[module1973]

What I don't understand is what the actual hardware needed to run on a "regular" TV is. Do I need to buy a Raspberry Pi 4, connect via HDMI and cross my fingers that my TV remote will work with whatever open source TV software is out there? I am surprised that I can't find something more like a complete product for sale with software + dongle + remote.

[jauntywundrkind]

This would be a rpi or mini PC plugged in, yeah. Really it's not actually much different than Chromecast, same general ideas and technologies. It might be possible to make an open screen server that runs on Android running tv's, but deploying to those things is, to my understanding, a sort of deliberate hell orchestrated by everyone involved, from Google to the TV makers.

Generally I recommend -- like with Chromecast -- using your phone to launch and control apps, using your phone as the locus of control. Maybe having a gyro mouse or Bluetooth keyboard connected to your pi... but the originally Chromecast was input less, was a networked output. To cast a thing was just to tell the display or speaker: go to this URL. And then to have some communication channel open from your phone or casting computer to the display or speaker. Any web page can use Presentation API to start a cast, to extend itself to another device. It's amazing. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Presentatio...

Under that model, there is no remote. The phone is the remote.

To run a regular TV is harder. Yeah I don't recommend trying to host a whole media system. You can run jellyfin on many TVs or maybe plex. Some rare brave souls go and build their own castles in the sky. Personally I feel strongly though that people clutching at remotes & making the tv itself the locus control are doing it wrong and that the cast model is fundamentally much better, and that the tv itself ought be a blank slate. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/broken-linux-laptop-...

[module1973]

Thanks for all the info. After some more research, I think what I might be looking at as one of the better options is KDE Plasma Bigscreen on an old CPU plugged in the HDMI since it's rumored that they are about to roll out a release fairly soon. This way I would have access to a browser (I guess) for streaming apps and also have YouTube with no ads. Other solutions all had some significant drawbacks it seems like or weren't fully implemented.