this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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[–] Tricia@feddit.de 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could check out https://plasma-bigscreen.org/ I never used it my self but it looks quite cool

[–] KLISHDFSDF@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Super cool! Thanks for making me aware of this project.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the hardware inside Smart TVs is far too piecemeal and random for anyone to be able to develop for more than one type of television set.

I mean, just look at the troubles AOSP offshoots like LineageOS have. They support a large number of devices, but that large number is literally just a drop in the fucking bucket of how many phones actually exist out there.

Each one of those phones has different hardware and needs different hardware drivers, which is why each phone generally has a different set of maintainers. The same would be an issue with these Smart TVs.

It's something that is feasible but feels like a waste of resources when you can just not connect your Smart TV to the internet and use a Roku/FireStick/Raspberry Pi running Kodi or go out of your way to purchase one of those commercial monitors that don't have any Smart TV bullshit in them.

[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] evranch@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (4 children)

At this point my next TV is just going to be a big monitor plugged into a fanless PC, or the functional equivalent (all smart features disabled, HDMI input only) if I can't find something I like at a good price. A monitor will have better picture, refresh rate and response time as well.

+1 for HTPC. The safest easiest way to use a TV. Steam big picture works very well with this.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Go with the second option. Those "features" make consumer TVs more affordable

[–] PeterPoopshit@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fuck smart tvs. I only use tvs by plugging in my laptop via hdmi. It's only a matter of time before smart tvs start reporting people for stuff like watching pirated content or voiding TOS's with adblockers.

[–] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

You may also want to consider a projector. Though those are also starting to get smart features...

[–] Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I too, am curious. There's apps my TV won't let me uninstall and it's running out of memory.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 year ago

Yes lmao. I have a decent Sony TV and for some reason they only bothered to put 4GB of internal storage in the thing. Like what? It runs AndroidTV

I don't keep it hooked to the internet though so it doesn't bother me, but it seemed dumb. It comes out the box with basically no free space.

[–] Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Only janky solution I know of is to use a Raspberry Pi (or other computer) to run Kodi or Android TV. You can then point your TV's DNS to a PiHole or other DNS filter to stop tracking/ads.

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 34 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't call this a janky solution at all. The jank is the "smart" TV itself. I use an Nvidia shield to get the most out of my 4k OLED TV, but otherwise do pretty much the same thing. I put my TV on a VLAN that doesn't have Internet access, too.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The only jank thing about this is that you can't get rid 100% of the ad/spyware on the tv...

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can by not connecting it to your network

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Samsung TVs are known to connect automatically if they detect an open network, and some ISPs have an open network on all their routers, so you can't even guarantee that!

[–] UID_Zero@infosec.pub 5 points 1 year ago

Or just don't connect the TV to the Internet at all.

[–] lemann@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

This is how I've used Smart TVs since 2014, I assure you this is completely normal and not jank 🤣

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Surprised noone has hacked Vizio's yet. Shame.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Because Fuck Vizio, that's why

[–] UnPassive@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use my steam deck docked as a Home Theater PC (HTPC) with a remote with a gyroscopic mouse and full keyboard on the back, and I love it. YouTube with ad block, jellyfin media server, and videogames

[–] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can it output 4K HDR/DV and Atmos and stuff?

[–] UnPassive@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't have a 4K TV or surround sound, but people online seem to report both work

[–] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Hmm, I wasn’t able to output either just now after installing the Stremio flatpak on my SteamDeck. But I was able to get lossless 7.1 audio, which is nice. No Atmos, unfortunately.

[–] dansity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Get a decent android device like the shield and install whatever you want on it. Fuck anything that is on tv os.

[–] gonzoknowsdotcom1@monero.town 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Fuck that, too.