PieFed
KDE's Android TV alternative, Plasma Bigscreen, rises from the dead with a better UI
Snoopy
Lately, some KDE projects have seen a revival, like Karton (the native virtual machine manager for KDE) and the improved ISO Image Writer. Now, another abandoned KDE project, Plasma Bigscreen, is looking to return from the dead after long-time Plasma Mobile contributor Devin decided to spend a week overhauling the thing.
If you have not heard of it, Plasma Bigscreen is a Plasma shell for televisions, with original support for the now-defunct Mycroft AI assistant. It used to provide a simple launcher for apps and custom "Mycroft Skills" before development stalled, causing most distributions to drop it.
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Never heard of this. So glad there is an alternative to android TV and Roku. Going to give it a shot.
Not currently available to download according to the official page:
"As of right now, Plasma Bigscreen isn't available for public use yet. This is due to not being developed for so long. The project has been revived, but it might take a while until it becomes stable and is available for public use."
That said, if this could run on top of the standard linux OS on my MiniPC (like Steam Big Picture), then I'd give it a go!
Excellent. The umbrella of KDE is home to a bunch of my favorite applications. Kdenlive, Krita, Digikam. I've been hotly anticipating the day I get a phone running Plasma Mobile
This may be better eventually than Plasma Mobile for what I imagined as an ideal gaming frontend that isn't just Steam Big Picture
Maybe someday Waydroid and Android Translation Layer will make Linux as a HTPC+gaming great
That's exciting. It looks very clean, but until it has the tv remote support aspect I think it'll wait
and some games like SuperTuxKart are playable
shows a screenshot of SuperTux, an entirely different game
I just hope for a TV that is rootable where I can install whatever ROM I want, I just want to own my TV. KDE keeps making our future bright
It would be nice if they would overcome the 720p/1080p limitation imposed by some stream services https://androidpcreview.com/netflix-hd-android-tv-box/
Alternative option for you. Drop streaming and set up Stremio with torrentio . Get a good vpn subscription as well. Highly recommend it.
Not possible, widevine L1 needs hardware-level DRM which depends on manufacturer support. So unless there are actual TVs / set top boxes being shipped with Plasma Bigscreen, we're SOL 🏴☠
Does anyone know if there are any plans to port this to raspberry pi?
Right now it's not packaged up for easy use but KDE has supported Raspberry Pi's for ages so I wouldn't be surprised if you ran Plasma desktop, it'd be simple to build and install. I'd wait until they got it back onto the KDE release cadence with everything else though for simplicity
For anyone who wants to test this out, you can do as Devin did by installing Plasma Bigscreen on a Raspberry Pi using postmarketOS, though you would have to compile it yourself or pull from the nightly repos to get the latest changes.
I had lots of problems with the previous version when turning the TV off/on while it's running, like losing keyboard access (no focus) until you use the mouse at least once and it updating the display settings every time. Hope it's getting better now.
TBH the keyboard focus issue is happening on most Login Managers and DEs, so it's not really their fault. I will try it out some time, until then I keep using my SteamOS install.
Tried this 6-9 months ago and it was a shambles that I could hardly get working.
The main issue (once it was working) was program (Stremio) not supporting keyboard only options.
I also wanted to run android apps full screen (like a dog nvidia shield) but it was chaos.
I thought it was abandoned.
I'm curious why you'd choose this over kodi or something like bazzite. What specifically are the advantages?
So judging by the comments this is something you would install as a DE on a Linux distro, perhaps on a miniPC, not something running on the SmartTV itself?
That does not look better than project ivy launcher imho.
From the 100 reasons to choose this over android tv, subjective thing like "better UI" is not one.
Does it support SmartTube? Jellyfin? Refresh rate and resolution changing based on signal? Bitstream? Codecs? Exo player is a great default player used by many apps, what's this ones alternative?
Is mostly a interface for linux distros, so AndroidTV apps won't work.
Jellyfin Media Player (desktop app) have a TV UI, which kinda woks, on the article mentions an YouTube app called VacuumTube.
Is more an alternative for DIY home theater PC (like Kodi) than AndroidTV
Yeah, I understood, but the OP made it sound like something to replace Android TV.
I wish the revive does well and we'll have a proper alternative, but the main thing they have to beat is what something like Android TV on Shield provides - otherwise it'll just be a thing to tinker with, not a replacement.
Here's some kind of example https://youtu.be/foFX29CIB_w
Using a mouse and terminals, not very intuitive for a TV interface, maybe with time it gets better
I might fire this up to test it out
Its sadly not public yet as far as I heard, but I'm sure Lemmy will let us know when it is ☺️
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Ah, bummer, but I'm glad a project like this exists and is getting some new life breathed into it. Can't say I'm a huge fan of the toolbar at the top but I'm sure ricing will be fun on a platform like this.