[afarah1]

That's not a good answer, unless you just want cable. YouTube, Netflix, etc won't work. Buying hardware is paying extra which is already a deterrent, but anyway just shifts the problem to that piece of hardware - is the stick vetted to not do any harm? Other solutions are often impractical or overly complex for non-technical people. I haven't seen any good answers to date. I guess your TV just shouldn't spy on everything you watch? Seems like a reasonable expectation.

[raw_anon_1111]

Buy an AppleTV.

Google devices are out because they are developed by a advertising company.

The Roku CEO outright said they sell Roku devices below costs to advertise to you.

[jimt1234]

My TCL/Roku TV recently started showing popups during streams with services like YouTubeTV and PlutoTV, that basically say, "Click here to watch this same program on the Roku Network". I poked around the settings on the TV, and sure enough, there were some new "smart" settings added and enabled by default. I disabled the settings, and the popups stopped. But it's only a matter of time before something else appears.

[ahefner]

Apple is already sending spam notifications for stupid bullshit like that F1 movie.

[crote]

> is the stick vetted to not do any harm

The stick is $30 and trivially replaced. The TV is closer to $1000. Worst-case scenario I'll just hook up an HTPC or Blue-Ray player to the TV.

[raw_anon_1111]

The $30 stick is also sold below cost and makes money from advertising. The only one that I would trust is AppleTV

[BeetleB]

Because with a stick, I can easily decide to chuck it and replace with another. Over and over again. Hard to do with a TV. Even if I had the money, disposing of one is a royal pain.

[EduardoBautista]

I trust Apple’s business model.

[garciasn]

For now. They’re about to undergo a CEO change, again. Who knows what will happen in the future, particularly if the shareholders expect the perceived value provided by enshittification.

[merely-unlikely]

John Ternus, SVP of Hardware Engineering, is considered the front runner for CEO right now. The board wants a more product oriented CEO this time. Things could change but makes me optimistic.

[josegonzalez]

Its not like they change CEOs every year - Tim Cook has been CEO since 2011.

[xdennis]

I just connect it to a computer and watch YouTube without ads and movies without anti-piracy warnings (from a store I go to-rrent them).

[afarah1]

How do you hook it up and how do you control it remotely?

[qwerpy]

I do the same thing. My PC is hooked up via HDMI to a receiver which goes to the TV via HDMI. I use VNC on my phone to remote control it. It works well. The phone’s touch screen functions as a mouse and you can pull up the phone’s on screen keyboard to type. My wife is extremely non technical and does fine with it. Usually we just use the browser to watch ad-blocked YouTube or unofficial sports streams.

[YurgenJurgensen]

Elecom Relacon, the only wireless input device worth owning.

[stackedinserter]

We just switched to a laptops and USB-HDMI cable that always dangles near our TV. Someone wants to see F1, sports or a movie, they just plug it and watch like it's a big computer screen. If 9yo can do it, anyone can do it.