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LG TVs and monitors said to surveil users and install bloatware without asking (www.notebookcheck.net)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 10 points 3 months ago (17 children)

What dongle or what have you do y'all use that's privacy focused? I need to disconnect my LG TV and we have an old Chromecast but that's Google...

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I have a ShieldTV plugged into mine and it has been great. You can install a new Launcher to have full control of what you see and it works great. I pretty much just use it for Jellyfin and YouTube now, but in the past have had all of the streaming services at one time or another.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (1 child)

    Our shield TV recently stopped allowing Projectivy launcher (the 3rd party one we were using) to be bound to the home button on the remote. I can launch Projectivy and switch to it, but as soon as I hit the home button it's right back to the default launcher.

    I assumed this was something nvidia (or google) did to be dicks, but it sounds like that hasn't happened to you, so now I'm less sure.

    What 3rd party launcher are you using? Maybe I should try a different one.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    I think I am using the wolf launcher? I can’t check right now, but I set it up a long time ago and then forgot about it.

    I haven’t had any problems with it, I have both a tube and a shield pro and the white circle button works great on both.

    There might also be a button remapper that you can get if you want the Netflix button to be a mute or something.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    The best cheap solution is a Google TV with Projectivy launcher to bypass the adware.

    The best fully non-adware solution as others said seems to be a mini-pc running Linux or other cleaner environment you set up.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah mini-pc is the way. Throw Linux on it and it'll last for years, trouble free

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    I have a Linux mini PC. There are definite pros, like controlling it via SSH from my Home Assistant, running Netflix in Firefox with adblocker... But drawbacks are no HDR, no 4k for streaming, heck, even 720p max for Hulu (and Disney, but I don't have one).

    However, high sails have higher resolution too, it's just an additional step.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Linux definitely has HDR. I've been using Bazzite with Steam Big Picture mode as my TV interface for years and can use HDR just fine.

    I definitely recommend piracy, but there are also ways to get streaming services to send full quality streams. I won't recommend them though, because you shouldn't have to do it in the first place for a service you're paying for. Just pirate and use a media server or something like Kodi for a nice interface for local files.

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  • [+] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)
    [removed by mod]
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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    Yeah, I suspect Google pushes changes to the backend OS that keep breaking it on purpose, but at least we've got it to stick on our two TVs with a lot of effort and setting changes. Least worst option considering how pricy mini-PCs are, unfortunately.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago

    I use an nvidia shield, and used the developer options to disable Google's built in launcher (and most other google related services). That's what it takes to keep your chosen launcher. I also used an app to remap the netflix button on that stupid toblerone they call a remote to act as a mute button, so accidentally pressing it doesn't cause me a minute of trying to get back to my content.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I had an old laptop that I hooked in and configured it to boot into a fullscreen browser to our Emby server. Could just as easily have it boot into a browser with shortcuts to your streaming services.

    We use one of these mini keyboard/touchpads to control it:

    Lately, though, I just picked up a set of wireless HDMI adapters and just plug one of those into the closest laptop and play from there.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    Weve had a similar setup for nearly 10 years and its fricken great. We built a low spec computer using old parts from our desktops, hooked it up to our tv via hdmi, and plugged in a wireless keyboard with built in trackpad to act as the remote. We get all the same AD blocking and content access as a desktop because, you know, its a desktop but in the livingroom. My personal favorite is using a second account on discord to pull up streams on the tv from the couch while joining on my phone via my primary account for voice.

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