Anyone who owns an LG smart TV must inform all guests and family members that they are being monitored – this is required by LG’s current terms of use. Meanwhile, LG monitors install potential malware and surveillance software on a connected Windows computer.
I had an old laptop that I hooked in and configured it to boot into a fullscreen browser to our Emby server. Could just as easily have it boot into a browser with shortcuts to your streaming services.
We use one of these mini keyboard/touchpads to control it:
Lately, though, I just picked up a set of wireless HDMI adapters and just plug one of those into the closest laptop and play from there.
KDE Connect is also a control option
Kde connect really is amazing, its on all my devices
Have one those keyboards too. Thing is fantastic!
Weve had a similar setup for nearly 10 years and its fricken great. We built a low spec computer using old parts from our desktops, hooked it up to our tv via hdmi, and plugged in a wireless keyboard with built in trackpad to act as the remote. We get all the same AD blocking and content access as a desktop because, you know, its a desktop but in the livingroom. My personal favorite is using a second account on discord to pull up streams on the tv from the couch while joining on my phone via my primary account for voice.