HACKER Q&A
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What are the alternatives to an Nvidia shield with similar UX?


Re-posted from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27643920 due to a user's suggestion.

It sounds like ads are coming to Android TV. Many users are affected. Myself not yet, but I will be soon -- I have an nvidia SHIELD.

I want to opt out of this ad-based ecosystem. What are the alternatives, that do not sacrifice immense amounts of UX? I like the nvidia shield's remote, I would like to keep using it (or something like it) to control the apps.

Any alternative to consider would have access to at least Spotify, Netflix, YouTube and Plex -- those are pretty standard apps which I believe most people would be using anyway.

As for my personal setup, I do have a Windows machine hooked up to the display on which I could do a manual setup, but what I'm worried about is that PC-based apps are not going to be optimized for tv/remote based input. Sure, I have a wireless TV keyboard, but I like the shield's UX and I don't want to sacrifice it.

And frankly, whatever setup I end up with, I'd like to think I could replicate it for other users who don't have the IT skills I or HN do. Doing something special just for myself seems selfish, we should be helping our fellow consumers to opt out of the ad economy -- "just don't buy their products" is so easy, yet so useless, to say.


  👤 isoprophlex Accepted Answer ✓
In a similar vein: If anyone has a recommendation for a dumb 4k display that looks good enough to put in a living room, let me know!

Edit: wrt your question, apparently Apple TV runs Plex. So an apple TV + a Plex server seems like a not-too-difficult (but sorta expensive) solution.