I'm currently looking to buy a new TV. While I do use Jellyfin to watch movies and shows stored locally in my network, I still want to allow the TV to go on the internet, because I (and my girlfriend) like to watch YouTube, Netflix and such on the TV as well.
My main issue is that I'm looking to buy a Google TV, mainly because I think it's easier to sideload apps like NewPipe or F-Droid. This is one thing that absolutely sucks on my current Samsung TV with its Tizen OS. However, like any Google service, giving it access to the internet is just asking to have your data exfiltrated.
So, I've been thinking about whether I can get a Google TV, but restrict its internet access enough to still use it normally, while blocking all telemetry. I don't have an OpenWRT router or Opnsense firewall (and currently I don't have the capacity, nerves and time to set one up), but I do have a pi hole. I was wondering whether a Pi Hole is enough to block any data exfiltration attempts of my TV? I could restrict the TVs DNS capabilities in my router, so it is forced to use the Pi for name resolution. Are the blocklists good enough for this?
I've also looked into de-googled Android TV builds, but I couldn't find anything conclusive about their capability to display DRM'd media. Do apps like Netflix still run on those OS's? Is a RaspberryPi enough to display 4K media, or would a more advanced mini PC be needed?
I'm a bit exhausted from my research into this topic, tbh, so excuse the rambly post. I just want help
I don't own android based TV. I was thinking about it when choosing my current one, but eventually I gave up and bought Vidaa based one.
If anything, google TV will also try to ping back home and deliver telemetry. Many articles I've read state that if said telemetry ping is prevented while keeping device online, device would stop working properly. So, worrying about that is pointless.
In my case, Vidaa TV would freeze and/or stop working until I powercycle it. I did not lock TV out of the world, just prevented it's telemetry which was more than 80% of all network requests in my household according to Pihole. Disabling internet connection solved this issue. I barely even used built-in apps and mainly access Jellyfin/Streaming/Youtube through N100 cpu based HTPC.
I've seen that many, if not most of the people would suggest buying a TV that satisfies your basic needs (price, quality) and get a either FireStick or GCCWGTV that is easier to modify compared to inbuilt hardware specific TVs.
General consensus is: DO NOT connect your TV to the internet. Get a dedicated device instead.
Don't those external boxes just run a Derivate of Android TV anyways, and have the same telemetry issues? But I guess they solve the freezing issues you mentioned.
I'll have to read more about those, I only really looked at Smart TVs and the custom TV box solutions so far, both of which aren't ideal, thank you
They do. Boxes almost always have same hardware and are updated more frequently than an built-in AndroidTV. Also, I would speculate that it is easier to cleanup telemetry off a dedicated box compared to a TV. It probably would be something along "community has already solved this" compared to a numerous TV brands and their proprietary software and hardware.
Boxes also in many cases have CEC that will allow you to use TV with only 1 remote if your TV has HDMI CEC port. If that is one of your concerns of course.
Hmm, okay this seems interesting. I thought TV Boxes would be just as locked down as TVs. I'll do some more research in that direction then!