Posted by LecroJS 17 hours ago
Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?
I have heard good things about Apple TV as a better alternative to most smart TV native apps. Would some TV’s pair better with this than others for privacy? I don’t want the TV doing anything other than being the display for Apple TV.
I am curious what success others have had.
There are several videos on YT regarding removing all this Ad/Spy/Bloatware from "smart" TVs using Claude and only a few prompts: Actually, it should be very easy for most poeple here on HN to do this as Ive found some videos which seem to be done by "non techies" and they were successful.
I use a Mac Mini M4 and a huge 300 euro 4K screen as my TV. much better than an Apple TV and no spying or ads at all.
Best TV in my life, a user friendly computer.
Step 2 is to connect a TV box, but if you replace Samsumg, LG, or Google by Apple or Amazon, you have made no progress at all towards privacy.
Having researched this topic extensively, there are two main options for real user control and privacy. First, you can run an ordinary Linux distro on a mini PC, with a "launcher" such as Plasma Bigscreen. It's fine with an airmouse, but you will be mostly running upscaled desktop apps that aren't remote or controller friendly.
The best solution is actually to keep the mini PC and compile Lineage OS (Android TV 17) for a generic x86 target. This is a true degoogled Android TV distro that can, with some more hacking, run any ARM TV app from F-Droid, Aurora or other source. It is by far the best solution in that it is a true 10-foot UX and is compatible with almost all TV apk apps out there. The downside is that this not exist off-the-shelf. I spent a couple of days putting this together with Claude and it takes several hours to compile. I also found several upstream bugs in the process and will be submitting patches to the AOSP and Lineage.
Unless you view privacy as all or nothing, I'd say replacing Google with Apple is progress. I think the majority of people are more upset at the idea of how their data is being sold for advertising than they are concerned about being able to act completely out of sight of any actor.
This may be true, but Apple can change that policy overnight. Apple also won't let you run programs that are not on its store, and won't even give you a Web browser. It's shocking people that people are willing to accept such restrictions. It isn't my hardware if I can't decide what runs on it.
Is it really shocking to you that people treat their entertainment device as an appliance? Everything I control is something I'm responsible for patching and fixing and adding new features to. I don't mind faffing about with my Linux desktop, but the TV needs to just work.
The next step for me will be setting up a Raspberry PI with Plasma Bigscreen.
- >= 85"
- VESA mount
- 4K @ 120Hz (or better)
- < $2K
- "infinite" contrast ratio
There are lots of monitors that fit OP's description.
Seriously: Name one counterexample.
Yes, it's only 60Hz, but again, 1 search.
These are generally meant to display (static) advertisement media, you'll have a false experience watching movies or playing games on them.