Do you know if there is an alternative to GoogleTV or AndroidTV as the OS on the TV set? I’ve seen one or two projects but those are more oriented towards TV boxes rather than the television device itself.

I would like to replace the one that comes preinstalled, as as far as I have detected is turns on on low power every now and then to, and this is a guess, phone home for updates. I have connected it once to my wifi, and after that it updated itself and started to lag.

I would like it to connect to my network and play my local media streams, but I don’t like the idea of it going to the vendor’s cloud. I have it now disconnected from the network, but it would be nice not to depend on another device just to enjoy my arrchives

Edit: I am not looking for some solution to connect to the tv and stream, I have that covered. I am asking to replace the preinstalled OS on the tv and use it without needing external devices.

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    3·
    2 days ago

    I typically solve this by:

    1. Factory reset the Smart TV to take it offline.
    2. Install Android TV on a Raspberry Pi and connect it.
    3. Mount the Raspberry Pi to the back of the TV with some Velcro tape.

    The result is most of the convenience of a Roku with none of the privacy concerns.

    And as others have said, JellyFin is a great addition for watching home movies, or any other Mp3 or MP4 files.

    But also, the most Android streaming apps just work.

    As of when I posted this:

    • Disney+ works now.
    • DropOut.tv works now.
    • Netflix worked last time I tried it.
    • Amazon Prime worked last time I tried it.
    • Paramount Plus doesn’t work no matter what I try. (But I’m not willing to add Google Framework Service, which would likely work.)

    Paramount Plus also has more trackers in it than any other Android app I’ve used, so I tend to avoid sending them money anyway.

    • isgleas@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      2 days ago

      My setup is quite similar, I currently have my tv disconnected from the network and stream via another device. What I would like to achieve is to use the tv capabilities to play my local streams, as I don’t use cloud streaming services, but I would need to connect it to the network.

      I may look into setting a non-internet routed vlan and access point, so I can connect the tv to the network but not to internet, althought it may later become cumbersome as I would need to update the Jellyfin or Kodi apps

  • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
    21·
    2 days ago

    LibreELEC!

    once you get past the idea that everything needs to look like a square icon it’s absolutely amazing.

    i love kodi!

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
      2·
      2 days ago

      I wonder: would the 1GB Raspberry Pi 3 be okay for this? The more powerful ones are very expensive, $60 is already kind of a lot, so would hope maybe it could work for 1080p video (or 720p m3u streams)?