People are using AI to make smart TVs, dumb TVs

> Gave Claude Code the model number, it found the TV on wifi, removed 25 Xiaomi packages and wrote a new launcher. Looks like an Apple TV now lol

It looks rather like the version of Android TV on my 2018 vintage Xiaomi Mi Box S. (In which I just made one single configuration change to disable ads that once appeared after a certain upgrade; it was so long ago, I don't remember).

Having all your stuff in a streaming box makes the TV irrelevant, provided it can be configured to be "pinned" to specified HDMI input, so that it powers up to that input rather than its UI.

A really nice thing about this arrangement is that it's possible to be able to turn the TV off, while the streaming box continues to play content, so you can just listen to audio.

TVs cannot do this by themselves, and to get it to happen properly with an attached streaming box can take a bit of coaxing. You have to make sure the streaming box doesn't interpret the TV going off as an even for going to sleep (pausing playback). I had it work fine with one TV for years, but not work with a new TV, because the old TV had been too dumb to communicate that it's turning off.

The audio can't be going through the TV, but why would you do that; TV speakers are crap. My android box has a 1/8" stereo jack that I'm using. The speakers it connects to do have bluetooth, but why use that; it just adds latency and hassles.

I hope ai models that do these kinds of things always stay available and/or open.