Yeah these threads pop up on HN all the time and everyone starts talking about apple tv and roku whatever and I think they're all... pretty dumb.

HDMI + Computer is just the best answer. Works in hotels just fine. I'm not aware of any smart TVs that push ads over your connected devices feed even if you do let them update for no good reason. Keyboard and mouse is better than remotes. Web search is the best search. You can use streaming sites. It's basically free. You can... use it as a living room computer. Hit up spotify and now it's also your sound controller. Have browser tabs. Play videogames.

PC's are intentionally gimped to prevent trivial copyright infringement.

Netflix forces you to use Edge on Windows or Safari on Firefox to stream in 4k because they integrate with the OS's DRM.

HBO Max doesn't allow 4k at all on PC's but I think will at least do 1080p if you use an approved browser.

I don't think Hulu will stream anything higher than 720p regardless of which browser you use. Disney+ is the same.

Good luck getting anything over 720p running Linux and Firefox.

You can get the native windows apps of the streaming services to get 4k without using Edge

I think a pleasant user experience in 1080p is a great deal personally.

I also think 4k is oversold. From the couch 10 feet away, a 4k tv and 1080p tv will look the same.

higher resolution also makes CGI looks worse, plausibly from being passable to just distracting.

Also makes it annoying for gaming because suddenly you need a lot more horsepower to do the same thing. E.g. you need to shell out for the Xbox one series X (not the xbox one X, confusing as it is) if you want "proper" 4k to play the same exact games as the almost 10 year old xbox one can play on 1080p. For PC gamers, you will probably need to upgrade your graphics card if you want to have the same framerate you expect from 1080p gaming, certainly not a cheap prospect these days with crypto people buying up GPUs.

I'm right there with you. Still "only" have a 1080p TV but a living room computer is the most robust option, that you get more control over, and it doesn't even need to be an expensive high-end machine either. Added advantage of being expandable and upgradable too, depending on what you're working with.

I stream games from my gaming PC with Steam too and it works flawlessly. Controllers work great too. I'm lucky to have been able to wire everything with Ethernet though, but modern WiFi has gotten surprisingly decent from what I've heard.