Good day! I am trying to find a good alternative as not to use the"smart" functions or using an Xbox to consume our media. I found a few options ie like plasma big screen but it’s no longer in development. Essentially I would line love to have it running on an rpi4 and just hooked up to the TV.

  • bigb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    16 hours ago

    If Android is okay, I’d recommend the ONN 4K Pro player from Walmart (if located in the U.S.) with some privacy caveats:

    • Do as little with Google: Make a throwaway login if Google requires one to get the device started up. Try to avoid Google Play Store as much as possible. If privacy from Google isn’t a concern, feel free to use your Google account to download apps from the Google Play Store.
    • Learn how to sideload apps: There are multiple ways to do this, like a USB drive or FTP server.
    • Pick an alternate launcher: This will replace the default Android TV OS UI with one that has much more flexability and no ads. FLauncher and Projectivity are ones that I recommend to friends.

    The final product is a modern streaming device with much more flexability than any other store-bought device. Building a HTPC with Linux is probably the true self hosted option. Personally, I’m able to afford some privacy sacrifices with Google for something that “just works.”

    • adhocfungus@midwest.socialEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      I got one of these recently and it works well. Much smoother than whatever my Smart TV is natively running and it doesn’t crash constantly.

      If it were just me I’d have set up a small HTPC with Kodi, but my family needs something that works without ever needing my intervention, and it needs to run the 100 streaming services we hemorrhage money to. These boxes are super cheap and let me run Jellyfin too.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      The old software versions support Lineage OS. If you can find one that was unlocked before they broke unlocking you are in luck. If not Google is bad for privacy.