My elderly mum has a Roku Express attached to a dumb 1080p TV, but it's experiencing ever more frequent "insufficient power" failures and she's thinking of buying a new one.

I'm wondering if there's a freer alternative device that would be just as, if not more, user-friendly. Any tips? (I've been browsing Temu but no idea what to pick.)

Must haves:

replaces the Roku
allows her to watch OTT channels like Netflix and Prime (not pirated, she has legit accounts for those two), Youtube, Haystack etc
all done with a user-friendly remote control & 3-metre interface

Nice to haves:

replaces also the laptop (connected to the TV but basically unused)
can get & watch Bittorrent downloads
can watch IPTV (nothing fancy like debrid, just IPTV-org channels or some such)
makes Bittorrent downloads & IPTV a more integral, easier part of the experience so that she actually uses & enjoys them
reduces/eliminates ads on Prime, Youtube etc

CONTEXT

She uses the Roku for watching mainly Netflix, Prime, Youtube, Haystack (news), very occasionally TheArchive.TV, FreeMoviesPlus, Plex, Roku Channel (just one show).

I also installed IOTV, a Roku app with IPTV-org linear channels, but she never remembers it, and it's not very user-friendly anyway.

I also set up an old laptop for her, with QBittorrent on it, connected to the TV, but she never actually uses it unless I come round and download/play stuff.

PS I have no experience with "-arr" stack, Jellyfin, VPS, debrid etc.
PPS in case it's relevant, location is Mexico.

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[–] klu9@piefed.social 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Thanks for the info, I'll look into Raspbi with Lineage Android TV.

Who or what is KonstaKang? Exploring the site & a quick web search have proven fruitless.

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

From what I can gather KonstaKang is the guy who makes these Raspberry Pi-specific versions.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I ask because it would eventually involve things like handing over Prime login details to the Prime app on that OS. Have there been any security issues with these KonstaKang OSes? (Or am I being paranoid?)

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Paranoia is good.

That said, I've run his build for a year or so without any issues.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 2 points 11 hours ago

Thanks for the info.

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Not the guy to ask about that, sorry. I've seen it recommended elsewhere which is good enough for me. If you make a post about it I would definitely be interested. I'm not using it myself but I do keep an eye on the updates.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 1 points 13 hours ago

Ok, understood. And thanks for that link.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

I've got an older laptop running Debian with Kodi. I affixed it to the wall behind my main TV. It was definitely a chore to setup Kodi how I like it, but now I love it.

Ads blocked on YouTube.
IPTV included - I have Pluto channels plus 100-200 random channels found online. It can get complicated with EPGs, but I wrote some scripts for cron to update.
I use Qbittorrent for downloading. It's a separate program but it's great and the downloads are included in Kodi automatically.
I never used PlexJellyFin. I don't know why that would be one addon. I've used the Plex addon and it works fine... Ultimately I just moved my files to Kodi laptop so I don't use Plex anymore. Similarly I'm not sure why anybody would use JellyFin and Kodi at the same time.
I'm pretty sure there are addons for Netflix and Prime but I haven't used them. It seems like the Netflix addon is pretty legit at least.
Weather - Kodi as a cool weather setup.
Music - Kodi is great for personal library as well as many addons.
Remore - I use a FLIRC with a GE universal remote. It works great.