Howdy y'all, I'm currently using an Amazon firestick on my living room TV, (running Wolf Launcher, Jellyfin, and SmartTube) but I'm considering upgrading to something more privacy friendly. Especially since Amazon is starting to crack down on "Side Loading" installing my own damn software.

The most open alternative seems to be an android TV box, but Google is walling up the android garden more heavily now too.

On the software side of things, I need something that:

• Is remote controllable
• Won't harvest my data
• Let's me install what I want
• Specifically will run the 3 programs I use. Jellyfin, SmartTube, and Kanopy.

On the hardware side of things, I'm pretty open, whether that be a rasberry pi, or a modified android TV box (provided I can flash an OS that isn't infected with Google).

Has anyone else done anything like this? Steaming devices all seem like locked down, data harvesters, which just so happen to also show you movies.

Mini pc with linux using a remote mouse for 10 bucks on the a to z

get a "digital signage" monitor with a full android install on it and you can skip the firestick (it'll still have Google play services etc). make sure to check it has all the connectivity & ports you need.

i used to do this with kodi on a tiny linux desktop connected to my tv and used vnc on my phone as a remote control for it.

Been down this road, it doesnt exist, if you want actual privacy you gotta go full pirate, run a linux desktop with Kodi and the Jellyfin plugin, then run Smart Tube with waydroid. For hardware look for something with an N100 in it.

I opted for a pc, but I guess a rasperry pi should do the trick provided you can get one that doesn't cost an arm (see what I did there?) and you can slap a disk on it, SD cards wear off quickly.
A mini-pc/nuc or similar would pack more punch, I don't know about prices compared to a rpi.

Once you have gnu/linux installed you can do whatever you want.

About remote control kde connect does wonders if you choose to use kde plasma as desktop environment, I heard a port for gnome exists that works well though.

I use a nvidia shield with lineageos installed. It works perfectly for me with no tracking. I have Jellyfin, SmartTube, Dropout and Nebula installed (from F-droid, obtanium, and Aurora respectively)
I think your TV has to be HDMI CEC but our shield remote can turn on/off the TV (I'm 90% certain HDMI CEC is the name of the standard)
Outside of that, it is technically a smart TV but it is not connected to our network and will never be connected.

Micro form factor corporate “desktops” are the easy and cheap answer here. More expensive but also easy are the n100 lil boxes. You may need to disable or cover a bunch of gamer leds.

Weirdly cheap but with one hidden cost is appletv 4k, you gotta either pay monthly or one time to the infuse (jellyfin client) app developer to unlock dolby decoding. TBH I don’t mind paying one time for software, it’s the subscriptions that bug me also it’s what we still use so that’s why it makes the list.

After all the stuff about super/bad box started getting around I haven’t been able to really trust android set tops, which sucks because the price is right on those little fuckers.

Also I often found awful support environments for safely using android tv boxes, lack of lockable bootloaders, undocumented memory for blowing the original install back in, weird variants of weird socs.

It made me do the Seinfeld at the movies gif, ymmv.

I use an old surplus corporate laptop which couldn't upgrade to Windows 11 and run Plasma Bigscreen and use a wireless touchpad to control it.

It runs everything that can run on Linux, plays every kind of content and uses next to no power when asleep.

https://old.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/12rya0t/change_launcher_debloat_the_new_onn_4k_streaming/

The price of the Onn 4k box has gone up from $20 to $25, but if that's not a deterrent, I'd recommend it.

Ive totaly forgot this project!

osmc.tv may be what you want.

I use the dynalink boxes compatible with lineageos found here. I run jellyfin, smarttube and all my apps on these fine. Just make sure to buy the correct hardware version if you go this route, they're only available used anymore.