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
    92·
    5 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
      20·
      5 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
      7·
      5 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
        51·
        5 months ago

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

        • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
          3·
          5 months ago

          No DRM for desktop Linux supports 4k Netflix. IIRC Netflix doesn’t even support 4k on Windows for anything except Edge, at least that was the case for many years.

          • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
            4·
            5 months ago

            Really? I thought Chrome added support on Linux for 4k.

            I rarely stream Netflix and it’s only on there for my wife. If I want a show, I add it to my Plex library. Even if Netflix has it.

            • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
              3·
              5 months ago

              According to Netflix documentation, they only support 720p on Linux, regardless of the browser.

              Chrome officially supports 1080p on Windows and macOS, while 4k is only available through Edge on Windows and Safari on macOS.

              In the past I’ve used a Firefox plugin to enable 1080p playback on Linux, but the bitrate was lower than the 1080p bitrate on Windows (with Edge, iirc).

              https://help.netflix.com/de/node/30081

              Edit: Luckily Jellyfin does not have such annoying restrictions.

    • exu@feditown.comEnglish
      5·
      5 months ago

      This looks awesome. I currently don’t need a TV interface, but when I do I’ll definitely try this out over Kodi.

      • bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world
        2·
        5 months ago

        Same boat here. RaspberryPi running LibreElec, which is okay but can be unstable and lacks power. Been looking at an AMD 4x4 pc to boost performance and run some form of full Linux distro.

    • glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
      1·
      4 months ago

      May I ask: did you write the config on your own and did you create the neccessary icons? Or is there a sample config somewhere, with some icons as well (jellyfin, youtube etc would be nice).

      • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 months ago

        There is a default config it comes with. I just modified it. Their documentation is really good. If you’d like a copy of my config, LMK.

        Icons I found online and then trimmed to the correct size and transparency.

        • glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
          1·
          4 months ago

          You are right, I had a look at the documentation, made myself some icons and modified the standard config in /usr/share/flex-launcher a bit. Thanks!

          Could you copy and paste the menu-entry you start jellyfin with here?

          • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
            2·
            4 months ago

            Entry3=Jellyfin;/usr/share/flex-launcher/assets/icons/jellyfin.png;flatpak run com.github.iwalton3.jellyfin-media-player --fullscreen

            Make sure you switch your view to TV in the settings so that arrow key navigation works.