A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
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It's still in active development, but you might want to keep an eye on Plasma Bigscreen. I've been looking for a similar setup to you, and it seems to tick all of the boxes, at least for me.
I only learned about it recently, and I've been too busy to try it in that time, but I'll edit this post with my impressions once I get the time to have a play with it.
Yeah another user mentioned this - definitely my #1 choice if it were fully released.
I've found Android TV to be the most usable TV OS tbh. I use Konstakang's LineageOS Android TV 15 image on a Pi 5 which is source available (non commercial only licence). And Projectivy Launcher (closed source but is by an indie dev and better than the stock Google one). The Pi is CEC compatible so I can control it with my TV remote no problem, and I use Moonlight to stream games from my PC.
If you already have hardware, there may be an Android x86 TV release somewhere but I haven't personally tested any, and you have to make sure the apps you want support x86 (all the open source ones like Jellyfin should)
Edit to add: I also personally haven't found a need to install GApps as all the apps I use are either open source, or were made to work also on FireTV so don't rely on GApps APIs. (Use SmartTube instead of YouTube, it's a better experience anyway)
I can attest to projectivy and smarttube, they are great. I went with the internet's recommendation on the $20 Walmart/onn Google tv 4k box, with projectivy as the launcher instead of the default.
My only gripe so far is that the remote doesn't seem to consistently turn the box on, I have to go unplug the box every so often to reset it. probably some misconfiguration that's making it not wake from sleep correctly.
Despite that issue, 10/10 experience: ad free YouTube, fast jellyfin in 4k, fully customizable ui...
I use Kubuntu with KDE Connect. It lets me control everything using my phone 👍
I can play/pause whatever from my lock screen and can use my phone's keyboard like it's connected to the computer. It's fantastic 👍
Wife would not approve of this because she loses her phone all the time. Also the kids don't have phones.
I am looking for a solution that can be controlled by my remote
This isn't an operating system, but I've been playing with Flex Launcher recently and it's been working really well for my needs. From their Github page:
Flex Launcher is a customizable application launcher and front end designed with a TV-friendly 10 foot user interface, intending to mimic the look and feel of a streaming box or game console. Flex Launcher allows you to launch applications on your HTPC or couch gaming PC entirely by use of a TV remote or a gamepad. No keyboard or mouse required!
i use it as a lightweight launcher for my gaming PC as well as my HTPC. It does include gamepad support (needs to be enabled in the config file) and works really well with a USB remote.
Functionally, it's the right thing I'm looking for, but it's not polished enough to fulfill my needs.
If this allowed folders and a GUI for settings, I think it'd be a winner.
You can customize the look quite a bit. You can use whatever images/icons you like. For example I've just been using boxart for games. You can also define submenus kind of like folders. The configuration is manually editing a file so you won't be able to use a GUI. It's not too dificult to modify though.
I run Bazzite, primarily gaming for everything, added jellyfin as a non steam app. Works pretty well. Wish jellyfin had a slightly better interface but overall decent.
Most everything works with the controller, and for anything that doesn't steam will emulate a keyboard and mouse for, but I keep a keyboard next to it just in case
Do you use steam big picture mode?
I'd prefer not integrating Steam too much, since this is a shared computer that my kids also use.
I do like the UI of big picture mode, so if there were something similar that could be used by a remote or controller, that'd be top tier. Steam games could be added in via shortcuts
Maybe you can check KDE Bigscreen. It's more like a preset that you can download for a KDE desktop but is a basic tv ui
Oh fuck yeah this looks like the one.
Probably gonna do Fedora + KDE Bigscreen.
EDIT: It's not released yet due to inactive development... bummer.
It released, but for the prior version of KDE, not current.
That said, take a look at Application Dashboard, Plasma Drawer, and maybe Rocket but I don't think its been updated in a few years.
Ok here's what I do ... but be aware that I've had this same set for about 10 years so I'm sure everyone will bag on it but it works. On my main HTPC (the living room 60" screen) I have run Ubuntu as the background OS and auto open Kodi with the Confluence skin. I've added a few add on's for streaming and an add on that spans a Steam instance in Big Picture for my steam games and an add on for Lutris for other games. Lutris takes a bit of fiddling with to get it to run your games (a lot of set up scripts and downloading runners for emulators, but nothing to bad). I added a MCE remote and a IR receiver to move around in Kodi and attached a couple of Xbox Bluetooth controllers for gaming. I boosted my set up by moving my Kodi database on to my server with mySQL so that the librelec's running in the bedrooms all share the same database but that's a fancy touch that took a hour or so of set up that you don't need to do.
i am currently setting one up so i have no input as far as ease of use, good/bad/etc. yet, however i have a
raspberry pi, flashed
libreelec to the sd card, and plan to get
castagnaIT to run some proprietary streaming services alongside
jellyfin that i host on my home server. i just ordered a
SofaBaton U2 remote for BT and IR commands; i hope to not really need k&m after setup
I wonder if the best option might be one of those remotes that has a little keyboard on the backside and works as an 'air mouse'. Because I don't know of any good interfaces for a traditional remote.
So far the closest thing was Plasma Bigscreen, but it's still in development.