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Comment by me551ah | Hacker News Reader

Why would anyone even use a Fire TV compared to other alternatives. It's a giant ad screen on your TV.

It's a small stick that I can toss into my bag while traveling, plug into a hotel or airbnb tv, and watch my shows on Plex or Emby.

No other stick-like device out there "just works". I've tried so many of them over the years, but they all have issues ranging from the irritating to the unusable. I had high hopes for the Nokia stick, but it couldn't even connect to WIFI.

Ironically, name one better for convenient (so, not Apple TV) 4K HDR Sponsorblock capable YouTube near that price point or really any price point unless you’re going the HTPC route. Form factor is also a consideration. The FireTV would not be the only media device in my setup but it serves a purpose.

They're cheap.

And you can sideload apps. If you put Kodi in it, it's just one click to avoid all the ads.

You can install Kodi from the Play store on an Android TV device.

What is an Android TV device? Is that distinct from the FireTV?

I plug my FireTV Cube into my projector. It has some kind of smart TV functionality and a second remote to go with it, but it's on a dongle and I don't plug it in because I don't use it.

I bought one as a basic TV and media player but never connect it to wifi. It's actually not too bad as it's a 32" LCD I bought for 80 bucks.

Good luck finding a commercial OS distro that isn't that

Its easy to install SmartTubeNext on to it.

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