Best TV box for connecting to streaming services?

laverabe@lemmy.world to Selfhosted@lemmy.world – 42 points –

We currently have Roku's on our tvs to connect to streaming services and servers but they are infested with advertisements.

Some other comments mentioned Walmart's $20 ONN 4k boxes, but these are android and I don't have the time or knowledge/patience to go through the flashing process on one of those; if there is even a working custom ROM.

Basically we just want a functioning (libre) streaming box. The closest I could find was OSMC's Vero V (just released a few months ago), although it's a little pricey at $160 usd. Are there any other options out there or does anyone have any experience with the Vero V?

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LineageOS on the Shield? Any drawbacks?

Last I heard GPU accelerated video decoding didn't work

That's... a rather huge drawback. Why even pay for a shield at that point?

No drawbacks for my use case, but there are a few quirks.

Some apps that I've dabbled with might show vertically, but most of the Android TV compatible apps were fine.

Some apps seem to expect a touchscreen input, and don't really show what's highlighted or selected very well, so navigating with just a TV style remote control can be tricky. I have a mouse and keyboard that I also use, definitely the easiest option.

Lastly, the Shield is a pretty powerful device, so I always kinda feel like I'm not using it to its fullest potential. I haven't really tried any gaming with it, I don't use it as a media server or anything, just a simple stream box. That's less of a quirk with the device itself, and more an issue with me feeling like I should be putting it to better use.

Happy to answer any other questions you may have!