I’ve been using a Vero V from the OSMC project. It runs Kodi and comes with a remote that’s simple enough for my family to use. Kodi has been around for ages and is great for both local library content as well as add-on based content. The OS is based on Debian so you could run some other services on it. The SoC has support for AV1 hardware decoding (as well as all the older codecs) and can play 4K HDR10+ content to my TV without issues. There’s also Dolby Vision support if your TV supports that.
It’s probably not the cheapest option but I wanted a small form factor and good UI that my family could use without having to be tech wizards.
I’ve been using a Vero V from the OSMC project. It runs Kodi and comes with a remote that’s simple enough for my family to use. Kodi has been around for ages and is great for both local library content as well as add-on based content. The OS is based on Debian so you could run some other services on it. The SoC has support for AV1 hardware decoding (as well as all the older codecs) and can play 4K HDR10+ content to my TV without issues. There’s also Dolby Vision support if your TV supports that. It’s probably not the cheapest option but I wanted a small form factor and good UI that my family could use without having to be tech wizards.