Let me pay for that chai tea using cash from the ATM machine and my PIN number. Would you also like some naan bread with it?

You could close down all the AI data centres, all the crypto mining farms, all the private jets, and eliminate all the billionaires…and it would be a rounding error in global greenhouse emissions.

The vast majority of emissions come from the fact that 8 billion people exist and need food, transport, heating/cooling, and industries to support their lifestyles.

The focus should be on building towards renewable ways to support whatever we want to do. Purity tests around the worthiness of types of energy use is just a distraction.

I have an Ugoos am6b+, it’s a bit clunky with stuff like HDMI-CEC and the remote is cheap plastic trash. But it does its job at playing Dolby Vision REMUX files.

For everything else, I use an AppleTV 4K. It’s fast and reliable and the only box that doesn’t shove ads on the Home Screen.

AppleTV.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/the-ars-technica-guide-to-dumb-tvs/

Personally I use RAID5, with regular backups for documents and projects. Not too worried if my movies and tv library get lost…that takes up most of the space though.

Just buy an LG and use an external media device. LG TVs work perfectly fine with no network connection and you can set them to power on and go straight to the last used HDMI input.

I never see the built-in OS on my LG OLED.

My understanding is that Apple have implemented RCS, which funnily enough, does not even support encryption yet. Google had to roll their own proprietary add-on.

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/09/18/end-to-end-encryption-rcs-messages/

AppleTV is the media box to use if you hate ads and value your privacy. Its Home Screen is just a grid of apps. No ads. None. It’s also way faster (CPU speed) compared to the competition.

Replacing a smart TV OS with a device made by Google or Amazon defeats the purpose. You’re still going to get ads plastered all over your Home Screen. And they still lag and stutter unless you pay a premium price for an 5 year old Nvidia shield. Either use an AppleTV or build your own HTPC.

I haven seen my LG OLED’s smart OS for years.

My LG OLED TV can be configured to load directly into a HDMI input. I keep it disconnected from wifi at all times. I never see the smartTV OS. It’s probably the best option because OLED panels are the best current display technology.

I use an AppleTV as an external media box for all my needs. But the same would apply for an Android box or HTPC setup etc.

I’ve been in similar situations while renting. I ran ethernet cables along skirting boards and around doorframes and hid them inside adhesive cable raceways.

There is a 16:9 “open matte” edition of blade runner 2049 floating around many torrent sites. Unfortunately it’s only 1080p SDR. But it does look great and is a neat way to rewatch the movie.

The Android market sort of split into cheap streaming sticks vs more expensive but niche boxes (like the Zidoo or Dune players). The former are meant for streaming but lack power. The latter are more capable players but often can’t stream from legit services due to DRM.

The Shield sits in this weird middle ground where it’s actually good for a variety of use cases….but unlikely to get an update due to small market demand.

Although I’d argue that unless you need atmos audio passthrough for Bluray rips…the AppleTV 4K is the best option these days. Super fast processor, no ads or bullshit in the OS, reliable frame rate matching, good track record of software updates and vendor support, and apps like Infuse which is a superb Plex and Jellyfin client. It’ll do 4K REMUX playback with lossless 7.1 audio, and the UI never lags…ever. Just a shame about no audio passthrough which prevents it from being an enthusiast player.

I’ve gone through the effort to build a 50terabyte media center. And am slowly filling it with tv shows, movies, and documentaries I like. It’s expensive and inconvenient. But still a fun hobby.

But the reason I do it is because I can have everything in one spot. Easily accessible. I control it. Never going back.

It decodes everything to 5.1/7.1 LPCM. So apps like Infuse or Plex it will play back lossless TrueHD or DTS, but the height metadata is lost.

It only supports Atmos for Dolby Digital Plus, used for streaming WEB-DLs.

Some of mine that suffer from this: Cowboy Bebop anime series, early seasons of Futurama. Many kids shows like Paw Patrol.

Agreed. AppleTV with Infuse blows away everything else I’ve tried in terms of responsiveness and stability. I spend less time fucking with it and more time just…using it. It’s almost worth it for the screensavers alone.

Get an Nvidia Shield if you need atmos passthrough for Bluray rips, otherwise I recommend the AppleTV in every other way.

I can respect wanting to go with a custom built PC setup if you have the time and interest. But that’s not for me.

Haha. What I mean is that some TV series have a different episode order on DVD/bluray than what they were originally broadcast in. “Firefly” is the classic example. The TV networks broadcast them out of order and the DVD order is the “correct” one and the order in which pirate TV packs will use. But by default many tools (which use TMDB.com) have the wrong metadata for the episodes.

For TMDB to end their stupid policy of setting broadcast episode order as the default. Any app that uses them for metadata to match files names ends up with wrong episodes because obviously nobody wants broadcast order.

The worst part is that even buying SG1 on Bluray gives a bad experience, because they fucked up the 5.1 audio.

So what did the pirates do? Combined the Bluray video with the better DVD 5.1 audio! Best of both worlds.