It depends what you mean when you say it buffers. If it’s transcoding then one issue is that the LG TV client doesn’t support the video and it’s trying to convert on the fly. If it is, then it isn’t a bandwidth issue.
It’s debatable whether the WiFi on the Apple TV is faster than the LG TV. But it should direct play nearly all videos, and moreso if you use Infuse player (paid app/subdcription).
TV Launcher - this is like a EPG for terrestrial TV. It’s got a great interface and you can easily customise it for the channels you want/need. It’ll open up the correct app too. Really like it for the Now and Next and TV guide features.
Other apps I use: Infuse (I’m a heavy Plex user, this is essential for me), twitch, just watch.
My friend also picked up a high end Samsung TV the other day. Honestly, the OS already lagged when setting it up. I was not impressed. I even owned a Samsung TV and the OS was not easy to navigate. You’re making the right choice with using the Apple TV on it.
Used Watchtower on my Synology for a while and it worked well. No issues in that time.
Now I’ve moved to a Nuc and am more experienced with Docker and understand a lot more of it but by no means am a professional by any means, I would say that I wouldn’t use Watchtower. I can definitely see it messing a config up and prefer not to deal with the headache of troubleshooting something without knowing it was an auto update. If I had the time, I may tag the apps I’m happy to auto-update but for now I prefer to have the higher availability.
I’m living in the EU myself and I’m also quite weary of just downloading, but amongst friends and myself, we just use usenet and sometimes torrents with VPN and as long as we are careful, downloading generally isn’t an issue.
Of course, that does mean you have to pay for a service first such as VPN, and maybe that’s not something you are willing to stomach. This is definitely feasible. Your method might work but involves a lot of work to get it going and anything could take out that workflow. Downloading onto your local machine is generally going to be fine.
Look into usenet, vpn torrents and seedboxes.
Can you let us know why you want to have such a seemingly convoluted method of downloading such media files?
Why not download locally and directly onto your computer or server?
Assuming you are wanting to sail the high seas but think of the Pi in another country as a method to get around restrictions, look into the following: usenet, vpn torrents, seedboxes.
Some of the self hosting is a bit pointless, let’s be honest, but it all depends on a case by case basis. Having an automated Plex server is 100% an improvement. Got a new mini PC this week and was messing around with it and setting things up. One was adguard home and whilst it is very good, it does feel like adblockers these days do a very good job. Since I’m in the setting up phase and rebooting the server, internet on devices will go down and I there isn’t redundancy on DNS server.
I think most on this sub are tinkerers at heart and like getting the most out of it and seeing how low power to utility we can squeeze out of our gear or just the pure number of containers etc. I don’t think it matters if you use everything on a daily basis but it’s there when you need it whilst other services do their job just by being active.
As a person who has used both extensively:
The Shield is better at sideloading. So if you use apps like smart tube next, or other apps like cinema HD, Bee TV to tap into torrent streaming, Kodi for its addons, or real debrid streaming, then Shield is the way to go. It’s got better support for those types of apps.
I’m a heavy Plex user but use the Apple TV 4K (latest gen). Both are great for Plex but if you have a home theatre setup, the Shield is better because of its TrueHD capability.
The Apple TV has a faster UI. Shield is fine but it can definitely lag in places and my Shield is prone to crashing from time to time. Mic on the Siri Remote is the best I’ve seen on a remote. The Google Assistant has never worked consistently for me.
If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, the ATV4k has nice support for Apple AirPods which integrate very well.