Tips for Smart TVs?
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Buy a $20 Walmart ONN box and plug it in. Disconnect your TV from internet.
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
@Epzillon
Neuter it, disconnect it, and use a separate box for the "smarts". I've got a 12 year old Samsung that still works well, connected to streaming services using a Chromecast. -
Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
WebOS is linux and uses a webview of jellyfin iirc. I use a fire tv stick because it can play everything, including 10bit HDR DV. The ads are annoying but it could be worse. I only use it to start jellyfin and two other apps. I hate needing an amazon account. If you find another android tv stick that works equally well, use that one.
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@Epzillon
Neuter it, disconnect it, and use a separate box for the "smarts". I've got a 12 year old Samsung that still works well, connected to streaming services using a Chromecast.Is the Chromecast spying less? I haven't looked into it, sp correct me if I'm wrong, but it just seems like you're trading to a different company invading your privacy.
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Is the Chromecast spying less? I haven't looked into it, sp correct me if I'm wrong, but it just seems like you're trading to a different company invading your privacy.
@Marvelicious @Epzillon Oh heavens no. I'm using it for the wife-acceptance-factor. I would have used a discrete Jellyfin box of some kind if it was up to me. My main point is that the smarts in smart TVs are trash, and is best turned off.
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
Tip number 1 - Don't buy them.
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
You can root webos depending on what version you’re running but that more just lets you run homebrew (which is handy for youtube with Adblock and sponsorblock)
As others have said the best thing you can do is bypass internet connectivity altogether. I use the youtube app so I keep it connected with lg services and tracking blocked:
||snu.lge.com^
||su.lge.com^
||su-ssl.lge.com^
||snu-dev.lge.com^
||su-dev.lge.com^
||nsu.lge.com^(Formatted for adguard dns)
But it’s easier to just disconnect entirely. Let it collect data but if it’s disconnected it can’t do anything with it.
For a box I use a Chinese google tv box - ugoos am6b+. It can decode almost any video format (including dolby vision and all lossless audio, can pass through) except av1 basically and there are some newer versions that can do that as well. Google is awful right? The ugoos is stripped back pretty hard though it does retain the play store but still block the following:
||androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com^
||androidtvchannels-pa.googleapis.com^Probably not necessary but just in case. Anyway, the Google tv side is just for streaming services (if you use them) and IPTV because Jellyfin and kodi are garbage at IPTV, tivimate on android is leagues better
Anyway flash the box to use Coreelec and copy Coreelec to the emmc, takes like 10 minutes and is pretty easy, just need an sd card. Now you use kodi as your Jellyfin app (or plex/emby but fuck plex/emby) by just installing the Jellyfin for kodi plugin in kodi and in jellyfin. Sign into your Jellyfin instance in the plugin, your library will import (can take awhile the first time if you’re like me and have a huuuuge library with like 1,000 movies, 10,000 episodes, and 300,000 songs)
Then look around on the kodi forums for a decent skin that looks nice for you bc the default one is butt, configure the menus to match your setup, adjust the skin settings to your liking, etc. backup your settings!
Now you have a Jellyfin client that plays back media directly without transcoding 99.99% of the time (assuming you have an avr that can play lossless audio), is far more mature than any of the shitty Jellyfin client apps (development started in 2003), handles stuff like subtitles far better, still syncs watched status, etc. and the worst part of kodi: library management and administration, is now handled by jellyfin, which does it much better.
If you have remote users or other TVs/phones/etc they can still use the client apps too
Downside is that you lose most plugin support. Like back before they started to roll intro skipper into Jellyfin or jelly scrub, those are useless to kodi. And a weakness of kodi is that with the rise of plex/jellyfin addon development for kodi has dropped off significantly so no introskipper plugin for kodi. Navigation features work well (pressing right on the remote skips forward 10s) so that’s close enough, or just download good quality rips with chapters
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You can root webos depending on what version you’re running but that more just lets you run homebrew (which is handy for youtube with Adblock and sponsorblock)
As others have said the best thing you can do is bypass internet connectivity altogether. I use the youtube app so I keep it connected with lg services and tracking blocked:
||snu.lge.com^
||su.lge.com^
||su-ssl.lge.com^
||snu-dev.lge.com^
||su-dev.lge.com^
||nsu.lge.com^(Formatted for adguard dns)
But it’s easier to just disconnect entirely. Let it collect data but if it’s disconnected it can’t do anything with it.
For a box I use a Chinese google tv box - ugoos am6b+. It can decode almost any video format (including dolby vision and all lossless audio, can pass through) except av1 basically and there are some newer versions that can do that as well. Google is awful right? The ugoos is stripped back pretty hard though it does retain the play store but still block the following:
||androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com^
||androidtvchannels-pa.googleapis.com^Probably not necessary but just in case. Anyway, the Google tv side is just for streaming services (if you use them) and IPTV because Jellyfin and kodi are garbage at IPTV, tivimate on android is leagues better
Anyway flash the box to use Coreelec and copy Coreelec to the emmc, takes like 10 minutes and is pretty easy, just need an sd card. Now you use kodi as your Jellyfin app (or plex/emby but fuck plex/emby) by just installing the Jellyfin for kodi plugin in kodi and in jellyfin. Sign into your Jellyfin instance in the plugin, your library will import (can take awhile the first time if you’re like me and have a huuuuge library with like 1,000 movies, 10,000 episodes, and 300,000 songs)
Then look around on the kodi forums for a decent skin that looks nice for you bc the default one is butt, configure the menus to match your setup, adjust the skin settings to your liking, etc. backup your settings!
Now you have a Jellyfin client that plays back media directly without transcoding 99.99% of the time (assuming you have an avr that can play lossless audio), is far more mature than any of the shitty Jellyfin client apps (development started in 2003), handles stuff like subtitles far better, still syncs watched status, etc. and the worst part of kodi: library management and administration, is now handled by jellyfin, which does it much better.
If you have remote users or other TVs/phones/etc they can still use the client apps too
Downside is that you lose most plugin support. Like back before they started to roll intro skipper into Jellyfin or jelly scrub, those are useless to kodi. And a weakness of kodi is that with the rise of plex/jellyfin addon development for kodi has dropped off significantly so no introskipper plugin for kodi. Navigation features work well (pressing right on the remote skips forward 10s) so that’s close enough, or just download good quality rips with chapters
I personally just pointed Coreelec to my NFS share.. I tried Jellyfin for Kodi and Jellycon and they are quite unstable (at least a few months ago). If I pause a video, and the restart, it was guaranteed to exit the stream after a couple of minutes. Sometimes, it would not sync properly, so if I finished an episode, it was not guaranteed that the day after it's marked as "Watched". On the other hand, Coreelec + NFS works flawlessly.
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Tip number 1 - Don't buy them.
Serious question: what options are there for non-smart TVs these days? I remember looking when I bought a new TV a few years ago, and EVERYTHING was “smart”.
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
HTPC plugged in with Linux on it.
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Serious question: what options are there for non-smart TVs these days? I remember looking when I bought a new TV a few years ago, and EVERYTHING was “smart”.
It's not smart if it's not connected to anything. Only HDMI.
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It's not smart if it's not connected to anything. Only HDMI.
if it even lets you change source without being connected that is ...
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Serious question: what options are there for non-smart TVs these days? I remember looking when I bought a new TV a few years ago, and EVERYTHING was “smart”.
Don't buy a tv. Buy a "monitor". Add your own external tv tuner box, and other smart sticks externally. At that point your "tv" is just a display.
Yes, it costs more, but you're not paying with your data.
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if it even lets you change source without being connected that is ...
I would ask for a refund because it's a broken TV. I'm not kidding, who the fuck accepts this?
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Don't buy a tv. Buy a "monitor". Add your own external tv tuner box, and other smart sticks externally. At that point your "tv" is just a display.
Yes, it costs more, but you're not paying with your data.
And who is making 80 inch monitors? Most people don't want small ass displayed or have the ability to buy a 4k 50 inch monitor.
What a terribly limited and short sighted response.
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Don't buy a tv. Buy a "monitor". Add your own external tv tuner box, and other smart sticks externally. At that point your "tv" is just a display.
Yes, it costs more, but you're not paying with your data.
My cheap ass TV from 2019 is 55 inches. How much is a 55 inch monitor? Or a 65 in monitor if I want to upgrade to a bigger size in the future?
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I personally just pointed Coreelec to my NFS share.. I tried Jellyfin for Kodi and Jellycon and they are quite unstable (at least a few months ago). If I pause a video, and the restart, it was guaranteed to exit the stream after a couple of minutes. Sometimes, it would not sync properly, so if I finished an episode, it was not guaranteed that the day after it's marked as "Watched". On the other hand, Coreelec + NFS works flawlessly.
Jellyfin for kodi is pretty bulletproof for me although it wasn’t always that way; when I first changed to this setup (bit over a year ago when Coreelec added dolby vision support) there were some headaches because kodi was changing how the db worked at the time (change from kodi 20 to 21 and Coreelec was using the kodi 21 nightlies for dv stuff that hadn’t been brought into final version)
Once the 21 final came out and Jellyfin for kodi was updated it’s been smooth sailing.
That does remind me of another downside though: there’s a minor slap fight on how db management should occur between kodi and jellyfin devs. Like many open source projects they simply can’t agree on anything so each project just does what they think is right. So kodi 22 or jellyfin 11 might cause another scenario like above if they decide to revamp the db again (especially on the Jellyfin side; I would not be surprised if someday they will overhaul the lackluster music portion of Jellyfin)
If you ever do revisit Jellyfin for metadata administration I would suggest posting about your issues on the github for Jellyfin for kodi. I’ve never used Jellycon so I can’t speak to that but Jellyfin for kodi’s github is overall helpful although fair warning that the dev can be a bit curt, especially if your issue has already been addressed and is configuration related. Things may have changed but at least ~ a year ago it was solely developed by one person who did the majority of the support as well. But if nfs is working then why break what isn’t broken?
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Hello! Ive had my LG Smart TV for almost 2 years now and i have some issues with it. Apart from the obvious data collection and shady opt-out "do not sell my data" settings theres just a bunch of other magical issues with Jellyfin, WebOS and their apps that annoy me.
Does anyone have any alternative Smart TV OS, tips or tricks? Would love to run another OS entirely that is privacy friendly but I dont even know if its possible.
I don’t connect mine to internet and just use an Apple TV for all the apps I want. Why would you use the TV apps they are always pretty shitty in my experience. Also they can’t get your data if it isn’t connected to the web.
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Which TV doesn’t let you change source without being connected to WiFi? Cause whatever brand that is you just don’t buy it. Also never heard of any of the major brands doing that at all
