So for the past little while I’ve had a Pi 4 hooked up to my TV as a Kodi box running OSMC, which has been okay I guess. Having recently built a new PC, my old Ryzen 3600/GTX-1080 box is freed up, so I’m thinking of replacing that Pi with something that can also run Steam.

I’m completely at a loss for what system to run for a living room couch/TV experience. Kodi…could be better, OSMC doesn’t have a desktop and won’t launch just a normal web browser, it uses Kodi as its only UI and it’s just not fully good enough.

I’m also not sure if Steam Big Picture Mode is capable of being a media center. Like, can it play movies from there? My experience with Steam’s Big Picture Mode is it runs like microwaved shit anyway, feels as responsive as the average dogwood.

I want to be able to get to my collection of movies on my NAS, play Steam games, and do some web browser tasks like watch Youtube and that kind of thing. I just don’t do the streaming services, I don’t need Huflix or NetMax or whatever.

  • dingdongitsabear@lemmy.ml
    11·
    3 days ago

    I understood you fine. what I’m saying is, you don’t need to use the 1 KW PC when the 5 W Raspy can fulfill all the roles you stated - media playback (local and online) and remote gaming from your new rig. if you know Raspy’s power by way of the crap that is Kodi - a bloated, slow as molasses, buggy zombie patched for 20 years and held together by duct tape - then you might be surprised with how it can run. also, you have the option of running LineageOS AndroidTV with native apps for all three stated roles.

    if you’re adamant about repurposing your old PC it in that role, your best bet would be bazzite, a 10-foot UI-having SteamOS clone. but then, you’re smashing into the wall that is Nvidia on Linux; a fun project but not really a plug and play solution for the living room.

    • pineapple@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      What is lineage os Android TV? Couldn’t find it anywhere on my search engine.

      Also I don’t know what people mean by “the wall that is nvidia on linux” I have been using my gtx 1660 on Linux and it just works. Since I use bazzite you can select your gpu model before downloading the iso file and it preinstalls nvidia proprietary drivers. I’m not sure what it’s like on other distros but it seems fine.

      In fact I also have an rx 6700xt but unfortunately I could not get a display output on Linux no matter what I tried. So for me nvidia has been better than amd on Linux.