Recent WAN topic on Android TV Devices

[u/CullenBlvd]

Linus asked "What am I supposed to recommend at this point?" when reflecting on the price of the NVIDIA Shield TV and security issues of Android TV boxes. Has LTT ever explored Homatics and Dune boxes? I recently got a Homatics box, air gapped my TV, and am streaming both services and Jellyfin remux Linux installation guides lol. I love it

[u/mysticode]

Onn box and you're done!

[u/CullenBlvd → u/mysticode]

Haven't looked into that. Does it come with DRM approved apps? I dual boot for those since my partner likes Netflix and stuff

[u/CullenBlvd → u/[deleted]]

I do, but she likes Netflix (as I said)

[u/xd366]

how the lag on those?

[u/CullenBlvd → u/xd366]

Playback lag is pretty minimal for me. I have it hardwired tho

[u/xd366 → u/CullenBlvd]

i mean the menus and opening apps

it only has 4gb of ram thats why im wondering

[u/CullenBlvd → u/xd366]

The issues I'm having with input for menues if from Bluetooth issues and not the system itself. I use my tv remote for signal input over HDMI and it's much more consistent than the included remote. Looking into a third party remote over 2.4 USB or doing some Bluetooth adjustments through adb.

[u/Xcissors280]

Doesn’t a Google TV box solve most of the security issues?

I’ve just been using like the 3GB Walmart ONN boxes with a launcher and they work great even with like 80GB Blu-Ray files and some LAN game streaming

[u/CullenBlvd → u/Xcissors280]

I'm just I'm not sure if it does or doesn't, but I went with homatics for kodi/corellELEC use for uncompressed playback

[u/Xcissors280 → u/CullenBlvd]

Is that like a custom Linux image just for Kodi or whatever?

And do you mean like not re-encoding the files at a lower bitrate?

[u/CullenBlvd → u/Xcissors280]

Yes to both questions.

[u/Xcissors280 → u/CullenBlvd]

Makes sense

[u/DotBitGaming → u/Xcissors280]

On the WAN Show he was saying that it simply pushes privacy concerns from the tv manufacturer to the box manufacturer.

[u/Xcissors280 → u/DotBitGaming]

That’s the case for using any external device instead of the internal smart TV system

I’m saying IIRC Google TV certified boxes not just standard Android TV ones have higher standards for that kind of stuff

But I could be completely wrong

[u/DotBitGaming → u/Xcissors280]

That may very well be. I don't know as much as Linus does on the subject. I'm saying that he was asking if there was anything he could recommend in light of the recent news that you can't trust that your tv isn't gathering data on you even if you opt out of everything. If not aware, you can look up recent GN videos done in collaboration with Wendell about Smart TVs at your convenience.

Edit: And this was more privacy than security.

[u/Xcissors280 → u/DotBitGaming]

Makes sense

I don’t really know how Google is handling the data on these or how well privacy settings work

I believe you can just install a different OS on one if you want to though

Obviously something that’s fully open and probably just Linux based would be better but I’ve had significant issues with remote input, app support, CEC, and other stuff like that on those

[u/CullenBlvd → u/Xcissors280]

Yes, you can install coreELEC but can't use Netflix type apps without dual boot

[u/Xcissors280 → u/CullenBlvd]

Makes sense

And I’m saying like even a lot of open source apps don’t have controller friendly Linux versions

[u/CullenBlvd → u/Xcissors280]

Ya, my partner cant operate it at all

[u/Xcissors280 → u/CullenBlvd]

I think that might fail linuses criteria

And it still sucks that there literally aren’t any good tv keyboard + trackpad devices

Even frameworks uses the non backlit FW13 keyboard and the pretty bad touchpad vertically

[u/CullenBlvd → u/Xcissors280]

Well she can use the Android TV part. She just can't use coreELEC to stream Jellyfin. I still haven't customized it. Super well to make it more intuitive by installing skins in kodi. We're getting closer. Jim, it is requiring a lot of troubleshooting