Ask HN: 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.

2 comments

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isoprophlex 5y ago ↗

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.

scrollaway 5y ago ↗

I'll re-post my comment from the other thread because I think it's an important point:

> I briefly considered it. I've been entirely out of the Apple ecosystem so far (save for airpods). It sounds like Apple is gaining traction over time because the competition keeps getting worse and worse.

> I'm frankly not sure opting into Apple is a solution to the problem at large. It might be a temporary fix, but at the end of the day you're still using a proprietary system which might decide that ads are lucrative tomorrow.

I agree it's a viable alternative. I worry it's just pushing the same problem a few years down.