commanderNewly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features
Sounds like the trash taking itself out, no? If I don’t want smart features in the first place, then I see this as an absolute win. Nobody should be connecting their TV the Internet in the first place. Always make sure to use things like android TV boxes, fire sticks ect… over using the built in “smart” features as those TVs will be phoning home all day and serving you ads the minute you connect it to the Internet lol
teft
renegadesporkAs soon as RAM isn’t more expensive than the TV.
nathanI just wish there was a way to control the PC as easy as a tv remote. I would totally do this except my wife and kids just want to hit a button on the remote instead of fiddling with keyboard or a track pad or controller of some kind
FLIRC is your friend! It’s a USB IR receiver that you can train with literally any IR remote you have. Once you set it up (and it does take a little elbow grease to train it), it just works.
I use LibreELEC on a mini-PC for my home TV. LibreELEC is a Linux distribution thst runs Kodi and is pretty good for a media centre straight out of the box. I use a Rii Mini K25 remote (with a dongle) to control it: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B06XHF7DNQ
The downside is I can’t control the TV itself with this, but this can be sorted out with a USB IR receiver (like this: amzn.asia/d/0hvzkP93) and LIRC (lirc.org) or something similar. On my to-do list lol
I have a DHCP reservation for the TV itself and it’s blackholed on my network. The only reason it’s connected at all is so I can monitor what it tries to do.
UniversalBasicJusticeKeep an eye out for the new Steam controller. It can interact via gyro, touchpad, and traditional controller input methods.
My HTPC is running Bazzite and boots into Steam big picture mode. I watch media using Kodi and control everything using a Sofabatton remote.
This setup is almost as seemless as when I was using an Nvidia Shield and a Logitech Harmony remote.
The keyboard and controller are not needed, except for gaming.
The only negative I’ve found, is that I’ve not yet worked out a way to power on the PC from the remote.
My family stayed at my house and “the TV wasn’t working,” because it doesn’t have network access and I use an Nvidia Shield instead, so they connected it to the Wi-Fi and ad overlays showed up in the menus! I’m still mad about it years later.
Luckily I dodged a bullet and it didn’t brick it or anything, and the ads went away when the internet access did. I just disconnected it from the network and manually banned the MAC address in case anyone else tries it again.
dan1101