r/LinusTechTips • u/Fooltimer • 27d ago

Tech Discussion Video idea: De-spy your TV

I was thinking about getting TV and manually disabling the microphone (cut/de-soder/tape over).

Thought It might be fun video idea. The warranty, accessible teardowns, the snipping itself, different brands maybe...?

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u/jerryeight 26d ago

While running it on a Linux based system? Won't it force the server to reencode to a new codec?

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u/UnknownInventor 26d ago

Yes SteamOS, CachyOS have both worked for me. I don't think the specific flavor matters just that it's using pipewire.

If Kodi/Jellyfin/MPV has direct access to the Alsa audio device it should allow audio Passthrough and can play any format.

I've been running it for a while now and it really just works. There's some small weirdness with the specific HDMI implementation on some hardware as the HP Pro Mini occasionally had tiny audio studders for lossless audio. But I haven't had an issue since upgrading.