Ask HN: What are the alternatives to an Nvidia shield with similar UX?
It sounds like ads are coming to Android TV. Many users are affected. Myself not yet, but I will be soon -- I have an nvidia SHIELD.
I want to opt out of this ad-based ecosystem. What are the alternatives, that do not sacrifice immense amounts of UX? I like the nvidia shield's remote, I would like to keep using it (or something like it) to control the apps.
Any alternative to consider would have access to at least Spotify, Netflix, YouTube and Plex -- those are pretty standard apps which I believe most people would be using anyway.
As for my personal setup, I do have a Windows machine hooked up to the display on which I could do a manual setup, but what I'm worried about is that PC-based apps are not going to be optimized for tv/remote based input. Sure, I have a wireless TV keyboard, but I like the shield's UX and I don't want to sacrifice it.
And frankly, whatever setup I end up with, I'd like to think I could replicate it for other users who don't have the IT skills I or HN do. Doing something special just for myself seems selfish, we should be helping our fellow consumers to opt out of the ad economy -- "just don't buy their products" is so easy, yet so useless, to say.