I think laptop or mini pc is the best. Casting might not be an option, but its nice not having to deal with apps at all if you want to watch something on the TV, and picking up a cheap wireless keyboard with touchpad makes it a nice combo.
Comment on LG TVs’ unremovable Copilot shortcut is the least of smart TVs’ AI problems
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I will need to replace my TV next year and I’m really not looking forward to it.
I will be hooking my two consoles (Series X and PS5), then all I need is something that I can put Emby and SmartTube on.
Are the Onn sticks still a good option?
Lfrith@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 hours ago
I was thinking I’d do a pinhole and maybe a minipc. I’ve never had much luck with casting.
Lfrith@lemmy.ca 22 hours ago
Linux on minipc with a cheap wireless keyboard like the k400 is a great combo. Won’t be seeing ads with that, since on browser you’ll have ublock origin for things pihole can’t block.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
Very true. I’ll need to buy a pi and play with that first.
jjlinux@lemmy.zip 20 hours ago
I’m in the same boat, need 2 new TVs in May of 2026. Seriously considering Sceptre TVs for that.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
I haven’t heard of Sceptre. I’ll take a look.
sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
if you could purchase a basic/dump TV with no features at all and buy raspberry pi separately, you could install Android on raspberry pi and connect the two together
Pechente@feddit.org 1 day ago
Not sure if it changed in the last year or so since I bought my tv but isn’t the issue that there are essentially no dumb tvs? The closest I could find were big monitors intended to be commercial public displays but they came with their own set of issues. In the end I bought a smart tv and I it’s quite bad.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 day ago
it’s not that complicated, just get a smart TV and don’t connect it to your network. quite easy to never use any of the built in apps if you only use your own inputs sources.
Pechente@feddit.org 15 hours ago
That’s exactly what I do but that doesn’t magically shield me from the bad software running on these machines. The OS is still unstable, tries to apply a bunch of filters that need to be disabled, has extreme lag unless gaming mode is being used and has stupid UI decisions like putting the audio level exactly where the subtitles usually are so that changing audio will obfuscate them. Once every 24h I‘m also getting a warning that the tv is not connected to the internet, despite network connectivity being explicitly disabled.
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
That’s what my search keeps coming up with - commercial display models. I don’t know enough about them to make a good decision, though. I guess I’ll keep digging.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Those displays are made to be very bright and usually have a lot of backlight bleed.
sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
searching “non-smart tv” on amazon yield many results as long as you don’t require highend brand like samsung or LG
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I’m trying to avoid Amazon but I’ll look there to see what I can learn.