but to answer anyways I think DEI is a valuable tool to assist picking the best person for a job, independent of race - as there is a racist bias in many hiring positions. I don’t think its perfect, but honestly I don’t think anything in US is.
And I think apple cares about DEI cause their marketing team said it makes money. Full stop.
People love when their obsession might align with their morals, but its important to remember if 2028 goes Republican in US they probably won’t even do a logo change that pride month, cause all rainbow capitalism ever is is marketing.
Yes, it’s relevant, because DEI inherently limits what the company does, and yet the shareholders voted to keep it. Apparently Apple’s shareholders aren’t bigoted idiots.
if 2028 goes Republican in US they probably won’t even do a logo change that pride month
Nice job showing your ass here, because Apple never ‘changed the logo’ for the pride month. Where the fuck are they supposed to change it, on the Macbooks?
Not killing customers is also technically a limitation on companies, doesn’t inheritly mean it stops them from maximising profit.
Hell the reason companies don’t kill and do dei are the same reason, public perception (and also why there’s not a sneeze of either of those in poor countries)
But also… genuinely you thought I meant they like physically tear the logo off the back of every customers laptop and replaced it, only for a month, every single year?
Cause you know what fuck it, you’re right I do believe this 100% - you’re telling me Tim apple doesn’t visit you yearly??? man you gotta get your money back
“Find My” network is pretty strict by its nature, if you’re talking about that. Realistically speaking, I wouldn’t be scared of it, because I can’t see any vector from which it can be dangerous to the end user.
Nonetheless, “Find My” is an optional feature and can be fully disabled. Other Apple web-services can be blocked on a network level, if you want it for some reason. But, IMO, at this paranoia level, the only right option is OSS with a strict firewall.
check out: https://plasma-bigscreen.org/
I wonder what kind of hardware to best run this on to watch YouTube, Jellyfin, Disney+…
I do have a steam machine on the TV anyway. Is it possible to run this on Steam OS? And without having to fiddle so much when just wanting to watch TV?
This looks exactly like what I was looking for! Thank you!
A raspberry pi running Kodi has been serving me well for years.
Easy install paths include LibreELEC and osmc. I believe both are based on debian.
FWIW I chose and have been happy with osmc.
Regardless of the choice, Kodi has a plugin system for things like YouTube, you can access your media via the jellyfin plugin/app, or by pointing Kodi at your media. It has a remote app available on android and iOS, and for the most part just works.
What model pi? I have a 5 running lxqt and it gets overwhelmed streaming YouTube videos to a computer monitor.
Pi4 8gb. FWIW, the 5 is not great for media. I don’t remember the details, but iirc they removed hardware decoding from the 5.
For people like me who don’t want to sail the high seas, how do you watch Netflix, Paramount and other subscription services with Kodi? Isn’t it just easier to use a browser at this point?
Browser would be simplest. Even though I prefer Linux and do run it, Windows might be better in your case with it having the DRM support and apps to run those services at higher resolution and HDR that sticking with browser might not allow.
For my case I picked up a cheap MiniPC and install Fedora on it to use instead of the TV interface.
I have a steam deck plugged in to the TV. I might just use that. The Steam controller is good enough to use as a remote. I might run into the 720p limitation though. I remember hearing Netflix not supporting higher res on browser anymore
There are third party clients for a lot of streaming services as kodi add-ons. Here for example is the add-on for P+: https://www.matthuisman.nz/2021/06/paramount-plus-kodi-add-on.html
Please keep in mind that I haven’t used these for years and can make no comment on whether they still work. There are also some inherent limitations. Quality will be caped at 720p for example because widewine Linux bullshit
I’ve also been running Kodi on a raspbery pi and have been happy with it. Only issue I’ve had with the pi is I can’t get the overscan settings to work with retropie. But kodi has adjustments for the screen size so it works fine.
LibreELEC is definitely not based on Debian. I’m using CoreELEC and it works great too (same thing with different hardware support). It takes some time to understand the UI initially I admit. You’ll want CatchUpTV and Youtube addons (the latter breaks regularly as Google is preventing adblocking).
Hey welcome to the hobby!
We personally have the whole TV on a Vlan, so it can’t acces anything at all. While our server/HA can still send a WOL command to it, and jellyfin can stream our movies to it. I run all of it on top of TrueNas, most as an app or else an VM.
I have never tried to set something up for YouTube specifically, since that runs on a Chromecast (for now…)
Let me know how your journey goes
That sounds like a good plan. I’m fairly new to the network game, how did you setup the firewalls between TV VLAN and your home network. I would like to have home assistant and jellyfin to access the TV (e.g. HA sees ‘running’ status of TV, TV can connect to jellyfin) but block the rest.
Did you use port-based blocking in your firewall?
For the real “TV feeling”, try ErsatzTV. It basically creates multiple real-time streams of TV shows and movies from your media library. You can switch between them like channels.
Abandon ware now
Really? https://github.com/ErsatzTV/next looks pretty active to me…?
Huh. Must have gotten someone to take over, last I’d heard the maintainer was archiving it. At least according to Chris on Linux Unplugged a couple months ago.
Also, looking towards the future or for people that can find one at a decent price:
Not a raspberry pi but an Orange Pi Plus or Pro. They have a rockchip that has AV1 decoding (along with standard others) which is probably going to be the future (it is for corpo streaming already).
Put plasma big screen on it and get a Bluetooth wechip remote or something
Me personally, I just use a Linux distro (ive used Ubuntu and popos, both have been fine) and use whatever flavor of streaming service I can access. Sometimes you’re hit with lower resolution but I’d rather that than get spied on and be fed ads by my hardware.
Ive also gone back to physical media and use a DVD player. I’m just buying series I like one by one.
This video used a combination of physical media and streaming services. They relied on waydroid and with some workarounds, it worked well for them:
Seriously, I just use my TV as a big computer monitor, connected to a cheap old computer running Linux mint.
Torrent, jellyfin, streaming. Unless you need cable, this works great.
Hell even if you want some kind of cable service, IP TV exists.
IMO no real reason to use android TV or a smart TV right now.
Open the TV and pull the wifi antennas off the board.
My answer is… excessive. So keep that in mind. If its just you or you and another adult, just set up kodi in some form.
I wanted something that would have profiles for my kids, a remote, and easy access. Where I am currently is:
- Flex Launcher - 10’ UI. The same person started Big Launcher after but never completed. I’m hoping to finagle Plasma Bigscreen into doing what I want, but I’m not there yet.
- Media is all Jellyfin, now with my older game emulation there as well.
- Logging into the machine also auths against JF, so its per user at the OS level for each member of the family. Currently working on NFC for login so my kids can tap a toy or something to get their account logged in, rather than me or my wife doing it.
- PC is an industrial pc I picked up, its light on usb ports but I added a wifi/bt card from another machine, bumped up the ram with some spares I had.
- I have a usb soundbar and usb audio processor, all audio goes through there, managed via pipewire.
- I couldn’t get CEC working well on it, so I made use of an overly expensive video switcher for this purpose that I picked up a while back. Corp conferencing switcher. Now I can send CEC programmatically.
- Current remote is just an older android tablet with lineage on it. I want to replace this with a keyboard/remote combo, but haven’t found what I wanted to yet. This will just get broken accidentally by a kid, so I’d prefer a remote.
The experience is pretty decent, just login and browse. In any case, this is the (overly complex) way I’ve addressed things for me. That said, a few notes / to-do items:
- No streaming platforms (I will not use them anyway)
- I still need to stand up a youtube front end (I don’t use it much so low on the list, more for my wife)
- I want to set up something to show family photos from immich as the background
- I need better controllers for gaming. I have one 8bitdo pro wired, an old 8bitdo NES controller, and a gamecube usb adapter (but my gamecube controllers have all gone to crap now, so thats useless). I also connected up the balance board from the wii, but haven’t gotten much use out of it yet.
- I want to get my AudioBookShelf on there as a dedicated setup with login by desktop account automatically, haven’t even started this yet. May have to do something a bit different here too as I want a read-along style for the kids.
- I would never buy all this stuff, I used things I picked up on the free or cheap via hardware replacements through my work and tech liquidation/“recycling” companies.
I have a setup very similar to this. Although I’m fully on the Plasma Bigscreen bandwagon. But then again, I don’t have many custom services such as NFC login/custom background image logic like you do, and I doubt Plasma Bigscreen would play nice with that stuff. A couple of things I learned through my many attempts of setup:
- HDMI CEC doesn’t work on pretty much all x86 devices except for like some particular mini PCs, the Framework desktop, and the Steam Deck dock. Most ARM devices do though which is how I got around this by just using an Orange Pi 5. Another option is tunneling over DisplayPort if your device has a DisplayPort and you have a supported DP-HDMI adapter. Then finally, there’s also the PulseEight USB adapter if nothing else works.
- I’ve been using Waydroid for any application that doesn’t support Linux natively like YouTube or most streaming services (although I only use YouTube and Jellyfin for all of my content). You can use Waydroid Android TV which launches a near-native Android TV translation layer running Lineage OS which is de-googled and privacy protecting by default. You can launch the normal Android interface which has the entire Android TV UI, or you can enable multi window mode and just launch specific Android apps directly from whatever Linux launcher you use and they launch and work like normal Linux apps with TV controls. Very useful since Android has a much larger TV app ecosystem.
Tech liquidation/recycling companies? I’d like to hear more about that
When companies decommission their hardware, they go to a large scale “recycler”. Most of the time that means pulling the drive on the PCs and maybe dropping another in before reselling it for less.
Some companies also recycle things like digital signage players, which could be purpose built hardware and mostly useless or purpose built software and fairly useful if you know what to check for. Or sometimes speakers, audio dsp’s, monitors, etc.
Other times when a company is being liquidated (like being sold off to pay for debts), it’ll get auctioned off. You don’t get to look at the details much (maybe one device pulled out in front of the crate the rest are in), you are buying in quantity, etc, but there can be good finds there.
I’m big on making use of perfectly good hardware with just a few years on them.
It’s been a while for me (I don’t upgrade things that work and I try to buy things that last a long time…)
But, Hotel Mode might still be a thing, and it might bypass some “smart” stuff on the TV
I used that to make my TV start on the correct external HDMI port for my MythTV instance running on Arch Linux (btw) with dual TV tuners in.
The TV is rarely used to watch live TV and it’s certainly not connected to any networking.
Just another approach that I’ve not seen mentioned here
I’m still using an old Apple TV. I’m not happy about it but haven’t found a good replacement yet.
There’s a few interesting options for software in this thread. In terms of hardware - maybe a NUC or something? Would have to be small, quiet and relatively cheap.
Any Linux distro with Plasma Bigscreen. My TV box is an old laptop I got for free from work running Cachy OS. I have a remote-sized keyboard/trackpad that I use to control it. I mostly just need the arrows, but the whole keyboard is there if I need to go in to the desktop OS.
I could use a recommendation for a big-screen ad-blocking YouTube app though.
I use ONN Android boxes. Fairly inexpensive, but I think it’s difficult to set up without a Google account (you can create a dummy account on the setup).
Side-loading is trivial. Some favorite apps: TizenTube to replace YouTube (or any of a dozen or so frontends), Projectivy launcher to replace the awful default. Add an always on VPN.
Not sure why you got downvoted. I use similar Mi boxes. I hate google but the tv has a throw away tv email. I would love to not have google involved.
I then have productivity launcher which i quite like. If i am wrong happy to be pointed in the right direction. generally use stremio/jelly/smartube
Probably because those android set-top boxes are usually malware top to bottom.
Yeh, agree. But for a lot of people they are the easiest option after Amazon/google/apple etc
Not everyone is techy enough to have means to pull components together and configure, And then put up with semi reliable solutions. People need to acknowledge this rather than downvote. It’s weird.
Its Lemmy, don’t expect too much.
Jellyfin for shows and movies, Chora for Navidrome Music, and it works as a perfect little access to your homeserver.
I haven’t found an Android box that runs without Google services.
Kodi on a Pi is just meh at best imo.