My old Android TV is almost 10 years old and despite ADB modding it shows its age. So I took a look around and quickly found out how bad things have gotten in the Smart TV space.

Dumb TVs are out of the question because of their high prices - they're for commercial use after all.

What I want is a nice big TV (around 65" to 75") with a real colorful, sharp display and an OS that does not annoy me with ads (I despise ads) and recommendations while still fulfilling my needs, which are

  • Crunchyroll
  • Prime
  • Ad-free Youtube client like smarttubenext
  • HDMI for console gaming
  • Absolutely no stuttering and frame rate issues when playing videos in apps
  • Preferably no stuttering menus
  • Reasonably priced

Anything else is completely uninteresting to me.

And yes, I know about the nvidia shield, but that thing is 5 years old and I don't want to ride an already old horse that might be replaced very soon due to its age (even though there's currently no signs of that on the horizon). I also don't like using more than one remote...

I have no issue with modding it as long as that's reasonably possible - just to get rid of most bloatware, annoyances, ads and such.

Any ideas?

  • janNatan@lemmy.ml
    ·
    3 months ago

    I bought a mini PC and plugged it into the TV. I use a "wireless mini keyboard with trackpad" to control it. My husband and I have been using it for years. Beelink's mini Ryzen PCs are quite solid in my experience. I have Linux on mine. Firefox with ublock origin. No ads, like ever.

    • CO5MO ✨@midwest.social
      ·
      3 months ago

      Oh dang! This is cool! I would love to get rid of a few streaming sticks I still use, sadly, and move over to something like this. I mainly use Plex so hopefully that would be an easy switch. Thanks for sharing!

  • anon5621@lemmy.ml
    ·
    3 months ago

    Personally i bought modern samsung and not connecting it to the net for and online services i am still using my android tv box mecool km9 which i debloated also got root access and there possible to install custom firmware like on android phones soo basically much more customization ,u can look at brand mecool, x96 or ugoos.

  • Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    3 months ago

    I just got a 4k TCL QLED TV from Costco a couple months ago. Have been quite pleased with the image quality so far, but I keep it disconnected from the internet, and only use it with my nvidia shield running the projectivity launcher as the home screen to switch between smart tube, Plex, and steam link.

    Not an ad in sight.

  • anivia@lemmy.ml
    ·
    3 months ago

    If you get an Android TV you can modify it to be ad-free and run pretty much every app you need. Sony TVs use Android TV

  • Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    3 months ago

    If you are in the US you can buy a Samsung TV not connect it the internet and then installed a Onn Android TV from Walmart. Thats what I do :)