this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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I got a kick out of the article recommending Google and Apple like they’re the ethical option against Amazon here. Any sane person with moral qualms against Bezos will have plenty about Google and Apple too, so let’s not pretend that any of them are anything less than evil.
Roku has been one of the worst from a privacy standpoint, alongside Amazon devices. Google isn’t much better but for privacy, there is no off the shelf option better than AppleTV. Heck, even the beloved Nvidia Shield gets poor marks for privacy.
What suggestions do you have for simple media players that techy people could recommend to their families? It seems like for the most part we're limited to Android-based devices or the Apple TV.
Build a media stick out of something like a pi seems like the only option? I wouldn't want to deal with that though and I'm not aware of anyone selling a plug-n-play ready options like that unfortunately.
I did that and I'm curious why you say you wouldn't want to deal with it?
If the setup matches my own personal setup, then I would. But I wouldn't want to have to deal with troubleshooting it if anything comes up down the road when ill have completely forgotten how I set it up in the first place.
Also, I know from experience that someone like my parents would opt to use the commercial options over something I set up for them.
It's not there yet. But I'm hoping KDE plasma big screen continues to receive love. If it gets into mainstream distributions. It will likely be big. It's a much more smart TV like shell for the KDE desktop. All the familiarity of your Google TV, Apple tv, fire stick, Roku etc. But none of the advertisements or lockdown. With waydroid it should even be able to run most of your Android applications as well as all the native Linux and KDE applications. But again this is something to watch for. Not quite ready for deployment yet.
This would be awesome!
It absolutely would be. I'm watching it with great interest. The thought of having a Raspberry Pi and old E-Waste business PC or a cheap n100 or 150 system at the television. Running Games movies everything. It's very attractive.
I was going to say, an old 1L ThinkCentre Tiny, Optiplex Micro, or HP Mini would fit the bill nicely. I already have one set up for retro gaming. It would be nice to get it set up as kore of an overall media center, with a remote-friendly interface. I know I can do that with Libre elec and Kodi but I’m not a fan. KDE is my desktop of choice so I’d love to see what they come up with. Plasma Mobile is solid so I would imagine it could be similar.
I just use a mini PC and use streaming services through the browser when I do use them.
Couple that with a air mouse/keyboard combo remote and its pretty good. Not perfect but good for non tech people too.
An Onn box with protectivity launcher, all bloatware removed, and ReVanced apps is the simplest/cheapest way to go.
I was just looking into this recently and CoreELEC came up. That or LibreELEC that run kodi. The hardware that was recommended would be a ugoos x4q
Depending on how maintenance-free this is once it's configured (because non-technical people are not going to mess with things), this actually looks like a pretty solid solution. Thank you!
It’s been years since I’ve used Kodi but I remember after it being set up it was pretty solid. I’m sure it’s been improved since then
I would suggest using a PC with a Kodi or Jellyfin and the arr stack to automatically download all of your shows and movies.
Paid streaming services won't work because of DRM, so you need to host your own.
I have the hosted part taken care of but the other half of the issue is the media player side for people that are not technical at all. They basically need a device where they can open an app that just works and have a simple interface to navigate around and play media.
If the media is stored locally or on a network share on your LAN, then Kodi will work well for that. When you first instal it, tell it where you keep your files and enable auto scan on startup. After that, you just open it and browse your TV show or movie library.
If you want to stream the media away from home things get a bit more complicated.
All kinds of media player distros for raspberry pi
I mean, the Apple TV is doing significantly less sketchy shit, selling your data, and spying on you.
It also doesn’t have Home Screen ads and ads stuffed everywhere.
Of the options, regardless of how you feel about Apple, it’s the only viable commercial tv box.
They they sell TVs with apple tv as its built in os?
No that’s just an app, the set top box has all the main streaming apps without the bloateare of smart tvs, you should never ever connect your smart tv to the internet.
The creepiest thing mine has done is have the Peanuts cartoon screensavers be relevant to the weather in my area. Seeing Snoopy and Woodstock get blown around on a windy day is oddly nice haha
I don't actually know its happening, I might just be more aware of the windy cartoons or rainy cartoons when I'm actually experiencing that weather 🤷♂️
It's cutesy until it's not. Anybody who has long-term experience in recommending any brand will tell you that the brand will eventually decide they don't need to be outstanding in any category.
Apple just started pushing ads in its maps app, which was supposed to be the better alternative to Google Maps.
Right.. but the discussion is specifically about how Apple is pretty much the only consumer friendly TV device available right now. Hopefully a new, better one comes along but to your point, that one will eventually be shit too soooo idk whats the point its all going to burn
I hooked a PC up to my device. You'd be surprised how consumer-friendly it is. I didn't even need to beg Tim Cook to run my favorite programs on it.
That's a great solution. It think we were talking more about people that don't even use PCs. Older people like grandparents or other tech illiterate that maybe use a tablet at most.