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Plasma Bigscreen

plasma-bigscreen.org

131–140 of 276 posts

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you could run Kodi on top of this, but then it would be just as restricted as any other app, and not be able to do the things I mentioned compared to running it directly via something like LibreELEC. Kodi can actually run third party apps, for what it's worth: https://kodi.tv/addons/matrix/

But kodi is still an application with addons, Kodi is not going to allow you to run native applications on top of it

You can run native apps from Kodi.

I used to launch Steam games in Big picture mode from Kodi just fine.

Actually I was waiting for a desktop environment like this Plasma Bigscreen for a while but then got a new TV with Android and use that instead.

I would still prefer to use Kodi as the main app launcher on Android but it gets Killed to save memory and takes a while to start up again.

And using Kodi over HDMI is not an option anymore since a lot of content I watch comes in 4K 10bit HDR or 4K Dolby Vision and sadly desktop Linux does not support HDR and variable refresh rate over HDMI (so Linux Steam experience also bad).

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still have a 50" 720p Toshiba plasma, from 2006. Won't die... Been wanting to upgrade to a newer larger tv for years, but this thing keeps running along without issue...

I don't understand why people think electronics are supposed to die. Even if they do, it's often just some capacitors that died in the power supply. An easy fix!

this is about justification. The current thing works fine but I would like the new expensive thing. I cannot justify expense of replacing working thing, but if it would die, then it's justified expense.

it isn't about that it's more economical purchase when it dies, but I even saw people breaking stuff just so they "had to" buy new thing that they want.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still have a 50" 720p Toshiba plasma, from 2006. Won't die... Been wanting to upgrade to a newer larger tv for years, but this thing keeps running along without issue...

I don't understand why people think electronics are supposed to die. Even if they do, it's often just some capacitors that died in the power supply. An easy fix!

Back in the day, there was a strong public perception/rumor that plasma screens would fail much sooner than other kinds. Maybe it was just a FUD campaign, after all.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is deeper than that: To do a good UI, you need multiple skills: design, development, user testing, etc. It's rare that a single person can do all of that, so you need multiple people to collaborate, which is hard, because of the lack of managers. So you only get contributions from people who can contribute on their own, which is developers.

I disagree, from my experience designers are generally not interested in OSS projects like developers are. There is one designer for 50 developers. Probably because for developers, OSS is a badge of honour and can help your CV / find paid jobs - while for designers it's just a dribble nobody cares about. When designers partecipate, they get to contribute and even impose (sometimes questionable, think kde4) choices.

Maybe it's time for developers to launch projects that make designers look good when participating in OSS projects.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#135

Nitpick for anyone involved in this project: > Plasma Bigscreen turns your TV or setup-box into a fully hackable device I know what you meant, but given the concerns people have with privacy of their TVs, smart devices, and in general the security of their internet connected home, describing something that turns your TV into being "fully hackable" feels like it's ripe for misunderstanding.

Hah. Same line, different nit.

> TV or setup-box

We're talking about a set-top box, right?

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#136
post #5

If I understand correctly it uses a RPi or other ARM device attached to the TV. Is there anything out there tbat overwrite the TV's "smart" firmware? Something analogous to OpenWRT and its router support? It would be bet cool if you could use the controller and buttons "natively".

> Is there anything out there tbat overwrite the TV's "smart" firmware?

Or use a monitor instead of a TV?

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#137
post #130

If they expect ordinary people to use this, the Install page could use some love: https://plasma-bigscreen.org/get/ The very first heading is "Neon based reference rootfs". It gives the impression that you must know exactly what these words mean and what you're doing, or there's no hope of ever using this thing. (The classic 1990s style Linux onboarding experience, in other words.)

I'm a programmer with a postgrad education and 10 years in the industry and I don't know what those words mean.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#138
post #34
post #33

It does not tranform your TV into anything. it needs a RPi in order to do anything.

This. And it just kills me how so many things "linux" look so unpolished. Why is it so difficult for projects like this to find and get designers interested?

It says it has "silky smooth interfaces" and "polished experience" in the very first page under the very first example image where not only the typeface is butt-ugly, also text layout is all kinds of messed up.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#139
post #58

I realize "Plasma" is the name of the KDE presentation layer across all platforms, but it's mildly awkward to see in this context considering plasma TVs have only been a dead technology for six years or so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_display

The name is generally really unfortunate, and I wish they would switch back to KDE for the Desktop Environment (and call the framework Klibs or KDElibs or something).

Many people have positive associations with KDE, but associate Plasma with bloaty QML based desktop widgets from the KDE4 era. If they even associate it with KDE, and not with plasma TVs or blood plasma.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#140
post #130

If they expect ordinary people to use this, the Install page could use some love: https://plasma-bigscreen.org/get/ The very first heading is "Neon based reference rootfs". It gives the impression that you must know exactly what these words mean and what you're doing, or there's no hope of ever using this thing. (The classic 1990s style Linux onboarding experience, in other words.)

I'm a programmer with a postgrad education and 10 years in the industry and I don't know what those words mean.

Root file system (rootfs) that's based on dev-unstable branch of KDE Neon. This doc is obviously not aimed at non-techs, but for Linux-savy people the first sentence should fully explain the heading.
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