My parents are getting a new tv, and are asking for recommendation. I think all I can influence is the brand/model (not realistic to propose rpi and more complex systems). I instinctively avoid google/android and lean towards anything else open source, so probably LG WebOS… But I had bad luck searching for more detailed comparisons. Maybe you have experience or opinions?
I heard that https://libreelec.tv is pretty good
Absolutely this. Depending on how you use it though, make sure you have a VPN and private DNS setup on your router
If Kodi is used to watch movies and TV shows for free then you’d want to protect your internet traffic from unwanted eyes
Its good if everything you need can run from Kodi. It uses its own Linux distribution in the background, so you won’t really be able to install anything else unless you build it.
My advice is never use a smart tv of any kind.
Use a third party device like an apple tv or roku, hell even a bluray player with apps on it.
Then get what ever TV you like and never let it see the internet.
I personally like Visio, but any mid grade display is fine.
They didn’t say that…they just said not to hook whatever smart TV they get to the internet.
I mean, they say both things.
My advice is never use a smart tv of any kind.
Yes and no. This is for parents, so ease of use is a huge factor.
The processors in smart TVs are often crap, plus who know what updates and monitoring they are pushing on you.
With a dedicated media device you only have one company to deal with. Personally, I use my playstation for everything, but for my mom a Sony bluray with the apps works fine.
At the end of the day, they’ll want netflix, amazon, youtube, hbo max, etc, and you get a way better experience with a media player vs smart tv. Sony is a known evil as it were, their hardware is good, and they generally don’t fuck up firmware updates.
I got a cheapest Android smart TV and never connected it to the internet. On HDMI1 there is Amazon Firestick for the occasional Netflix use. On HDMI2 there is Kodi for every day watching. Because of how modern TVs work, both these extra boxes can be steered with the TV remote.
My partner and I were gratefully surprised when we bought a cheap Hisense for their cozy space (to isolate when overstimulated and just play some games) that in the setup it offers the option for a ‘dumb TV’ mode with no requirement for internet. In addition you can reject the user agreements and still use the TV. It boots straight to HDMI, no pop up ads, and is snappy.
Just don’t connect it to the internet.
This is the way. I have an LG and bought one for my parents. Do the initial sign up/registration, then turn off Internet access. I actually thought mine was broken when I got it, but it was just my pihole blocking it. Temporary whitelist for setup, smooth sailing since.
Yeah, but is that an option realistically, if the parents want Netflix and Iplayer or whatever?
I think just with electric cars all the options are a complete privacy nightmare …
Ya, because it’s a TV. You connect those things to the inputs and drive the content from other things (game console, firetv, htpc, etc.
I’m baffled by people negatively reacting to my post. It’s how tvs have worked for 50+ years. Just because they recently got the ability to execute programs, doesn’t mean you have to use it. Just air gap it and the issue is 100% solved as far as the tv is concerned.
how do you remote control HTPC?
wireless keyboard and mouse is not a real solution. all other such devices that you mentioned used a handheld remote controller
Why? That’s exactly what I did with my tv. It never saw the internet and works just fine. I literally don’t care what Samsung does or pushes out for updates because it doesn’t matter.
I can still do everything I want from Netflix to streaming from my NAS etc.
/shrug
Because some TVs will scan and connect to an access point, such as one your neighbor temporary enables. Then it uploads years of data that it collected on you in less than a minute.
LG WebOS doesn’t have good support for things like Jellyfin. If you want to ever build a library of media and let them have easy access to it, then WebOS is gonna suck, so will Samsung’s Tizen. But all the Android TVs have access.
Don’t know if you’re interested in that kind of thing, but figured I’d share it in case it was a factor.
The only other alternative is a commercial display.
This is untrue. You can use Jellyfin or Kodi natively on LG WebOS on the TV and stream whatever you want locally. You have to grab it from the homebrew channel or sideload it. It’s a little bit of a process though. Nothing crazy. But it works!
Edit: you can also get YouTube without ads off Homebrew.
Yeah, sideloading it requires getting a development code from the company, jailbreaking your machine, then installing a full development environment…
Not what I’d call user friendly.
Meanwhile, on something like the FireTV stick, if someone gives me the URL to an APK, I can install it.
Rooting (assume you meant this by jailbreak8ng) is not required for this process. Only some apps reauire root. Kodi and the youtube adfree apps don’t require root.
I would avoid anything built into the TV.
- Its starting to be used for spying on you
- The chip they come with are usually not that good unless it’s a high end TV.
- They are building ads right into the TV themselves.
I would not connect the TV to the internet and use a external media player. Either a Nvidia shield or an Apple TV is your best bet.
You can also try building a media player yourself using a small computer.
Note - The self made media player will be more limited in terms of apps available, unfortunately, as well as streaming quality from some of the streaming services.
