We currently have Roku’s on our tvs to connect to streaming services and servers but they are infested with advertisements.
Some other comments mentioned Walmart’s $20 ONN 4k boxes, but these are android and I don’t have the time or knowledge/patience to go through the flashing process on one of those; if there is even a working custom ROM.
Basically we just want a functioning (libre) streaming box. The closest I could find was OSMC’s Vero V (just released a few months ago), although it’s a little pricey at $160 usd. Are there any other options out there or does anyone have any experience with the Vero V?
OSMC on a rpi3 with a hifiberry+ has served me well for many years. Most things just work, even passthrough TV remote over i2c if the TV supports it (brand name for the implementation varies by TV manufacturer I think). My setup has been really slow in recent months, but I probably just need a new sd card… Streaming service integration in kodi isn’t perfect but e.g. Netflix works well enough.
It’s a bit of tinkering to get it just the way you want it, but not too much and then it’s great with a lot of flexibility. I have slapped an IR LED onto a GPIO, for example, and I have a service running that checks for audio output and turns my old hifi system on and off accordingly.