My parents are getting a new tv, and are asking for recommendation. I think all I can influence is the brand/model (not realistic to propose rpi and more complex systems). I instinctively avoid google/android and lean towards anything else open source, so probably LG WebOS… But I had bad luck searching for more detailed comparisons. Maybe you have experience or opinions?
I heard that https://libreelec.tv is pretty good
Absolutely this. Depending on how you use it though, make sure you have a VPN and private DNS setup on your router
Why do you need private dns for?
If Kodi is used to watch movies and TV shows for free then you’d want to protect your internet traffic from unwanted eyes
Isn’t a dns included in most vpns?
Depends on how you set it up. I had Wireguard installed and couldn’t figure out why only some sites got unblocked by it… And then it turns out it doesn’t use the VPN server’s DNS automatically, only if you specify so in the settings.
I am stupid, I know. But that’s just an example.
To control what can be accessed.
Having your own DNS enables you to block ads on every device in your network.
PiHole makes my smart TV more responsive, because it can’t get crap to load into the home screen.
Its good if everything you need can run from Kodi. It uses its own Linux distribution in the background, so you won’t really be able to install anything else unless you build it.
Then run it in a container under a better distribution if you desperately need to put neofetch on your HTPC. Or run the other distro in a container under libreelec since I’m pretty sure it supports them.