There are lots of things you need to know before buying a smart TV & the OS on your smart TV will define its interface and software capabilities
NEC makes some TVs where you can slot in a pi as the host OS, so i’d say that’s probably the best “smart” TV as it has an OS of your choosing.
wow, that’s actually sounds nice
How is Apple TV not on this list? It’s miles ahead of the competition in every way
This is only going through TV OSs, not stand alone hardware.
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Anything that can load videos from my NAS. Preferably with software like Kodi. Streaming services come and go but my media library has been growing for years.
They all suck, but I’ve always found myself going back to Roku when I try any of the others. Still selling my data, but at least 99% of apps work.
The built-in TV software may be trash, but there is no way I can convince my dad that another device that does the exact same thing is worth it.
I’m a fan of Android TV / Google TV. The Android TV we bought didn’t have enough memory and had problems catching up but we stuck with the brand and bought a Chromecast with Google TV. It was a good decision.
I recommend replacing the default launcher. Google has packed so many fucking ads into their paid-for devices that it blows the mind to see. A good replacement launcher removes all that junk and the device runs faster too as a result. I did it on my nvidia shield pro (runs Android TV) and a google tv/chromecast I have too. Made the shield basically flawless and the best entertainment experience and the google tv it made much more useable.
The launcher I’ve been using is called “projectivy launcher” for the google tv. There’s a giant post over on XDA with specifics if interested. It’s made my google tv much better and I’d recommend the small asspain to try it. (I’m not affiliated with the launcher team or anything I just like it a lot)
Flauncher
I use Google Chromecast with remote so I don’t fuck with Roku’s smart TV software anymore.
I have a raspberry pi 4 hooked up to a projector with Kodi. Replaced my Chinese android tv box, which is reportedly stuffed full of spyware these days. It was an easy setup once I had an SD card writer.
