My nearest way is using my steam controller but isn’t comfy to navigate Netflix or other streaming websites.
What are you complaining?
“Not comfy to navigate” IS the real Smart Tv experience.
Can agree. My $1800 TV has the slowest interface ever and only 8GB of storage space, most of it being taken up by the OS. It’s laggy as hell and a major pain in the ass to navigate cause of it. It’s like using a $50 Android phone that keeps closing the app you’re using cause it has 512MB of RAM.
I miss dumb TVs. All I want is a screen that I can plug smart stuff into. I use an AppleTV, which is navigates around really smooth and fast. I have two of them. The one I use most is fairly old and still works better than any smart TV I’ve ever had.
Look into “digital signage” panels.
Not cheap, but they are basically a 49"+ computer monitor that is rated for 24/7 usage.
The issue with those is they generally don’t have speakers. Fine if you’re already planning on another solution, but I like having the option to use built in speakers for basic stuff.
Valid point, didn’t think of that.
I’ve given up on smart TVs. Mine has never been connected to the internet. I slap a fire TV to it (yeah, I know. I’m weak…) and forget about it. If that gets too slow for the task I’ll get a new one for 40€.
40€
For that price you can buy good monitor. For that price you can buy small computer. For double that price you will never need to think about replacing TV because “it’s got too slow”
120" projector
I once had a 200" Sony CRT projector. It had a grid of at least 20 trimpots for adjusting the picture on each of the tubes (RGB) and after 45min to an hour of warming up and tweaking it was an unbelievable picture. Then a 300v DC rail shorted to some logic level stuff and it caught fire :(
OK, buy a webcam and set it up so it’s pointed at your couch or wherever you sit in front of your TV. Make the webcam audio and video stream available on a public server. Then do all your web browsing in vanilla Chrome with no ad or script blockers. Make sure that you always have tabs open for Amazon and Facebook, and allow their web apps access to the webcam data.
The smart TV experience.
I have no idea what I wanted to see, coming into this thread, but I got exactly what I’ve expected
And then act surprised when you find leak of yourself doing something inappropriate going viral.
On the software-side of things; Kodi is cool. As for remote control, consider referring to Kodi’s Wiki-page on the matter for options.
Btw, honestly your query is way too vague. If possible, please provide us with more info so that we can better help you 😉.
I just probably need
to buy a fire sticka software with a tv-like UI, where I can use a remote to visit streaming websites in an easiest way.Thanks for enlightening us! Fortunately, the answer in my original comment should still satisfy your needs.
Kodi is what you are looking for.
Run it on Pi 4 or a NUC. We use Disney+ and Netflix on ours, although Prime video does not work (although it should, I just have not made any effort yet).
And Libreelec provides preconfigured images for the pi. You still need to jump through some hoops to get streaming services running (html5 encrypted media extensions and all that) but it streamlines the process of getting started with kodi a lot.
Another project to keep an eye on is plasma big screen. It’s not quite there yet, but it will eventually provide a more familiar smarttv experience. (Currently it’s missing a lot of apps, that kodi has)
I have one of those wireless keyboards with an integrated touchpad. It’s plugged into a small PC, which runs Linux Mint, Firefox, Jellyfin. Plenty comfortable and no invasive tracking.
That’s too bad, have you thought about getting chrome and opening Facebook or something in the background to get that invasive mainstream tech feel? There is something about not being tracked that makes me feel lonely. /S
I would recommend you a wireless keyboard with an integrated touchpad, it makes it easier to control everything from the couch.
KDE has an interesting project that lines up with this. Unfortunately I’m not too sure how progress is. Plasma Bigscreen
This comment now makes me wonder why there’s isn’t an kind of Desktop Environment that specifically made for TV and game console, with the UI design that is easy to use with remote/controller and touchscreen
It’s easy to adjust a DE for it, the issue is that no apps are built to work on a big screen. There’s basically Steam, Kodi and that’s about it.
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You have basically just described Kodi.
But isn’t Kodi an straight up media player instead of full blown Desktop Environment?
You still need an DE/WM installed on the system to run Kodi, you cannot just run Kodi by its own thing directly
You don’t need a window manager to run Xorg clients. You’re probably better off using a light one, but it’s not strictly necessary.
@Otherwise_Direction7 @ccunix Yes Kodi is indeed a medic center, but you could launch it directly though a custom xsession, without the need for a de or wm. See the paste link below…
it’s very much not any good at all
It was hit or miss for me too. I remember is looking good and navigating well, but apps didn’t work. What were pain points for you?
What were pain points for you?
The apps for sure, Navigation was fine a bit buggy but somewhat usable, but apps were janky at best, the YT thing just felt like a crappy gimmick
I think a better launcher would help a lot, I’ve seen quite a few promissing ones, and even forked one with the intent on making it a better TV launcher experience when I find the time.
the main thing missing then would be a full screen compositor and an app switcher, I actually have a couple ideas i’ve been playing with, apps support hurts, but I plan on making a custom waydroid launcher eventually too
Kodi on a raspberry pi supports “CEC” so your TV remote “just works” to go through the menus
Thanks for this. A remote was the biggest concern I had with moving.
I’ve built a 2nd/3rd generation Intel PC out from a Small Formfactor HP machine.
Put 8GB of memory into it and a 500GB HDD. The whole thing costed me around… 35-40USD and got a remote for that machine for 20USD. It’s under my TV, in sleep mode so the remote can wake it up any time and the Power button on it puts back to sleep.
Running libreELEC, which is a Linux system built around Kodi, and for Kodi there are lot of streaming plugins available - Netflix too. It can pretty much play back 1080p without issue, and maybe even 4k, but I couldn’t test it properly because I have a Panasonic plasma TV and that’s only full hd.
Had some stuttering issue with Wayland, but with x11 it runs perfectly. If I set up the video player to synch framerates at the beginning and end of the video, it runs smoothly.
These plugins use Kodi’s UI, so they are easy to navigate. It can’t get more comfortable than that, Kodi is way better than any shitty Smart TV system out there, especially those Android TV abominations.
So yeah, a 2011ish PC, a DVD/Blu-Ray drive, USB remote, libreELEC and you never need any other media player equipment.
One thing needs to be done, tho… I have to use DisplayPort <-> HDMI for video out and the adapter doesn’t really communicate with the TV so have to build an USB/LPT-CEC interface for it (Arduino or Pi Pico) and with that, the TV would turn on/off, change to AV or back to TV when the power state changes of the PC and also would be able to control Kodi with the TV remote too.
Could you please get a little bit more in detail with the USB/LPT-CEC interface and the wake up and put to sleep mode with the remote control?
I now have a simple USB remote control. Since it’s USB, it can wake up the PC from sleep when I press a button on it.
The USB-CEC would basically emulate a keyboard and send keys for the PC accordingly the CEC message the TV sends. If the PC is in sleep, the USB adapter could wake it up.
I use https://www.amazon.com/Rii-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Smartphones-Mac-Black/dp/B07T13GLY3 (Not the best battery or connectivity but seems to be the best option I’ve found so far)
With a dell wyse mini PC with Gnome.
Kodi for local nas video and Stremio for streaming. (Note stremio is giving me issues on Ubuntu, it worked fine on fedora)
Gnome is great for TV use. I can have kodi, Stremio, Firefox, steam etc on different workspace and switch between easily. Or even just have them on the same work space and alt tab… Using the alt tab coverflow gnome extension makes it feel like android or something.
I’m at the couch constantly and just use a wireless keyboard and mouse on the coffee table. The mouse also works fine next to me on the couch as long as I’m not gaming that way.
I did explore the possibility of scrolling options with the TV remote a while back, but the vast majority of PC video cards do not support HDMI-CEC.
Your video card doesn’t need to support CEC if you can get your hand on one of those: https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter
@circuitfarmer I do that too, but honestly, I wish I could use my Xbox controller instead.
If it’s the input the problem, I use KDE connect to use my phone as a remote control. You can use the gyroscope in your phone to point to the screen like a Wii controller.
Plex
I’ve set up Netflix on my Steam Deck and PC through the Steam UI, by installing Netflix as a PWA in desktop mode and adding it to Steam as an external game. Steam Input recognised that it should map to mouse and keyboard, so the directional buttons navigate quite smoothly and the controller’s stick works as a mouse. A is enter and B goes back, so selecting stuff is quite easy. Not quite the console experience (how I wish Netflix would make a native Linux app…) but it works a lot better than through a fake mouse.
All smart TV replacement options were too frustrating to use last time I tried. Kodi got close, but getting Netflix to work on there was too much of a pain. The Jellyfin integration was also unstable and unreliable and the way to cast Youtube onto the thing was bothersome and broke every update. I just went with a Chromecast, the open source stuff doesn’t cut it.
If you want a more private alternative, there’s a Smart TV build of LineageOS that you can flash onto certain Android TV boxes. It’s basically Android TV but without Google’s apps (or any other apps, for that matter). I can’t tell you if it’s any good, but it’ll get you the full Android TV experience with none of the bloatware, all open source. Make sure you wipe any cheap Android TV box though, many of the cheap models come preloaded with malware.
Just buy a htpc remote. There are plenty of “remote” which is actually a wireless keyboard with touchpad/air mouse with media control buttons, but with remote form factor. Some of them even have IR learning capability, which allow you to control your tv by cloning your tv remote’s IR signal (tv power, volume, input source, etc).
Logitech K400
I’ve been using mine for 10+ years, maybe changing batteries once.
I currently use it with a NUC loaded with linux mint, and have the UI HD scaled (it’s an out-of-the box option).
The only native functionality of the actual smart tv that I use, is the power button.
Question: How do you watch content encoded in HDR-10 or Dolby Vision on a Linux box? I’m pretty sure *Nix supports neither. Do you simply not watch that kind of content?
You can decode and view HDR files in SDR just fine but the Linux ecosystem just does not support HDR yet. It’s being worked on though and Valve’s Gamescope compositor has started getting HDR working in games.
What I meant about “simply not watch that content” was actually “simply not watch that content in HDR”.
Thanks for the reply. I hope you’re right and that support comes soon. I’d love to ditch windows ASAP
Roku
I will second the Roku. I tried this a few years ago and kept running into issues. Some sites like Netflix don’t offer HD resolution on PC. Then there are other services that have sketchy support for Linux. HBO and peacock are 2 examples.
I use my PC for personal streaming and a Roku for the main TV
I used to pay for Hulu live tv but decided I wasn’t getting enough out of it and bought a Roku instead. Now that I have it with free apps like PBS, crackle, freevee, tubi, Plex, Pluto, xumo, and a few others plus a few paid subscriptions like peacock, paramount, and basic Hulu, I have more content than I know what to do with for a fraction of what I was paying for live tv ($85/month in addition to my internet bill). It wouldn’t be possible without very fast and reliable Internet however.
Yup. Get a $30 Roku and call it a day.
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