Hdmi cable to a laptop
Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
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much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
+1 that's what I do at home with my desktop and what is IMHO the best solution.
Yet on vacation I use an old android box with Android Tv (SlimTv) and I have to say it's nice to have a dedicated interface allowing use of a remote.
We've been using an Apple TV. From memory, there's a Jellyfin client.
Apple isn't exactly my go to company especially for privacy and freedom
Jellyfin + Apple TV + Infuse = Bliss
Apple TV only works on Apple hardware and isn't great for privacy or freedom. No thanks.
The "Apple TV" is Apple hardware.
Exactly. It is locked down and does not respect your freedom
What can you do on your android tv that you can do on an Apple TV?
Install F-droid and not be locked into Apples ecosystem. Also there are privacy issues as well as it connects to Apples servers
Does fdroid even work on android tv?
Yes
Use the jellyfin kodi addon works very smoothly. I've been using it for two years and love it. I replaced all my chromecasts with kodi. It even has the approval of my wife.
It even has the approval of my wife.
He is the chosen one! Hail him!
Just started messing with this last night and can't find wjhere Jellyfin ends up after installing it.
I use a raspberry pi with LibreElec/Kodi. It works with the HDMI-CEC, meaning I control it with the TV remote.
Jellyfin can be used as a source for movies and stuff with a plugin.
Awful UI and my TV remote only has on off with CEC. I have a Bluetooth remote but the select key code is higher than 255
ive been through this process recently and sadly, what you are looking for doesnt exist at the moment. thr closest thing is Kodi and as you already know, has a lot of flaws.
ONN tv from walmart with all the bloat removed by adb and projectivity laauncher. you will not find a better option for under $30
I have one but the bootloader could not be unlocked. I'll just reuse the remote as it was pretty cheap.
is there a good tv focused android rom you know of that would justify unlocking it? i havent found any that dont act like a phone and require a mouse to use. i like the stock ONN over others because it was so easy to debloat without needing a new rom but i def understand wanting to have full control over everything too.
I use an amazon fire tv 4k, I only use it to start jellyfin. It's perfect.
If you don't want it to phone home, put it behind a firewall, and block all but your domains
I can’t recommend it for such a use case. There is no way to automatically start it unless somebody found a new workaround since the last time I tried it. (I hijacked the home button via a accessibility until they removed that possibility) Though it depends on your use case. It’s probably okay if you always have internet and never have the situation where you are offline and want to watch material from a USB stick or something like that or stream it from another home server. In that case fire TV would lock you out and tell you to fix your internet, but only settings are available and all apps are hidden.
I didn't check for internet connectivity and I'm always onine. I just don't care that it phones home whenever I start the device.
What's the best alternative? I'd move if there was one
How "big" are your movies and tv shows? If they are 4k UHD remuxes then Nvidia Shield Pro or Apple TV 4k behind a firewall to block external internet is your best option for performance, usability, and privacy. You will want to ocassionally allow it internet for software updates. Kodi, a mini pc, raspberry pi, etc. would be more private but you trade off a seamless remote, easy interface, and streaming codecs (e.g., dolby vision).
Do you need an in-remote microphone? If not, I'd suggest a degoogled nvidia shield tv (i.e flash it with lineage OS or similar)
RPi with minidlnad, all devices at home from computers, phones, tablets, video projector, even VR HMD, can play content with e.g VLC.
Very quick to install (basically have a media directory with your videos inside) and still very flexible, e.g new content is added simply by copying from any other device with access, e.g scp which itself can be a script after downloading something.
For most of the Samsung TVs with the dogshit Tizen OS, you can use TizenTube to block YouTube ads within the TV OS and not requiring any new hardware.
I really dig my tcl roku tv. Ultra cheap and has plex/jellyfin. Has 1 ad on the main screen that can be easily blocked but can also be setup to insta launch an app on boot. These tvs also have decent latency in game mode too (my most important requirement).
I remember that roku TVs refuse working until you connect it to the internet. their values/intentions are clear, I wouldn't give money to them
edit: they also require registering a roku account
Not true at all. Yes you do have to do an initial setup connected to the internet (and making a roku account), but after that you can disconnect it from the internet completely. It even looses its initial ad after a certain time.
oh that was it, the account requirement was what I wanted to remember but couldn't! was sure it was something even worse, thanks for the help.
yeah if I would buy such a TV by accident, I would bring it back within the return period and tell that it was faulty, because it is.
So it is true. Why do you call it not true?
The ad on the right side of the home screen always shows up for me, even with a pi-hole setup at home. I actually ended up factory resetting my roku tv and disconnected it from the inyernet entirely a couple years back for that exaxt reason. Except roku OS 10+ actually gas built-in ads on the right side that show up even if you're offline.
...so how did you get rid of the ads entirely? Because I'd love to do that myself.
You have to disconnect the internet for a while. Think a month or two.
Nvidia shield is an option you should check out.