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> You can make them smart by attaching the external box

The problem is that if the box is Android TV, it's now displaying ads.

Android TV (Shield) is now the last remaining Android device in my household. I've transitioned to Apple devices over the last couple of years as my frustration with the google "ecosystem" grew. I guess I'll give Apple TV a go next.

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Much cheaper to throw out that box and setup an RPi or whatever than buy a new TV, no? Seems like a better problem to have.

My point was that if you're buying a box to work around the problem of having a TV with ads, but now the box has ads too, things have gotten pretty bad.

The problem with RPi solutions as far as I'm aware, is that the content services now have DRM that prevent content from running on RPi. Is that no longer the case? Can I use RPi to watch Netflix and YoutubeTV for instance?

A cursory search tells me that it is possible to use a version of Chromium that's been modified to enable WideVine DRM support to watch DRM-protected content on an ARM device such as the RasPi.

At least when I considered it a year ago, it was a huge hassle to get it working, so not really a solution for everyone.

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