We currently have Roku’s on our tvs to connect to streaming services and servers but they are infested with advertisements.
Some other comments mentioned Walmart’s $20 ONN 4k boxes, but these are android and I don’t have the time or knowledge/patience to go through the flashing process on one of those; if there is even a working custom ROM.
Basically we just want a functioning (libre) streaming box. The closest I could find was OSMC’s Vero V (just released a few months ago), although it’s a little pricey at $160 usd. Are there any other options out there or does anyone have any experience with the Vero V?
Why would you need to flash the Walmart one?
Android/Google telemetry.
I’d like just one piece of technology that doesn’t use my information to sell to the highest bidder.
I would just use a tiny PC and connect it to the Internet, then use Linux and pirating services to build a library of stuff. Works well for me.
I would 100% do this (minus the pirating part) if there was a way to get a tv style remote for the box. That’s the biggest obstacle for me because I’ve never been able to find a PC/tv remote and non technical users will be using the TV.
Look for air mouse. It’s basically a wiimote. Uses gyroscope to pretend to be a pointer device. You’ll need that because you’re basically going to need to use a web browser if you want to go down this path.
It’s not a nice experience but all the nice experiences you won’t like.
I mean the Vero V seems to be a nice polished experience. It’s just a lot of work to setup a linux box and get it to work, the latter being the hard part. The wiimote and the flirc have some comments in reviews about being poor experiences, and I just want it to be on par with the Roku or it’ll wind up in the trash heap. I don’t mind paying a little bit extra for a finished solution, and it seems like a plus that the Vero is a community/libre project.
I have the $20 Walmart one, no need for flashing anything, it let’s you install 3rd party apps out of the box. I googled guides online for recommended apps and it took all of 20 minutes to get my own loader, etc set up with just the apps I want installed.
For maximum compatibility with all services you are limited in your choices due to DRM licence requirements.
You can mostly decrapify android based boxes via ADB to strip out much of the bloat, strip most of the telemetry entirely then block the rest in your firewall, and replace the launcher with a super barebones one like Flauncher but it will never be 100% perfect.
If you must be in full control of what is on the device and what it is doing, a small, low powered miniPC (intel n100 is a good chip for basic AV for example, 4k 10bit with perfect H265 and AV1 decoding) and use the operating system of your choice, but you are then limited in what you can stream via browser or third party apps, often in nowhere near full quality, again this is due to licencing and drm.
The best option is to avoid streaming services altogether and download your own content, then use an offline player like kodi or a server/client solution like Jellyfin (a free and open alternative to plex, with most of the base features well implemented) to play it.
