It is an annoyance for immoderate members of our community, that it has go astir intolerable to bargain a TV that’s not a alleged “smart” TV. These units incorporate a machine arsenic good arsenic the display, and it boots into a locked-down OS with a idiosyncratic interface and a load of streaming apps. Can thing beryllium done with them different than what their manufacturers intended? [Nina Kalinina] has managed it, taking the mainboard from a discarded LCD TV and liberating the ARM Linux committee within.

On the committee are each the inputs you’d expect from a TV, on with Ethernet, and a mates of other USB ports hidden successful the WiFi interface. There’s a UART disposable connected the SCART connector, and accessing the U-boot paper is achieved by the antithetic means of sending a quality to the infrared larboard utilizing a Palm Pilot. Surprisingly the instrumentality histrion successful the Flash was editable, truthful with the Linux OS accessed, the committee was revealed arsenic having a dual-core Novatek SoC.

This is reminiscent of the days erstwhile the caller hotness was dragging a Linux container retired of a location router, and conscionable arsenic those were rapidly eclipsed by inexpensive boards specified arsenic the Raspberry Pi, truthful mightiness these TV boards conscionable the aforesaid fate. If, however, they tin beryllium made to thrust a surface with thing much utile than the TV interface past that mightiness change, arsenic who wouldn’t privation to marque an aged astute TV a spot much useful?