Comment on Thousands of Android TV devices come with unkillable backdoor preinstalled

itsraining@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• wafflez@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  How?

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  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    1. Connect old PC to TV. Both can be 15 years old.
    2. (optional) For better performance, get a small SSD alongside the big HDD (a 64GB / partition will do), maybe have a homemade NAS ready too
    3. Install Lubuntu, Mint XFCE, Puppy Linux or any other distro of choice
    4. Set up KDE Connect, qBittorrent and VLC
    5. Enjoy

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    • SEND_NOODLES_PLS@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Cheers, I’m using this as a jump off point for a weekend project maybe. Would anything change if I was interested in casting content too?

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      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I think Kodi does some casting… Not 100% sure.

        Make sure TearFree is enabled in the graphics configuration (google it).

        The hardest part in my project was recalibrating the colors because my TV in HDMI-RGB mode (as opposed to YCbCr) displays everything below 10% brightness as black. The rest was done very quickly. I don’t even need a sequential-chunk torrent software because I use FreeRapid Downloader and ulozto.net (can download fast enough to play while downloading at reasonable 720p/1080p bitrates, otherwise ulozto-downloader and a 10min wait is needed).

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      • loutr@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Kodi supports DLNA, a media library sharing/casting standard.

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    • TwanHE@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Stremio on a old windows laptop is a good easy alternative

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    • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Could you use a pi ? Do you have any recommendations on ssd / hdd

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      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You can use a relatively cheap Pi as a NAS (network-attached storage), and possibly add Kodi media server capabilities (useful for smart TVs). Check if that model supports a sufficiently fast disk interface (USB 3.0, SATA etc.) and Ethernet (100 Mb/s or better if 4K is required). Boot from an SD card and use a 2TB+ HDD (1TB could be enough if you barely store anything).

        I don’t know which Pi models can smoothly play HD video without overheating, I don’t own any. But those that can are likely a lot more expensive than old PCs you could use otherwise. I would just get a cheap one for a NAS and probably some other common network use cases (web server, Pihole etc.)

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      • danque@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yes just research how to install Plex or Kodi on your pi. I just did it this evening for an update. For that I used docker with Linuxserver/Plex. It takes some time to get all the settings but there are good YouTube tutorials on how to do it.

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      • Lupara@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You’d be better off with a used office pc, something with a 4. Or 6. gen Intel CPU is usually cheaper than a RPI and way more versatile. Only thing you lose on is size and power consumption.

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    • Limit@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      OK I’ve tried in the past to make a decent streaming box from both windows media center edition and various Linux distros. But I need something that is simple, can be controlled entirely from a remote, and has the major streaming apps (Netflix, disney, etc). I haven’t really found any solution that’s easy enough for non techie people to use. I have a standalone roku box that works ok we also have a roku TV which is a giant piece of garbage, and I’m considering buying an external roku or nvidia shield as a streaming box instead, I do have a couple of raspberry pi 4s I could use one but again I’m faced with the same issues.

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      • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        This may seem like a bit much, but it pretty much holds your hand to guide you through the install.

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      • itsraining@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Have you tried Kodi?

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  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Look into Plex servers, that should keep you busy for the next six months till you get it up and running.

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    • Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Or Jellyfin. Because free.

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      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        That will keep you busy for a full year.

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      • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Is jellyfin a better alternative?

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    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’ll only take a few minutes to setup. Once you get hooked you’ll spend a lot more time automating everything and adding more storage.

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• mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I swear shit like this is why Lemmy is so incredibly out of touch with the real world. I can’t take the community seriously anymore.

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  • itsraining@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    So my home media center is not real world enough? I only expressed an opinion; you are free to ignore it. Also, there is nothing that keeps you here. Please kindly keep in mind that most Lemmy users right now are interested in technology, you can’t take that away from them and there is nothing wrong with it. If you want to stay away from “shit like this”, then you probably should not be in a technology sub in the first place.

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    • Copernican@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I think the difference is folks confuse the general public with the general lemmy user.

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  • CeeBee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    People have been using old computers as media centres for decades at this point. Not sure what you’re on about.

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    • Copernican@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      but where does the media come from?

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      • CeeBee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Legally would be DVDs, Blurays, and DRM-free sources.

        I’ve torrented movies I have physical copies of before. It’s faster than ripping and encoding it myself. And notice I didn’t say “pirated”?

        You can’t pirate something you legally own a copy of. That fast was a major factor in some of the high profile lawsuits against individuals. If the person being sued owned a copy of the movie/song then they dropped it from the list.

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  • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Because something is not popular and not available in typical electronic store doesn’t mean it’s not real.

    I know having a private life may seem unreal in recent ~10 years, but it surely can be done without giving up modern life. All it takes is a little time for research and saying “no” sometimes. The hardest part are always areas where more people like that are needed to say “no”.

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  • Copernican@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I agree. Too many comments and threads are hijacked or over represented by the pro piracy crowd. I wish more communities would just ban the shit post of “yar, time to sail the high seas” that seem to be the top comment on any media related post.

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• danielfgom@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The problem is that YouTube app and F1 app are Android only so having a Linux media box won’t help. It needs to run Android to run Android apps.

  Plus I like to use Chromecast, we use it all the time to send YouTube videos from our phones to the big screen.

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  • hikaru755@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What’s wrong with using YouTube in a browser?

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    • danielfgom@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Can’t control it from my phone. Would need a mouse. At least I’m tech minded. My wife isn’t and there is no way she would stand for using a mouse and browser on the TV.

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      • CeeBee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Get a media centre remote. Works great.

        And if you have an Android phone use KDE Connect. There’s a Windows version now also, and you can do just about everything with it.

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      • hikaru755@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Ah, right, makes sense. I’m using a steam controller (or any other controller with steam, honestly) instead of a mouse, which works well enough

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  • itsraining@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I don’t know about apps like F1 and Chromecast, but I can see that it could be a problem. But YouTube has worked fine for me with the MPV player. Maybe you could try Android-x86? (is that thing still alive? 😅)

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• Maximilious@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  You're going to build your own smart TV that can handle new HDMI and Displayport advancements too?

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  • dustyData@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    This is going to come as a shock to you, but HDMI has been a thing since 2004. You can find 15 year old dumb TVs with HDMI.

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    • BigT54@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Or you could just use a new tv with smart features and never connect it to your network. It’s what I’ve done with all the TVs in my house and I simple use an external device I trust to stream.

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      • lemann@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Newer “smart” sets, particularly from Vizio and a couple other brands, will not let you exit the setup or use the inputs without an internet connection

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      • piecat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        This is going to be such a nightmare as smart devices become the majority.

        Didn’t connect your TV to the Internet? Don’t worry, it’ll spy on you by connecting to the neighbor’s tv. Or the built-in WiFi in the modem. Or the power company’s smart meter via powerline-networking.

        Products are going to be engineered to sell backdoor access at a hefty price, if they aren’t already.

        Things are going to get scary.

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  • agent_flounder@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Pff sure. How hard can it be? Few resistor thingies and some capaci-whatsists, and Arduino, done.

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    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The correct answer is usually Raspberry pi + github.

      Although I have no idea what those mean

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      • TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You can easily configure those with block-chain based AI.

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  • Sethayy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Almost any ARM SBC and a dumb TV will do, install linux/a minimal wayland compositor and waydroid and youre laughing

    Any time there’s a advancement you just update the board, instead of the whole TV (which its not like normal smart TV’s update their ports anyways?)

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