What’s… The least crappiest TV os experience?
A smart TV with android/ android tv/ google TV/ those custom xiaomi/one plus/ moto/ Samsung or tizen or web os?
Or just a dumb TV + streaming stick?
The reason? I don’t want to be encumbered by “you can’t install this app” nonsense.
Something open or accessible at least
Wished they still sold dumb TVs 😔
I agree but I think fundamentally the smart tv hardware is so cheap to bundle in (and gives them hope of revenue) that it probably doesn’t add to the price.
Just set the default HDMI input to something else and ignore.
It LOWERS the price. They make more money selling your data than selling you the hardware. I don’t want to participate in this system. And no you can’t just use the HDMI, Samsung for one is known to automatically connect to any open network! Let alone any security issues that might allow an attacker to remotely connect to it.
True.
Most “smart” TVs (which can & do fetch currently-airing show data from each channel’s metadata streams, when tuned to that channel) rely on internet connectivity to show the channel guide, so implicitly, that they act slow & buggy when used without internet.
Some “smart” TV’s tuner apps, seem to get buggier & less convenient after updates, as if the manufacturer decided to gimp the tuner, in an effort to force more streaming usage.
I would go for a streaming stick because it’s easier to replace it. I used a Xiaomi 4K stick and was quite happy with their performance though. If you need to upgrade your streaming devices, it’s much easier you don’t have to buy another TV.
Just make sure it isn’t running Android 4.4
I got an LG OLED (GX), with plans to get an AppleTV. However WebOS worked well enough, and it is even better when rooted. I can watch YouTube ad-free and Emby. I don’t use too much else.
Wait. We can root LG TV?
Newer versions of WebOS may not be able to be rooted, but there are a few methods.
yep!! rootmy.tv
If you plan to not use cable and consume everything over internet, forget about OS and just choose TV based on screen/budget and then use some streaming system. All TV OSes are crap from what I have read, there isn’t a single good one, they usually are slow + manufacturer eventually will stop updating it.
I have tried Chromecast and it was pretty good. I guess Android TV would work same way so if you cannot decide between 2 TVs and one of them is Android TV, pick that one.
If you already have or plan to have a media server, check if it has a native app you could install on your OS of choice. Jellyfin for example is on Android TV.
ive seen this asked a few times the best answer is a “retail display panel” combined with your choice of input device… its basically a reliable, dumb screen with no inherent OS. theyre pricier as they are made to last a bit longer that home screens.
Retail displays have great brightness but generally bad contrast and refresh rate sadly :/
commercial displays are often smart these days too, sometimes just with a more limited default app setup aimed at signage and such and usually a more commercially focussed warranty.
The cheaper dumb commercial displays as others have said can have severe limitations in image quality.
Usually the smart one use a standard board which can be swapped (or more likely purchased separately) and there are Raspberry Pi Board that are compatible with the standard. It’s pretty cool! Consumer TVs should be mandated to work this way to help obsolescence.
Personally I go with the external streaming device. At least can be easily replaced/upgraded during the lifetime of the TV, unlike an onboard system.
Large monitor/dumb tv + your laptop.
well anything based on android TV can be easily modified with sideloaded APKs for excellent compatibility and upgradeability, there are also some package sideloading techniques for LG and Samsung but they are less open and there is less to do when you do jailbreak them. the issue with this, even on the top of the line TVs is that the hardware eventually gets out of date, and format/codec support is locked to that hardware so an external device is always a better option.
Buy the TV with the image quality you need and want in your price bracket (don’t look past TCL and Hisense these days), then plug in any of the top external streaming device and just leave the TV offline other than to check for firmware updates occasionally.
The Nvidia Shield pro 2019 is getting old but it is still the king for home media servers using plex or jellyfin, only weakness is no youtube HDR but thats not a big loss. great support for dedicated theatre setups with Dolby Vision, Atmos, DTSX etc…
Chromecast google tv is actually pretty good for most people for “normal” use with the standard streaming services and is pretty good at plex or jellyfin if you get an ethernet adaptor for it. DV and Atmos support is there but isnt perfect.
Current gen AppleTV is pretty good for all general playback, but is less hackable, so app support is limited to whatever is in the store, jailbreaks might be possible in the future as usual with apple devices, but I havent researched them.
the cheaper android boxes like the xiaomis and the microbrands on amazon all vary in quality and some are downright dangerous, but if you know android you can probably clean them up by stripping out crap with ADB commands.
Is there a good community for sideloading apps to TVs? And/or something like custom roms on phones?
I have a Samsung that seems to be Samung’s closed garden of apps rather than Android proper. They let me down on some promised features, eg Google Voice Assistant (I know, I know, sacrificing security and privacy, but I already have a Google Home listening in elsewhere) that were released in UK but bizarrely they didn’t bother with Ireland despite nearly every requirement being identical. I mean Christ, if my parent’s ancient TV can play Crossy Road why can’t my relatively recent one?
I also have an idle Raspberry Pi that could act as Android box but the motivation isn’t there when my TV is mostly just my kids going between Disney Plus and the Nintendo Switch.
@TheOctonaut
TL;DR XDA forums?At some point I’ve searched for such, but you’d have to open them (basing on my MiBox 4k) to get to the debugging pins, and then trip widewine Digital Restrictions Management. Which would make a “smart” box/TV probably useless.
I’ve managed to go as far as installing NewPipe Sponsor Block trough F-Droid, after sideloading, trough FTP. And that only because there was a file manager app available for AndroidTV
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@Faceman2K23Yea there’s very little public information on hacking anything other than android boxes and most of the more extreme stuff will break apps like Netflix or Disney+ so the best thing to do it leave it effectively stock, load on a hacked youtube client, with a dummy google account if you really want it private and your personal streaming client of choice (Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi etc) and then do some filtering/ad blocking in your network to lock it down.
The only caveat with an SBC is codec support varies greatly between distros you use on them, and you have to work out your own control/remote situation. I moved away from them for media a few years ago because I was sick of having to tinker and reinstall things because some codec was broken or the screen was tearing, or an update broke something requiring terminal access to fix. If you want a proper home theatre setup with full HDR and lossless surround support it’s not worth the trouble.
Get an AppleTV 4K. Use an app called Infuse to play back your video files from your local network/plex/jellyfin. Best Ui and remote on the market. No ads. No lag. No bullshit.
Connect it to an LG TV and disable the TVs internet connection and disable the Home Screen on startup. You basically have a dumb tv.
AppleTV. It’s a beast. No lag whatsoever.
ChromeCast was far too finicky & app-dependent for my liking; also didn’t seem to add any platform-specific content I cared about.
Samsung was awful. Didn’t work with anything except Samsung & then still very app-specific.
Raspberry Pi is a great way to put a proper desktop browser, & standard devices like a HDD/NAS, KB/mouse, touchscreen control, on a TV; but it doesn’t receive casts from one’s phone out of the box, nor offer any exclusive streaming content. That said, a Pi running Kodi can be a pretty great media center PC, for content you already have.
Roku often has free streaming content that I & my family actually like to watch.
I also find it to be a much less tightly gated app ecosystem, than ChromeCast etc. There are Roku apps (annoyingly called “channels”) that allow me to cast whatever files I’ve got on mobile, or whatever media streams I browse to; no restrictive “this app doesn’t cast that” limitations. I have seen similarly general-purpose casting apps for ChromeCast etc, but the only ones I’ve seen used were a lot more limited than what I run on Roku. Several seemed to have had their functionality actively disrupted by system updates from Google. Never had any such issue on Roku; in fact, my venerable RokuHD unit plays more codecs than it used it, & had an actual bugfix just last year, despite Roku announcing EOL in 2019. The RokuExpress is a bit of a dog (about as slow as the RokuHD), but it works for non 4K content. The RokuUltra has worked flawlessly so far.
I don’t know of any smart TVs from major OEMs, that support streaming direct from Samba shares / NAS, right out of the box; but there are apps (“channels”) for that.
Roku remotes have no numbers on them; if you get a RokuTV (a TV with Roku built-in), it will not ever accept numbers input, even from another remote. For this reason, I recommend getting a TV with proper tuner & number keys, if there’s any chance the TV will get used for actual OATV broadcasts. (“Free, over the airwaves, as God intended.” - David Letterman)
ATSC 3.0 is getting encrypted, though (violates the terms of the broadcast license, but the FCC isn’t stopping it). So, useful OATV without internet, may disappear soon anyway. Also worth noting: changing channels betwen encrypted ATSC 3.0 OATV streams, is sloooow. Like really slow; don’t push the button too quickly or the TV tuner might crash, slow.
None of the streaming devices like ChromeCast/Roku/etc, have the full breadth of DigitalVideoRecorder capability. If you actually want a great OATV DVR experience, consider getting an external ATSC 3.0 tuner with “NextGen TV” certification logo. You might even want a dual/multi tuner unit: Even though many TVs & streamboxes & tuners, have multiple inputs, none of them support Picture-In-Picture except the dual tuner units. More than I can say for the TVs themselves: HiSense replaced a 40" with a 44" because the power-switch daughterboard died, & they sent a replacement part but then realized they had no techs in the area to install it. (They didn’t have the 40" anymore, poor me.) Element has repeatedly made their tuner app worse & worse, to the point where it doesn’t even go to what channel you’re on when you pull up the guide, dumps out of the guide at seemingly random intervals, & sometimes switches to the wrong channel & then freezes up. Bear in mind, the TV manufacturer makes the OATV tuner app, for each of these TVs, not Google/Roku/etc. Which makes the insanely bad layout of the Samsung TV & casting apps, even more inexcusable: they had control of both ends, & seem to have put minimal effort into anything but restricting features that were “universal” over 10 years ago.
