Onn needs a Google account. Fire stick requires an Amazon account. Apple tv, obviously an Apple account. PS5, Xbox all the same.
Is there a box that will let me stream Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, my own stored media?
Osmc is great for home stuff, but can’t do Hulu Netflix.
I could use a Linux PC, but not as simple as 1 remote for a cheaper box top.
Any suggestions? Or do I just get a Linux host
There we reports of that for some, so it’s worth it to check the model before you buy.
There are however, A TON of models, most which haven’t been flaged as having malware and spyware.
That said, you can always pay more (about 2x to 3x) to get an alternative from a Western brand that’s not one of the big corps (whose products are also “filled” with at least spyware).
The other option is to instal LibreElec on a Single Board Computer (essentially “make your own Media Box”) were you have full control since LibreElec is basically a Linux Distro from media boxes with Kodi, compiled for the main ARM architectures used in those things (A6 and A7 if I remember it correctly), but that requires a bit more expert knowledge and you need to get yourself (or print, if you have a 3D printer) a box for it if you want it to look nice on your living room.
The option I’m currently using and which so far I think is the best is the Mini-PC with Linux, Kodi and the air mouse remote, but then again I’ve been using Linux on and off for 3 decades and for part of my career was designing and implementing server-side software so am very comfortable setting up and using Linux (not that installing Lubuntu and then Kodi on a N100 Mini-PC was at all complicated, as it just works and most modern Linux distros seem way ahead of the stuff I’ve worked with before when it comes to hardware compatibility and ease of use).
I actually had for maybe a decade what’s now a really old ASUS media player (which they don’t even make anymore), which couldn’t play media with newer codecs so I upgraded it to one of the cheapest Android TVs (€18) but that turned out to be sluggish, so I upgraded to a better one (€35, which seemed to work fine), but then I just went “screw this” and replace it with a Mini-PC with an Intel N100 (€150) with Lubuntu and Kodi and also moved other services into it (it’s now also my home NAS), then added always on VPN and a Torrent server.
That Mini-PC is the best setup I’ve had for this stuff and there’s still plenty of room in there to add more services (both storage-wise and in terms of computing power) and I highly recommend it if you’re comfortable enough with the software side of Tech (a SBC with LibreElec is a little more demanding of familiarity with hardware).