Everyone keeps saying it’s the best media player, so I’m interested in getting one, but I haven’t had a google account for many years now and don’t want to create a new one just for this.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to run one without a google account?

Edit: I would only want to use it for Plex and maybe youtube

  • robolemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    I’m not sure about using it without a Google account, but you can definitely minimize their involvement. I installed flauncher, then disabled the default “leanback” launcher. Plex is installed from the play store but I side loaded an ad-blocking YouTube app. On a normal day I don’t see anything from or about google on my screen. I’m not sophisticated or, to be honest, concerned enough to know if there’s tracking or other telemetry going on. I mostly just want to avoid ads and moronic suggestions from them.

    • anytimesoon@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      9 months ago

      Tbh, I’d be happy with side loading both Plex and revanced, but from what I’ve seen, it won’t initialize without a google account

      • robolemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        It looks like there’s a Lineage OS build for the shield, so if you want to eradicate google, there’s an option. It loses a fair bit of what makes the shield great though, since some of the audio and video playback stuff on the shield is proprietary to Nvidia.

      • thejevans@lemmy.ml
        0·
        9 months ago

        SmartTubeNext (STN) is the Android TV equivalent of Revanced.

        I did end up making a Google account just to get mine set up and for syncing subscriptions between STN and Revanced on my phone. I don’t use it for anything else.

        As others have said, replacing the launcher with something like Sideload Channel Launcher 4 is a good option.

        Other useful apps are Button Mapper (for killing the netflix remote button and for mapping the home button to your new launcher) and Send Files To TV to easily sideload apps without a ton of setup.

        • anytimesoon@lemmy.mlOP
          0·
          9 months ago

          I suppose I could use someone else’s account for initial set up. I’ve had a look and it seems nextdns allows different profiles per device, so I’ll just block as many google domains as I can that way

        • Atemu@lemmy.ml
          0·
          9 months ago

          SmartTubeNext (STN) is the Android TV equivalent of Revanced.

          Not really. STN is not a hacked-up YT app like Revanced, it’s an entirely independent FOSS re-creation like NewPipe. A major difference to NewPipe is that it is focused on android TV and uses the (private) YT API just like the official YT app.