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Smart TV owners are subjected to an increasing amount of advertising and tracking. Ad fatigue, only exacerbated by the trend of streaming providers trying to force customers to subscribe with ads, is understandable. We’re at the point where someone would rather use a broken laptop hanging on the TV than be subject to the watchful eye of the TV’s own operating system.

Earlier this month, as spotted by Tom’s Hardware, a blogger named Karl Riis, who says he’s a software engineer, shared his DIY Linux-based “smart TV” project. Riis’ project doesn’t stand out because it’s the most unique, smart or clean. In fact, if you’re the type of person who’s willing to pay a lot for TVs with a strong aesthetic appeal, such as TVs that can look like works of art or appear transparent, EarlGreyTV will turn you away. The system uses an old Lenovo laptop that has a broken keyboard and is attached to a TV with string. As Riis wrote, “This might seem a little crazy, but it was a great way to keep things clean while still having access to the laptop.”

The laptop is broken because Reece spilled tea on the keyboard years ago. The keyboard stopped working, making it difficult to turn the laptop on and off. “I need to short two specific pins where the keyboard connects to the motherboard. For this reason, I removed the rear, which probably also helps it run less hot,” Riis wrote.

Riis has put in the extra work to make this project more than just using a laptop or smart TV to stream and using a TV as a monitor. His computer treats its HDMI connection as an application and uses Debian Linux and, for its simplicity, Sway as a desktop environment. Riis configured Sway to open the Firefox browser in full screen upon login. He made the Firefox home page that has shortcuts to streaming services and whatever else Riis wanted with a custom HTML file. He also customized Firefox using a userChrome.css file to give the browser a more traditional TV look, including no visible address bar and an on-screen popup that appears when the volume is adjusted.

Rees knows his TV setup isn’t the easiest and has its flaws, but he says it “works for my needs.” EarlGreyTV is far from the prettiest answer to the shortcomings of smart TVs, but it’s still attractive as an alternative to the ads and tracking that have become prominent in smart TV software.

Besides a faulty laptop, Riis says his project uses a 55-inch Samsung Smart TV bought on sale during Black Friday. Per Riis blog even the display is not ideal for the project:

Ideally, I’d like a dumber TV screen – just showing display output. But this one was on sale and I bought it. I’ve seen people do really cool things like trigger the TV’s hidden service menu to mute it completely. I might do it at some point, but for now the usual settings could get Tizen OS out of the way enough for me.

Riis also got a USB-powered CEC adapter so the air mouse could turn the TV and laptop on and off at the same time, and since the HDMI port on his 5-year-old computer didn’t support the extra feature on its own. Riis even shared ways to do iPhone casting with his design.

The package also includes an air mouse that doubles as a remote control, which Riis says has a learning curve and feels a bit “fragile.”

An alternative to Smart TV

Riis would rather use a tea-soaked laptop dependent on a cable and adapter for entertainment than the smart TV operating systems already packed into branded TVs. “I’m not here to bash other smart TV interfaces, but the short version of why I don’t like them is: tracking, ads, and lack of control,” Rees wrote.

TV OS operators, which include Roku, Vizio, Amazon and LG, have a strong interest in building their advertising businesses and ad-tracking capabilities. Coupled with the constant pressure from streaming providers to get viewers to watch ads, it can be nearly impossible to get from your TV’s home screen to the show or movie you came to watch without first enduring an ad. Roku, for example, recently started showing video ads on the Roku OS home screen, while Amazon is also creating more types of Fire TV ads, including ads related to the upcoming generative AI version of Alexa.

Someone like Riis, who decided to spend hours crafting this imperfect alternative, epitomizes the kind of ad fatigue smart TV users are facing. Of course, Riis isn’t the only one sharing ways to watch TV online without using a smart TV operating system, or looking for smart TV alternatives due to privacy concerns.

Beyond ad fatigue, Rees is pleased with the ability to customize his web-based TV and movie viewing experience with browser extensions “like blocking ads/sponsors or setting site blocking schedules.”

Riis’ project is on GitHub and he also shared a video of his work on YouTube, which is below: