My elderly mum has a Roku Express attached to a dumb 1080p TV, but it’s experiencing ever more frequent “insufficient power” failures and she’s thinking of buying a new one.
I’m wondering if there’s a freer alternative device that would be just as, if not more, user-friendly. Any tips? (I’ve been browsing Temu but no idea what to pick.)
Must haves:
- replaces the Roku
- allows her to watch OTT channels like Netflix and Prime (not pirated, she has legit accounts for those two), Youtube, Haystack etc
- all done with a user-friendly remote control & 3-metre interface
Nice to haves:
- replaces also the laptop (connected to the TV but basically unused)
- can get & watch Bittorrent downloads
- can watch IPTV (nothing fancy like debrid, just IPTV-org channels or some such)
- makes Bittorrent downloads & IPTV a more integral, easier part of the experience so that she actually uses & enjoys them
- reduces/eliminates ads on Prime, Youtube etc
CONTEXT
She uses the Roku for watching mainly Netflix, Prime, Youtube, Haystack (news), very occasionally TheArchive.TV, FreeMoviesPlus, Plex, Roku Channel (just one show).
I also installed IOTV, a Roku app with IPTV-org linear channels, but she never remembers it, and it’s not very user-friendly anyway.
I also set up an old laptop for her, with QBittorrent on it, connected to the TV, but she never actually uses it unless I come round and download/play stuff.
PS I have no experience with “-arr” stack, Jellyfin, VPS, debrid etc.
PPS in case it’s relevant, location is Mexico.
Not sure if prices ever dropped but I love my shield and shield pro. Very powerful / flexible but still can be easy to use. Some nice ad free launchers available.
I see Amazon MX showing the Shield for MXN $4,300, which is maybe 2~3x what she’s hoping to spend. And the Shield TV for $3,200. Still pretty pricey.
Pricey, yes, but you get what you pay for.
They are built well. Used market historically not a whole lot better than retail. The pro has aged better than the original. Would not shy away from a used pro if the price were right
you want a onn tv box from walmart. it’s $20. $40 for the pro version (which does perform better). combine that with stremio and projectivity launcher and that will give you pretty much everything you’re asking for.
It’s geolocked to the U.S., so it’s important to note that they would need to use a VPN to bypass it during setup.
@moshbit@lemmy.dbzer0.com & @zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Thanks for the info.
- VPN would be an additional ongoing cost to consider.
- Looking into Stremio & Projectivity Launcher now, hopefully they can be used on non-geolocked devices available here in MX.
Having set three of them up in Europe myself, as far as I can tell the VPN is only needed one time to set up the Onn 4K Pro (or any of the other Onn Android TV boxes). After that, a VPN shouldn’t be needed unless the device is reset.
Note that Stremio, SmartTube, and Projectify Launcher work on any Android TV device (versus Amazon Fire TV, which blocks Projectify Launcher), so you can get a non-Onn brand one to avoid the initial setup hassle. I personally preferred spending a bit more to get 3GB of RAM and 32GB to ensure a smooth experience, but the same apps will work on 2GB RAM devices too (like the similarly geolocked $US20 Onn 4K and $US30 Onn 4K Plus).
Ah, I misunderstood. Thanks.
- Re reset: does every power disconnection (blackout; unplugging) count as a reset, with an ONN requiring VPN to re-setup?
- Could a free VPN be used for ONN setup?
Unplugging and replugging them doesn’t trigger the location check, only if you perform a factory reset.
As long as the free VPN has a U.S. IP address, it should work. Proton VPN has the U.S. as an option on its free tier, for instance. To use it on the Onn 4K device during setup, you’d either need a router that sends all traffic through the VPN, or to tether the VPN from another device.
Since the Onn 4K Pro has an Ethernet port, I tethered the device to my Windows laptop to share its VPN signal (requires configuration of the Ethernet settings). An alternative for the non-Ethernet devices seems to be via a hotspot, either with Windows or rooted Android. Should rooting Android not be an option, this post claims it’s possible to do without rooting.
Thanks for all that great info!
ATM I can only find the Onn Stick on the usual sites here. WIll keep looking for the box.
Should you need it for later, here’s the first few steps after you have the Onn device (or an alternative Google TV device) in hand. The links included are guides for the steps.
For the VPN process (if you choose an Onn device), I remember having problems with the wireless hotspot method that led me to do the ethernet option instead, but either should work. If you choose to install LineageOS, I unfortunately don’t have experience doing that, but that would come before app installations.
If you are using an Onn 4K device, its remote should have a mappable star button that can only be configured while using the default launcher. I personally chose to map the TV’s input switch function to it, but this step should occur before setting Projectivy Launcher as the default.
Next, you would install the Downloader app via the Google Play Store. Not ideal to have to use the Google Play Store for any installation, but at least all subsequent apps can be install via Downloader instead.
Using Downloader, you can now install and configure Projectivy Launcher. This also involves installing the Launcher Manager helper app to configure the default launcher, giving you the option to return to the default if need be. While you can try uninstalling all the bloatware that comes with the device, some of it might come back with updates (though presumedly not an issue if you install LineageOS). Should that occur, you can instead disable the apps in the Android settings or hide them from the Projectivy Launcher menu. The hiding apps feature is also useful for hiding apps such as Downloader and Launcher Manager after setup, as they’re not regularly needed. Ensure you enable the override home button setting to make the button send you to Projectivy Launcher instead.
Stremio is available on Google Play again for now, but you can alternatively install it via Downloader too. SmartTube is of course not available on the Google Play Store, but can be easily installed via Downloader too. It has many configuration options for its UI and as an in-app self-updating function.
Alternatively to Downloader, you can also install a file manager app and install APK files manually. Devices like the Onn 4K Pro let you expand the device’s storage with a USB drive to transfer files or load external media, though apps such as atvTools (Android/iOS) let you send files wirelessly to the device’s internal storage.
While only the Google Play Store can automatically update apps, an alternative is the APK Updater app, which scans several APK sources to let you manually update installed apps. There now also seems to be a third-party F-Droid client for Google TV.
As the Onn 4K Pro has several sponsored buttons that become useless without their intended apps, I tried using a button remapping app to map newly-installed apps in their place, but had mixed results in terms of buttons acting up. People seem to recommend tvQuickActionsPro though, which might work.
An issue regarding SmartTube is that if you use the voice command functionality of the remote to look up YouTube videos from the launcher (rather than within the app itself), Google TV will try to open them in the default YouTube app. Normally, a bridge app could be used to connect SmartTube to the YouTube API calls. Since YouTube comes preinstalled on the Onn 4K Pro (though presumedly wouldn’t if you use LineageOS?), this method must be used instead. If you don’t use that functionality though, it may be a moot point.
Projectivy? I see Projectivity in places, is that an autocorrect error?
I paid for Projectivy when my NVIDIA box started showing me ads for Target. Very nice.
Not quite, and believe me, I’ve been looking.
Your best bet is probably LineageOS Android TV on a Raspi 5. From there you can install Kodi too. My issue here is that CEC does not work. Meaning you need a second remote.
I probably don’t recommend LibreELEC on a Raspi, because despite install being seamless, Kodi these days is essentially a real-debrid frontend (which might be what you’re looking for if you want integral torrent downloads!). The normal streaming apps for Kodi are not maintained even PlexJellyfin don’t work out of the box.
Something else I’m keeping an eye on is Plasma Bigscreen but that’s probably 2 years out minimum of being user friendly enough for someone not experienced.
Lastly if you have a Samsung TV, Tizentube will get you YouTube without ads (and other perks).
Kodi these days is essentially a real-debrid frontend (which might be what you’re looking for if you want integral torrent downloads!). The normal streaming apps for Kodi are not maintained even PlexJellyfin don’t work out of the box.
XBMC has fallen quite far from where it originally started.
I blame sketchy entities reselling Raspberry Pi/Android TV/etc boxes loaded with Kodi and all the pirating plugins to the moronic general public.
Thanks for the info, I’ll look into Raspbi with Lineage Android TV.
Who or what is KonstaKang? Exploring the site & a quick web search have proven fruitless.
From what I can gather KonstaKang is the guy who makes these Raspberry Pi-specific versions.
I ask because it would eventually involve things like handing over Prime login details to the Prime app on that OS. Have there been any security issues with these KonstaKang OSes? (Or am I being paranoid?)
Paranoia is good.
That said, I’ve run his build for a year or so without any issues.
Thanks for the info.
Not the guy to ask about that, sorry. I’ve seen it recommended elsewhere which is good enough for me. If you make a post about it I would definitely be interested. I’m not using it myself but I do keep an eye on the updates.
Ok, understood. And thanks for that link.
I’ve got an older laptop running Debian with Kodi. I affixed it to the wall behind my main TV. It was definitely a chore to setup Kodi how I like it, but now I love it.
- Ads blocked on YouTube.
- IPTV included - I have Pluto channels plus 100-200 random channels found online. It can get complicated with EPGs, but I wrote some scripts for cron to update.
- I use Qbittorrent for downloading. It’s a separate program but it’s great and the downloads are included in Kodi automatically.
- I never used PlexJellyFin. I don’t know why that would be one addon. I’ve used the Plex addon and it works fine… Ultimately I just moved my files to Kodi laptop so I don’t use Plex anymore. Similarly I’m not sure why anybody would use JellyFin and Kodi at the same time.
- I’m pretty sure there are addons for Netflix and Prime but I haven’t used them. It seems like the Netflix addon is pretty legit at least.
- Weather - Kodi as a cool weather setup.
- Music - Kodi is great for personal library as well as many addons.
- Remore - I use a FLIRC with a GE universal remote. It works great.
I do really hope Plasma Bigscreen works out, but it is already over 6 years old.
There’s been some new progress and you love to see it, but we’ve been waiting on this one for a bit.
Me too. The original devs abandoned it and it was picked back up by new devs in 2025
The way I see it, if someone eventually makes a Bazzite-styled distro that “just works” with a Plasma-Bigscreen UI on a Raspi it will become the clear and obvious choice for anyone. But we’re far from that still.
Is there a reason to not just use the laptop? It’s already bought and paid for. I would just setup it up for maximal ease; get a good keyboard and mouse and side table she’s comfortable with, bookmark everything for her, set the TV’s default source to the PC, make all the text 200% size or greater so it’s easy to read from 3m out.
I think she just finds operating the Roku so much easier. No remote for the laptop ATM, but even with, there’s the issue of how to operate/navigate.
If something like Kodi, the couple of times I’ve experimented with it, I’ve rage-quit it within the first few minutes 😂 as (what I thought were) simple actions proved incredibly frustrating. (IIRC my last Kodi experiment 2-3 years ago: just reflexively using the up & down arrows to adjust the video volume brought up some OSD that I could not for the life of me get rid of.)
Has Kodi’s user-friendliness improved? Or is there a better alternative? (Laptop currently has Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce.)
While something that runs Linux would probably be more free, in terms of usability, I would recommend a Google TV box paired with Projectify Launcher to have a UI with just apps and wanted channels rather than preinstalled bloatware. Lets you use all the regular streaming apps, with Stremio + a debrid service + Torrentio as a streaming option for additional movies and shows, SmartTube for ad-free YouTube + SponsorBlock. You can also remove unnecessary menu options in SmartTube to simplify things further.
I don’t use IPTV services—perhaps someone else could chime in to help with that—but I’m sure they would work on Android TV too.
In the U.S. the Onn 4K Pro from Walmart is the best specs-per-dollar option (US$50 for 32GB storage and 3GB RAM), but as a VPN is needed to bypass the U.S. geoblocking during setup, you might need to get a different one.
Thanks for the info.
Can Google TV devices be flashed with something like LineageOS Android TV to remove the spyware nature (IIRC) of Google TV? And could those apps like Projectivity Launcher etc still work on that?
It would seem that it’s possible. Some devices are listed as having official builds and other unofficial builds, the Onn 4K Pro being in the latter category. Most streaming apps would also require Widevine L1 to stream in HD, which would be another step.
Reading this thread would indicate that Projectify Launcher works too. Note that Dolby Vision apparently won’t work.
I use a Mi TV Stick 4K it works as it should.
