Connecting a Raspberry pi or a Linux computer into the HDMI port. And not connecting the TV to WiFi.
Smart TV’s can be used as dumb TV’s by not connecting them to the internet. Likewise the HDMI port can connect your own device for the smart functionality.
My two TCL Roku TVs work without an Internet connection. This isn’t in defense of Roku TVs to be clear- I regret my purchase, but at least for now they do work offline.
Yeah but is there an OS or a Linux distro specifically geared for use with a “surrogate SmartTV”?
It could also be used by connecting the device to a large monitor, as those are cheaper than SmartTVs. No point paying a premium for features you don’t intend to use.
On a related point, what would you do for a remote control in such a setup?
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for a while. I’ve not yet found a really good solution, but I can summarize what I’ve learned, partly for your information but mostly in the hope that Cunningham’s law will finally put me out of my misery. Here are suggestions I’ve seen, organized roughly along some axis of easiest/most popular to hardest/least popular:
Get an NVIDIA Shield TV. This isn’t really what you asked for. It’s just a commercial smart TV box, but it’s generally considered the least annoying and highest quality of the lot. The unfortunate fact is that when dealing with DRM controlled media, having a big company like NVIDIA behind the product goes a long towards simplifying things.
Install Kodi. Kodi (formerly XBMC) is the elder statesman of the FOSS smart TV world. You can run it on just about any hardware, including a SBC like a Raspberry Pi. You can even get it pre-bundled with a Linux OS like LibreELEC. It’s got a clean interface and good community support, BUT it’s primarily oriented towards viewing media from your own collection. If you’re a person who consumes content via streaming services then you’re gonna have a rough time. Apps (mostly unofficial / community made) do exist for many popular services, but installing them can be a pain, and you may have trouble streaming in high quality (DRM issues).
KDE Plasma Bigscreen. Great concept, not maintained any more. See my comment here for all the gory details.
Clean build of Android TV. I’m not aware of any major independent android distributions (Lineage, Graphene) providing official builds of the android TV operating system, but this site seems to provide relatively consistent lineage OS based releases. You can run them on a Raspberry Pi. I haven’t done this yet, but it will probably be the next thing I try.
EarlGrey TV. This one is a deep cut. EarlGrey TV mad a very small splash in the FOSS news cycle a couple of months ago. The concept is simple: install your favorite Linux distro and configure it to boot directly into a browser displaying a static webpage with links to your favorite streaming services and/or local media folders. The implementation is extremely basic, but the upside is that it’s easy to tinker with if you’re so-inclined.
As for remotes, there are some decent options on Amazon that connect via bluetooth or a USB dongle and basically act like a mouse and/or keyboard packaged in a remote control form factor. I bought this one a while ago and it’s been fine. Nothing special, but fine. The play/pause/volume buttons on the front read on the receiving end like the media buttons on a keyboard. The air-mouse functionality isn’t for everyone, but this model is one of the few with a little track pad on the back if you prefer using that. Honestly just get anything with a full keyboard. So much easier than using the arrow keys to click-click-click your way through an onscreen keyboard.
LineageOS Android TV looks like an interesting solution but having SELinux in permissive mode is a bit scary. Maybe someone with more in-depth Linux knowledge can chime in here but my understanding is that would mean that the Android kernel’s security system would basically be turned off. Permissive Mode logs security access violations within the OS but does nothing to prevent them so I would be wary of connecting it to the internet.
Yea I always hear people say just hook up a PC or Pi but I don’t want a keyboard and mouse in my livingroom. The value of these Apple TV / Roku / Google TV setups is you have a little remote and a UI that is designed around it with big visual elements you can see across the room. I’m surprised there seems to be so little movement on something like this.
I guess one issue is apps. The likes of Netflix wouldn’t support it.
“I don’t want to use a keyboard,” was what my wife said at first too. Then she realized that saving hundred of dollars and never seeing another advertisement was worth it.
I used to have the PC setup. Ended up going for an Apple TV 4k. Yea it was $200 but it was a one time purchase 7 years ago and there’s no ads. Just serve up everything though Plex and Infuse
Apple TV still has a ton of privacy concerns and most people who are against having to use a keyboard probably aren’t going to be setting up a Plex server.
Yes, im aware of those ways. I remember reading that there was a replacement that was specifically emulating the look and feel of Google TV, but simpler and better. You could install it on Chromecast etc.
Connecting a Raspberry pi or a Linux computer into the HDMI port. And not connecting the TV to WiFi.
Smart TV’s can be used as dumb TV’s by not connecting them to the internet. Likewise the HDMI port can connect your own device for the smart functionality.
Depends on the TV. Some can’t be used unless internet connected. Roku TVs are especially bad about this
My two TCL Roku TVs work without an Internet connection. This isn’t in defense of Roku TVs to be clear- I regret my purchase, but at least for now they do work offline.
Yeah but is there an OS or a Linux distro specifically geared for use with a “surrogate SmartTV”?
It could also be used by connecting the device to a large monitor, as those are cheaper than SmartTVs. No point paying a premium for features you don’t intend to use.
On a related point, what would you do for a remote control in such a setup?
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for a while. I’ve not yet found a really good solution, but I can summarize what I’ve learned, partly for your information but mostly in the hope that Cunningham’s law will finally put me out of my misery. Here are suggestions I’ve seen, organized roughly along some axis of easiest/most popular to hardest/least popular:
As for remotes, there are some decent options on Amazon that connect via bluetooth or a USB dongle and basically act like a mouse and/or keyboard packaged in a remote control form factor. I bought this one a while ago and it’s been fine. Nothing special, but fine. The play/pause/volume buttons on the front read on the receiving end like the media buttons on a keyboard. The air-mouse functionality isn’t for everyone, but this model is one of the few with a little track pad on the back if you prefer using that. Honestly just get anything with a full keyboard. So much easier than using the arrow keys to click-click-click your way through an onscreen keyboard.
LineageOS Android TV looks like an interesting solution but having SELinux in permissive mode is a bit scary. Maybe someone with more in-depth Linux knowledge can chime in here but my understanding is that would mean that the Android kernel’s security system would basically be turned off. Permissive Mode logs security access violations within the OS but does nothing to prevent them so I would be wary of connecting it to the internet.
Yea I always hear people say just hook up a PC or Pi but I don’t want a keyboard and mouse in my livingroom. The value of these Apple TV / Roku / Google TV setups is you have a little remote and a UI that is designed around it with big visual elements you can see across the room. I’m surprised there seems to be so little movement on something like this.
I guess one issue is apps. The likes of Netflix wouldn’t support it.
“I don’t want to use a keyboard,” was what my wife said at first too. Then she realized that saving hundred of dollars and never seeing another advertisement was worth it.
I used to have the PC setup. Ended up going for an Apple TV 4k. Yea it was $200 but it was a one time purchase 7 years ago and there’s no ads. Just serve up everything though Plex and Infuse
Apple TV still has a ton of privacy concerns and most people who are against having to use a keyboard probably aren’t going to be setting up a Plex server.
Yes, im aware of those ways. I remember reading that there was a replacement that was specifically emulating the look and feel of Google TV, but simpler and better. You could install it on Chromecast etc.