Is there a decent way to secure an android tv box? Or is there an open source streaming device of any kind that has a working remote & won't take hours to install & build?
#asknostr
Discussion
Could always build your own with a rasp Pi and something like Kodi + a USB IR remote https://a.co/d/24BC8zD
Yeah, I played around with installing stuff on a pi & I was pretty frustrated with the whole mess. The UI seemed to be horrible & I couldn't get any of my files to play. To be fair I didn't devote a lot of time to it because I was just trying to come up with a decent way to watch a particular movie that evening, but unless someone has some sort of super user friendly guide they want to share I'm kinda done with the pi for that sort of thing. And what I am looking for now definitely needs to be normie friendly.
I know some people who are definitely way down the rabbit hole on this sort of stuff I can ask.
In what way are you looking to secure the device? De-googling? Preventing phone home on a network level?
What capabilities are you looking for? Streaming from a particular service or services? Streaming from your storage?
I would like all communication unnessary to basic function reduced to zero if possible, but mostly I just don't want shitty devices acting as security holes in the local network. I guess I could isolate them to their own network, but I know phones constantly ping everything around them, are these doing the same? I just want a dumb fucking device that plays netflix & hulu or whatever, that I can also link to plex or side load something if I want. Like tv without spyware...?
I can ask about a system that can do this that’s not basically a PC.
I don’t trust integrated TVs. Fuck those things.
I guess a Roku (separate device from TV) isolated and only able to connect out to respective services could work.
You’d have to get network engineer creative in terms of what you’d want it to access on your network as well.
Might be a good exercise in terms of what’s out there in general.
I hate smart TVs…
Yeah the tv's seem worse than the separate devices, but they are all bad.
The real problem is that even if I bought a PC I don't know if there is really any software with a simple normie friendly UI to manage netflix & hulu & whatever with a remote.
I'm trying to update my parents' whole network & make sure there are no devices slowing things down, while also ensuring there aren't major security holes. I'm putting openwrt on some routers which is already a pain in the ass. And it seems like a waste of time to do that & then put the passwords into a $40 piece of pure spyware.
As ridiculous as it sounds, Ubuntu with icons enlarged & a bunch of stuff removed & the right shortcuts to netflix & hulu web portals & a decent remote to move the mouse or select things might work 🤔
There has to be something that would work...
Thats what i am trying to do too. I got brave browser, install the website for the service as an app and then its an icon on the desktop one can click on. Still in process of onboarding fam but its doable.
I literally did this for my dad, using big iDesk icons and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo, HDMI-ed to his big screen.
He wasn't well at the time, and he passed away two months later, so I couldn't really say if this is a good way to do it.
His Kodi RPi was working, but the TV-style five button interface and deeply nested menus kept losing him.
Put the untrusted devices on a guest network.
What Patrick said.
1. Get Raspberry Pi and SD card
2. Install this - https://kodi.tv/download/raspberry-pi/
3. Install the mobile app
4. Reboot, connect to wifi
5. Start surfing channels
Took all of twenty minutes when I did this for my dad.
(Of course, I then spent hours downloading extra plugins and connecting it to Dad's paid Kayo Sports account. Don't do that!)
Followed the link, watched the how to vid, looked up getting netflix to run on kodi... Netflix isn't really supported & sounds like it is likely to break. I need a couple of devices my parents can use & none of this really looks like an interface they will appreciate. Unfortunately I just don't think this is it.
Netflix is pretty hostile to FOSS attempts at accessing it.
If they need reliable Netflix access, you're going to need a big brand...
Okay, I found some different screenshots of kodi (tho maybe not running on a pi?) That make it look like a more reasonable interface. It has a browser... Netflix runs in a browser 🤔
Try it! Netflix is a bit obsessive about preventing password sharing, so they're rather heavy-handed in what they block.
But if Kodi's web browser is supported when you try it, I daresay it will stay supported.
There are a number of different "skins" for Kodi that can totally change the UX. Too many, perhaps!
Check out osmc.tv