Smart TV Alternatives

Comments discuss drawbacks of smart TV OS like ads, spyware, and poor UI on platforms such as Android TV and WebOS, recommending external streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV, Nvidia Shield, or disconnecting the TV from the internet.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Hardware
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Keywords

e.g bigscreen.org UI PDQ LG ICS TIME YouTube E.g OTA tv android smart tv lg shield nvidia tvs smart 30s sony

Sample Comments

bkallus Jul 1, 2021 View on HN

The ones with Roku OS don't do this. Can't vouch for Android TV though.

billfruit Nov 10, 2024 View on HN

Is something similar available for Android TV?

neop1x Jun 29, 2019 View on HN

don't connect smartTV to the internet, juse use the DP/HDMI inout ;)

wvenable Oct 22, 2020 View on HN

I can watch it on my TV; an LG running WebOS.

alex_young Jan 10, 2025 View on HN

Why connect it to the network or use the ui? Just get an AppleTV / Roku / Chromecast / Shield and use that. The spyware on your tv is optional.

joking Dec 5, 2020 View on HN

those have different panels tunned for more ambient lighting and doesn’t have the same color and black reproduction of a good tv panel. just buy a tv and use an external player without connecting the tv to internet and you are set.

hi5eyes Jun 17, 2019 View on HN

smart tvs really went back in time to pre vlc/real player levels of garbage wow

linuxftw May 31, 2022 View on HN

Roku doesn't have this problem, I highly recommend it.

markomikolavcic Apr 20, 2014 View on HN

Very helpful. I have the LG smart tv and i would like to know if in my case (lg) could happen the same... Just in case to know if it happens. my opinion about these smart tv's is very positive. I like to browse or watch films over netflix or others. Hope that in a couple of years it gets even smarter :)

donclark Sep 25, 2018 View on HN

Good info, but it does'nt address users that use a different device to watch things (like a raspberry pi, nvidia shield, etc).