Faceman2K23

Prowlarr is good because it combines usenet indexers and torrents. Makes it very easy to search for anything and compare versions/sources.

Gets even weirder when you see LGs webOS kinda started out as PalmOS

I have seen some talk over on XDA forums, but since there is more to an android TV than just the basic android OS, it's a bit trickier without risking losing licences/compatibility/DRM/features.

Some older LG webOS tvs can be rooted and custom apps installed too such as ad free youtube players etc.

Not sure if there's a list, but most Android based TVs can be cleaned and modded to some degree via ADB. If you can access the dev settings in android, chances are you can do a lot to make it better, strip out some google or branded packages, replace the launcher to block OS level ads etc. Projectivy usually works well since it supports input switching on many devices, but it's still better to do all of this to a separate box and then plug it into a TV that is firewalled/filtered/offline. more control and less to fuck up.

Rooting and unlocking bootloaders is more complex as these android devices dont have normal recovery systems and require a lot of custom drivers to make the video and audio processing work, so it's not worth going that far.

LCDs do tend to speak somewhat standardised languages, but there is a lot more to a modern TV than just an LCD controller.

Color and white balance calibration, image/motion processing, HDR Processing, backlight control/dimming zones, input management, audio decoding/encoding/passthrough, digitizing analogue sources, HDMI licencing, Dolby licencing, etc.

If you want a better smart TV the best thing to do is to get a hackable TV like most android based models, replace the launcher, strip out system apps and telemetry with ADB and start fresh, then either leave it offline or use filtering to only allow access to the services you approve.

I haven't thought about powder toy for so many years.

Yip, I have a Linux VM running on one of my boxes in the garage that is plugged into a video matrix so I can bring it up on any screen in the house, I use the pi to connect Keyboard/Mouse/controllers etc to that when I'm using it.

I use Ubooquity and Komga, both mainly for the OPDS service which I access on various devices.

Ubooquity is good for basic book and file serving, but does support graphics. Komga is very much graphic focussed and is very good at it.

I replaced 4x Pi4 4gb with a single N95 mini PC with 16gb ram and wont look back.

Only PI left in my home is just running a 24/7 USBIP bridge.

the only reason to use a pi is if you need GPIO pins for custom devices.

In most cases yes, but hdd space is cheap enough that lossless compression is just the best option. Can always use them as originals to spin off mp3s or other compressed files when needed.

300cds would only be around 120 gigs flac compressed

Yea no shit It's also a significant chunk of regular youtube now too

Usually means "yes this works in theory but only for very specific operations at limited scales that aren't all that important so it's not worth pursuing seriously"