this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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At this point just get a rasbperry pi, or some similar device, and run it as a regular computer. Firefox, ublock origin, don't worry about ads, and turn it into a machine that is capable of soooooooo much more. Hell, any PC will work. Steam Deck, NUC, that old laptop you have laying around? Been running little NUCs on my TVs for years and so happy I don't have to put up with that nonsense.
Which OS is good for this? Which remote can be used? I use my Stick to launch several apps like Plex, Smarttube Next, ARD Mediathek (German TV series). Not needing anything more. But a snappy remote and support for various audio and video codecs is key.
I'm a linux nerd and I jut run stock Fedora. It's desktop is like a phone UI, so lots of folks are familiar with it.
I then use a wireless keyboard and trackball. T
here are tons of remotes out there,but I don't have any experience with then. Let me know if you find a good remote though. 😁
I've been using a $20 air remote off Amazon for years now. The tracking is honestly incredible and the device is built like an old Nokia phone. I've launched it off the bed or couch hundreds of times, even had the plastic casing bust open, but when I clicked it back together it still works good as new, and it's even good enough to play simple point and click/mousepowered games on the TV. The front is all media/TV controls and the back is a full keyboard, with a toggled backlight. It's honestly so much better than any of the media center remotes I've used including the apple tv one or the firestick one.
Even if there's no good remote out there (I've not looked into it either) I would argue that the drawbacks of not having a remote are vastly less serious than the drawbacks of using one of these "smart" devices.
I run CoreELEC/LibreELEC on all my streaming devices. It only runs Kodi but since Kodi has tons of addons it is fairly easy to customize. Kodi also plays pretty much any codec in existence and has support for various remotes.
https://coreelec.org/
https://libreelec.tv/
If you're planning to play 4k content you will want something with a little bit more power than a Raspberry Pi 4. For Dolby Vision you need one of the few supported devices.
Very helpful. Tanks!
Agreed. I started out with r-pi for the TV and and refuse to ever go back to just the smart-TV or stick interface. I've since moved on to more powerful HTPC/dedicated game server PC so I can host games for our friends but I still have the r-pi.
Honestly as nice as some of the smart TV or smart stick functions are, they're only nice because they're zero-effort. For just a slight amount of effort and no technical knowledge you can have a much better and safer setup.