this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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Technology
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Why do people still use those?
They’re cheap. That’s as far as some people think about it.
I use a fire stick because I'm familiar with them and they are much better than the shitty OS built into my TVs. Is there an alternative you recommend? I'm open to changing, especially with how theyve been pushing ads and paid rentals lately
Roku is pretty nice
Roku is literally chock full of ads, and they send whatever you’re watching back to their ad partners. I thought Roku was good too until I recently bought one of their top of the line boxes and it had ads _everywhere _ compared to my Roku tv. I immediately went out and bought an Apple TV and couldn’t be happier. No ads anywhere, and is way snappier than Roku.
Due to how they made it on scratch based on the Linux kernel, finding apps to install is hard. It doesn't even have a web browser, let alone SmartTube.
If you have the money, I'd go for an NVIDIA Shield, or maybe an Apple TV. Well worth the money.
Otherwise, for budget, you could get a Chromecast, which gives you more control over it and has generally less garbage than the Fire TVs do for instance, since you can easily change its launcher and debloat with ADB.
I'll second the Chromecast (specifically the "Google TV with Chromecast" or something like that). It sounds cover-intuitive because it does come with its own home screen full of ads, but putting things like smart tube and a custom launcher on is pretty trivial and it was only £25.
Apple TV. No ads at all, it’s faster than every alternative (unless you’re building your own server), and it is much easier to use than every alternative.
Can you install adfree youtube on it with sponsorblock?
I got a 4K Max one because it was only 35€. I want to upgrade to a shield pro successor which is overdue by now.
If you want to do this because of the full screen ads you may be too late.
Lol yeah the timing of their comment couldn't have been more ironic
You can easily change launchers on the Shield and remove all of Google's nonsense through ADB as well though, unlike Amazon who locks down the OS very tight. Plus like another commenter said, you can just flat out install LineageOS and you're good.
Thanks for the tip, I didn't know that.
You can run lineageOS on it though; problem solved
Lol, damn.
4k Max is so much faster than the Shield devices, i actually got upset that i invested so much money in two of them.
Interesting. I am not really happy with mine. Pretty laggy and it sometimes crashes. But good to know and makes the wait easier instead of getting that old tech instead.
Easy to sideload apps and use it for streaming, and I'm too lazy to set up my *arr self hosted media server with jellyfin again.