I’ve been looking for something to replace the google chromecast that is attached to our TV.
I’ve tried Kodi out, but the main use case for the TV set is a 70+ yo person watching netflix and there is just no way they will be better off with Kodi than with the stock netflix app.
Besides supporting netflix, being easy to use, and providing significantly better privacy than the chromecast does, the device would ideally:
- support other mainstream streaming (amazon, disney, …) for when my people get tired of netflix
- support a DVB-T2 usb stick (directly, or through IPTV: I can put the stick in a different machine)
- support youtube without ads (through an adblocker and possibly sponsorblock, or maybe using invidious)
- possibly, support local public TV streaming (eg. BBC)
I have a PC set aside that should be more than capable enough (intel N100), but I’m open to getting new hardware if needed. Also, it doesn’t matter if the system is not very user friendly to setup (eg. if it needs to be nixos), but once it’s setup it should be easy to use and relatively straightforward to update/maintain.
I guess a FOSS android TV would be ideal, but… is there any? (I see Lineage supports the Google ADT-3, but that is basically unobtanium, at least where I live).
You are 100% right: netflix not being open is less than ideal, both from a freedom standpoint and for the privacy implications of it.
However, my 70+yo relative does not care about FOSS or even about their own privacy for that matter… since I, however, do care about their privacy, I’d like to pragmatically find something that may be better than a chromecast privacy-wise, while not being so much worse (or radically different) from it that they’ll ask me to “put the old thingy back - I can’t use this nerdy shit” :)