I don’t want to use Osmc or LibreELEC. What I’m going for is something like Android TV (tried using LineageOS but that didn’t work out for me).

I was interested in something like Plasma Bigscreen but most of the tutorial is about 4 years old and point to using an old image.

I installed the Debian package. After that, I logged in and set Automatic login, and switch the session to Plasma Bigscreen (x11). After applying and a reboot, it launched Plasma Bigscreen but some widgets (like the audio, KDE Connect) froze when clicking on them.

What do you recommend? I prefer to use a Raspberry Pi.

  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
    51·
    2 months ago

    I run an HTPC that works fully with my AirMouse Remote I bought for it for ~$15USD. It uses Flex Launcher running on Debian.

    Basically, I use it for Plex, some Netflix, retrogaming, and Steam.

    I was in a similar boat to you were I looked at Plasma Big Screen, LibreElec, etc. Plasma BigScreen was too buggy or unmaintained. LibreElec is great if you want to play local stuff, but terrible for streaming things like Netflix. In the end I said “screw it. I’ll make my own”. Now it’s the center of my living room.

    • BumbleBear@programming.devOPEnglish
      13·
      2 months ago

      That looks amazing! Are the icons you have there, for example, Netflix, is that a desktop shortcut to open up the browser and load the website?

      Your use case is very similar to mine. Thank you for sharing.

    • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      Do you get high def Netflix? I’ve read in multiple places that Netflix limits streams to 720p in web browsers, which has always stopped me from straying from my chromecast. Not sure if that’s what I’m seeing in your photo, though. (basically I have the same question as OP)

      • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
        41·
        2 months ago

        As long as your browser supports the DRM, it should stream 1080p and 4k fine. Chrome is best, unfortunately, specifically for Netflix.

  • ChillPill@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 months ago

    KDE bigscreen looks perfect for me. I know I have heard of it before but I will need to look a bit more in depth at it.

    All I want is Roku, but FOSS, without the ads and tracking.

  • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 months ago

    I have been on this hunt myself and am coming up short. Especially on the hardware at my disposal.

    So far I’ve tried all the same stuff you’ve mentioned but am settling in to LibreELEC well enough with addons, including the emby next gen setup (got into emby before finding out about jellyfin)

    what don’t you dig about LibreELEC?

    Plasma bigscreen sounds like it would be the best, but I never got it to work right ( granted I was very new to Linux back then)

    Have you tried blissOS?

    • BumbleBear@programming.devOPEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      I tried Kodi in the past but switched over to Emby. Not 100% sure if there is an Emby plugin but the wife and kids are use to the Emby interface.

      Plasma Bigscreen looks very cool but spent time trying to figure out why some of the widgets on the main screen loads up then freeze. Like the Mycroft widget, for example.

      Also trying to figure out why apps like Kate appears twice under Applications.

      I have not tried Bliss OS. Looks very interesting so I will take a look. Thank you for that one.

      • SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        We’ve so much in common! I had a skin working that made Kodi look just like an emby app or webpage

        There is an emby addon that uses your server to keep track of profiles and stuff. It’s actually pretty sweet to get it set up.

  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    Plex used to have a distro that booted straight to Plex and that was it. You could control it using your tv remote if your tv supported HDMI-CEC. I’m not sure if it still exists. I guess it wouldn’t be any better than openelec though. 🤷‍♂️

    Could you be more objective about what you want and don’t want feature wise? I don’t know about other folks but I’ve never used android tv so I don’t know what you mean when you say that’s similar to what you want.

    Edit: I’m pretty sure the Plex software I was talking about was based on this archived repo, so it likely isn’t a modern option https://github.com/plexinc/plex-media-player

    • ltxrtquq@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      I don’t know about a distro, but it looks like they are still maintaining an HTPC app for windows, mac and linux. The linux one looks like it was last updated about 2 weeks ago

  • electricprism@lemmy.ml
    4·
    2 months ago

    Also recommendations for a good remote to go with these?

    I was so desperate I was thinking of reprogramming a wireless number pad cherry MX low profile or something.

    It should have volume buttons, arrow keys, previous, next, pause, etc… Something a old person could understand.

    Numbers and alphabet not required.