Which Is Better For Emby - Non-Smart TV with Firestick or Samsung or LG Smart TV?

[rcsnoopdog 11]

I want to give remote access to two kids in Ukraine to my emby collection, I am giving these kids my old NINTENDO WII with a 24 inch tv to play it on but i thought i could also give access to my EMBY collection but don't know if i should buy a cheaper non smart 24 inch tv with firestick or a smart tv with EMBY app installed & if its the latter which brand of smart tv should i target 

P.S . will EMBY have ability to change language to Ukrainian or russian & if so how

Also would some Appstore's be geo-locked or tv's

or even the firestick if i go down that route

Edited October 28, 2025 by rcsnoopdog

[Luke 42077]

Hi, I think this is a matter of personal preference.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

For me smart TVs are stupid. Unfortunately it often costs more to get a dumb TV than it does for a smart one.

About a year ago I had to replace my main TV and I found that the TVs without "smarts" were about 100 to 200 dollars more expensive than equivalent smart TVs. I finally went with a TCL TV with Google built in but I use none of the smart features and all my playback is through my Shield TV or my Roku Ultra or my Fire stick. In fact my fancy TCL tv is really little more than a dumb display with the :smarts: supplied by the various devices I use. 

I did research before the purchase and found the the TCL TV was the most able to ignore its smarts among the TVs I researched.

I do not ever use Google TV or the built in streaming TV apps that come pre-installed on the TCL and I even remove all that I could. 

As I said smart TVs are dumb but most have the ability to ignore their "smarts" and simply act as a regular TV. I am very happy with my TV and the only complaint I have is that if you do not do at least part of the TVs smart setup the TV insists on nagging you. But it is easy enough to disable the majority of the TV's smarts.

I use a universal remote and the only TV functions I have programmed into it are the basics of volume, power and input selection.  If I need to access the fancier functions on the TV then I use the actual TV remote. I have only needed to do that less than once a month.

In simple terms I have a smart TV but it is so slow and stupid that I do not use its smarts at all buut I am very happy with it.

BTW: There is an Emby app for the TV itself but that app is so sluggish and clumsy that I have never used it except for initial setup to verify that it worked. My Shield and my Roku are so much better that the only time I even see the TV's actual menus only about once a month or less usually when my power goes out or when something happens that triggers the TV's nag screens.

[pwhodges 2012]

I have a Hisense Roku TV which works fine, and it's nice only to need the one remote that came with it.

But I don't think they make it as small as 24".

Paul

[visproduction 315]

My Google TV / Onn seemed to work a lot easier than Firestick, but that could be that I was trying to get the TV web browser to work.  I seem to remember that Android was also easier to install with Google TV / Onn when I last tried Firestick android install in June 2025.  Maybe Firestick android install is easy now.  I no longer have a Firestick handy to test. 

[marriedman 85]

In this situation, I would recommend a popular enough brand that has the Emby app available. Most cheap TV's don't have the best support for multimedia codecs, but Emby server will easily transcode for the client app. In a casual usage scenario, this is just the easiest method. If the TV manufacture decides not to update their OS and the Emby app somehow becomes unavailable, then get a cheap streaming device.

Most people who are buying a new TV and want an external client will be looking at something that can do passthru audio and supports the widest range of codecs. Home theater enthusiast would be a good example. 

[rcsnoopdog 11]

On 30/10/2025 at 15:44, marriedman said:

In this situation, I would recommend a popular enough brand that has the Emby app available. Most cheap TV's don't have the best support for multimedia codecs, but Emby server will easily transcode for the client app. In a casual usage scenario, this is just the easiest method. If the TV manufacture decides not to update their OS and the Emby app somehow becomes unavailable, then get a cheap streaming device.

Most people who are buying a new TV and want an external client will be looking at something that can do passthru audio and supports the widest range of codecs. Home theater enthusiast would be a good example. 

I have been told to keep the tv non smart as it could run into problems in Ukraine - geo locks & such , so a firestick or Chromecast with Google TV , what I need to know now is which firestick generation I can buy cheapest that will work playing all codecs I think because I am under the impression that I need gen 3 but its AI telling me that & I have learned that thing just tells lies all day so can't trust that , so asking here , Has anyone any experience using firesticks different versions with Emby ?

[rcsnoopdog 11]

On 28/10/2025 at 19:51, Luke said:

Hi, I think this is a matter of personal preference.

I have been told to keep the tv non smart as it could run into problems in Ukraine - geo locks & such , so a firestick or Chromecast with Google TV will be the solution  , what I need to know now is which firestick generation I can buy cheapest that will work playing all codecs I think because I am under the impression that I need gen 3 but its AI telling me that & I have learned that thing just tells lies all day so can't trust that , so asking here , Has anyone any experience using firesticks different versions with Emby ?

Should I open this as a new topic or has this topic been had

[Luke 42077]

2 hours ago, rcsnoopdog said:

I have been told to keep the tv non smart as it could run into problems in Ukraine - geo locks & such , so a firestick or Chromecast with Google TV will be the solution  , what I need to know now is which firestick generation I can buy cheapest that will work playing all codecs I think because I am under the impression that I need gen 3 but its AI telling me that & I have learned that thing just tells lies all day so can't trust that , so asking here , Has anyone any experience using firesticks different versions with Emby ?

Should I open this as a new topic or has this topic been had

@ebrcan answer better but I  think any fire stick will do. But obviously newer ones will perform better.

[ebr 16168]

Personally, I would lean towards the Google streamer instead of the Fire.  Fewer ads, more up to date Android and Amazon is discontinuing their Android-based devices.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

Personally, I would lean towards the Google streamer instead of the Fire.  Fewer ads, more up to date Android and Amazon is discontinuing their Android-based devices.

My Shield is getting a bit long in the tooth (8+ years old) and I may have to replace it somewhat soon. It has been the most solid streamer I have used over the time I have used it but 8+ years is a long operating life for a streaming device.

I will, probably, be investigating several different streaming devices, all Android, to replace it but there is no rush as my Shield is still quite good.

I am not looking to upgrade within the Roku universe mainly because Roku had taken several positions over the last few years that I find unsettling at best. 
I also am not thinking about the Amazon (Fire TV) universe for the same/similar reasons. 

I am considering this:
Android 13.0 TV Box
But I am concerned that the device may just sound like it is good while it actually has problems that are not easily uncovered. 
I do want to order from Amazon if possible as their return policy is the best among the online retailers I deal with however there are many items they simply do not carry because, it seems, they are concerned that sellers are directly competing with their Fire ecosystem.

Fortunately, I have time to think about the problem and research other products as my Shield is still chugging along fine.

What I was wondering is what others think and what other sellers have good return policies as I do not think the offerings at Amazon are extensive enough for me to be sure that I am making as good a choice as I made when choosing the Shield in the first place.

Oh, my financial situation is not as robust as it was when I first bought my Shield so I am unlikely to buy another Shield as they have just about priced themselves out of my range and I do not need or want the "gaming" features and the Nvidia Shield universe is becoming or has become almost as oppressive as the Roku or Amazon universe.

This is longer than I intended and I realize that I am somewhat hijacking a thread so, if my search becomes more serious or if the mods think it will be better, this can be broken out into its own thread but it seemed to kind of fit here and I am not at all sure how soon I actually need to find a new streamer.

[rcsnoopdog 11]

4 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

My Shield is getting a bit long in the tooth (8+ years old) and I may have to replace it somewhat soon. It has been the most solid streamer I have used over the time I have used it but 8+ years is a long operating life for a streaming device.

I will, probably, be investigating several different streaming devices, all Android, to replace it but there is no rush as my Shield is still quite good.

I am not looking to upgrade within the Roku universe mainly because Roku had taken several positions over the last few years that I find unsettling at best. 
I also am not thinking about the Amazon (Fire TV) universe for the same/similar reasons. 

I am considering this:
Android 13.0 TV Box
But I am concerned that the device may just sound like it is good while it actually has problems that are not easily uncovered. 
I do want to order from Amazon if possible as their return policy is the best among the online retailers I deal with however there are many items they simply do not carry because, it seems, they are concerned that sellers are directly competing with their Fire ecosystem.

Fortunately, I have time to think about the problem and research other products as my Shield is still chugging along fine.

What I was wondering is what others think and what other sellers have good return policies as I do not think the offerings at Amazon are extensive enough for me to be sure that I am making as good a choice as I made when choosing the Shield in the first place.

Oh, my financial situation is not as robust as it was when I first bought my Shield so I am unlikely to buy another Shield as they have just about priced themselves out of my range and I do not need or want the "gaming" features and the Nvidia Shield universe is becoming or has become almost as oppressive as the Roku or Amazon universe.

This is longer than I intended and I realize that I am somewhat hijacking a thread so, if my search becomes more serious or if the mods think it will be better, this can be broken out into its own thread but it seemed to kind of fit here and I am not at all sure how soon I actually need to find a new streamer.

I need something that I know works now as I will be sending to Ukraine & want it to be reliable so I don't have to talk them through fixing it one day , under the impression from this thread that the  Google Chromecast With Google TV HD is the best option but its a lot more pricy than a firestick , now i know a 3rd gen firestick an any version after this work perfect but the 2nd gen used is so much cheaper & say they can hevc or x265 which is the codec I'm worried about  but I find the info on these sticks very sparse & would love to know if anybody has any experience using a 2nd gen firestick to play hevc

[rcsnoopdog 11]

8 hours ago, ebr said:

Personally, I would lean towards the Google streamer instead of the Fire.  Fewer ads, more up to date Android and Amazon is discontinuing their Android-based devices.

Have you any experience playing hevc or x265 files remotely using 2nd gen firestick ? because if it works it is the cheapest device i could buy used that would work as my collection has very little hdr 10 files according to emby who i hope is right , I could sort them out so then i would not need a 3rd gen and a second gen should work but would like to hear from someone who has experienced this , should i open a new topic thread with this and if so where is best ?

[ebr 16168]

I moved this thread to the hardware discussion forum.