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this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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Privacy
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Never connect it to your wifi and use an open source Linux or android media box instead. If you can buy a tv or projector without any smart device baked in.
I think it’s important to note that most of the devices you’ll find if you just search for a cheap and generic “Android media box” are not going to be any better for your privacy. Even if you ignore the data collection you subject yourself to with Android, you might be purchasing a botnet node or a backdoor into your home network.
A docked Steam Deck works for this. It even has HDMI-CEC
Most definitely, it's essentially a full Linux PC. You could do a lot of things with it.
So 720p streaming and a lot of maintenance.
I so very much want to ditch closed source but then i'm limited to piracy really, and any setup really requires hours of maintenance here and there at minimum.
Hours? Running Fedora and enabling DRM on Firefox ain't that complex, neither is installing the waydroid flatpak. I think you're really blowing the situation out of proportion. Assuming you already have the iso probably like 30 minutes to get set up including a full install.
Video frontends like GrayJay and Revanced let you pick streaming resolution and it actually gets followed. Plus they work for multiple services like Youtube, Patreon, Nebula.
If you're not happy about getting 720p from Netflix in a browser, that's from Netflix being cunts. You're better off voting with your wallet and dropping them.
Also, maintenance? It's minimal. You get an update popup in the video frontend maybe once per week and wait 30 seconds after hitting "yes". And you can add an extension on Deckyloader to autoupdate all of your software in the background each day without needing to do anything
where/how do you get an open source android media box?
You buy one from the internet, any hardware that can run Android Open Source Project (AOSP) like the Ugoos AM8 Pro, Generic Amlogic Boxes. You could use certain arm and x86 hardware and run waydroid on top of Linux or install android like LineageOS, BlissOS, PrimeOS AndroidTV-x86_64, and FydeOS. You can use like an SBC like a raspberry pi or an old laptop or something. In short there's. A lot of pathways to get this done that doesn't involve sending all your data back to the TV or streaming box manufacturer.
Maybe the easiest way is just using Linux and waydroid on really any hardware. There are specified Linux OS's like LibreELEC, OSMC (Open Source Media Center), LinuxMCE, but it's not necessary you run a specified OS. Also easier to slap a hard drive on that badboy and get a media server going with Plex or jellyfin and host other stuff like kiwix, pinhole, nextcloud and so on. Just pair with a Bluetooth keyboard trackpad combo and you're good to go.