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Plasma Bigscreen Is A New Smart TV Experience Powered By Raspberry Pi 4 And KDE
Want to turn your dumb TV into a smart one? Or maybe you'd prefer to have a more privacy respecting, open source operating system powering your TV experience? Just take one part KDE Plasma, one part Rasbperry Pi 4, and one part Mycroft AI voice assistant, and you've got Plasma Bigscreen. It's a new venture that transforms the KDE Linux desktop into a "10 foot experience" using the speed and flexibility of KDE Neon, complete with voice control and Alexa-like assistant skills.
Smart TVs are becoming more and more complete computers, but unfortunately there the experience tends to be a tight walled garden between proprietary platform, services and privacy-infringing features. Features which are very cool, like voice control, but in order to not pose a threat to the user privacy should be on a free software stack and depending less on proprietary cloud platforms where possible. -- Plasma Bigscreen developer Marco Marin
Plasma Bigscreen is just entering Beta, and is currently available to download and install on the Raspberry Pi 4. On paper, it looks incredible promising for a few reasons:
Other features include: Privacy-focused (i.e., locally-processed) voice control as well as free (as in beer and as in libre) open source software that can be controlled with a remote or mouse/keyboard. Further, security updates are more likely to be created and made available with a popular operating system and browser.
If it is truly controllable by the user, then it could be turned into a "dumb" TV which would be deprived of some advertising.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday March 28 2020, @05:16PM (6 children)
I might test this tomorrow as a possible replacement for LibreELEC on Pi4. Hopefully the 2 GB version is enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUJgX4AvTyU [youtube.com]
I think you still might have to sign up for an account on the Mycroft website.
Also, voice control isn't likely to work with a lot of equipment yet, except that WeChip G20 [amazon.com] remote linked from the Plasma Bigscreen website. That "air remote mouse" functionality sounds interesting, and I assume it works like a Wii controller.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2020, @06:45PM (1 child)
Wow! 17 bucks... Does it last more than a week?
Man, what is subsidizing this stuff?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 28 2020, @08:15PM
What is so unusual about that price? Fire Stick + remote barely costs more than that when on sale. The Raspberry Pi 4 itself costs $35.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday March 28 2020, @06:56PM
it would seem you are correct. From the Bigscreen site
Of course Mycroft clearly says
so you know its going to be Perfectly Safe
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2020, @07:38PM (2 children)
Why do you want to replace LibreELEC?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 28 2020, @08:10PM (1 child)
Parts of the UI suck, the YouTube addon within Kodi is now requiring an API key, and streaming on Pluto.TV has been wonky lately. I have a stack of unused 32 GB microSD cards, so it's no trouble for me to test Plasma Bigscreen and see if any of this improves. I should be able to copy Kodi addons and settings with a backup.
I might gift someone with a setup that does both Kodi and retro gaming, and this could be the better OS choice.
I'm interested in Mycroft. I won't be trying it immediately, but I'll get around to it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2020, @09:27PM
Thank you. I recently got a smart TV, but I haven't put it on the internet, just OTA for now. I want some solution like this, but I haven't looked too closely into it yet, largely because of the scattered solutions out there that I really don't know the pros/cons and capabilities available. I want to get a Pi or two and get the TV going and also to have a game server in a DMZ (so that my son and his friends can play Minecraft and a few other things on a private server).