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Plasma Bigscreen

plasma-bigscreen.org

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Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#241

Post by [deleted] »

safety1st wrote: post #202
Lammy wrote: 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

Frankly it's disappointing that most of the comments on HN so far have been focused on the "marketing" and the website. The FAQ states that this project is still in very early stages and not yet intended for use as a daily driver. So if you actually read the website, it's clear why it's not consumer grade. I would much rather they focus on developing than marketing at this stage. The basic thing going on here is simp…

[deleted]

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#242

Post by jl6 »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #170
ognarb wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest hurdle is the DRM. Plasma Bigscreen ship with it's own browser but you still need the proprietary blob for the DRM running on an ARM device instead of the usual one for intel/amd. Making things worse, even on intel/amd the video quality is often limited to 1080p on Linux.

Funny, since DRM is never an issue if you play pirated content. Arrgh maties! But ironically, DRM is only a huge annoyance for paying law abiding customers. Did you pay Ubisoft $50 10 years ago for Assassin's Creed 2, am amazing game? Great, because now you can go f*ck yourself instead of playing the game since Ubisoft took the server running the DRM for that game offline. Did you pirate the game? Great, because now…

Fortunately since 2015 it has been legal to circumvent DRM for games that have had their single-player mode rendered inoperable by the decommissioning of an activation server:

https://copyright.gov/1201/2015/fedreg-publicinspectionFR.pd...

Yes, it still sucks when publishers make their customers jump through hoops like this, potentially exposing them to malware if the necessary DRM circumvention software comes from a dubious source.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#243

Post by safety1st »

safety1st wrote: post #202
Lammy wrote: 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

Frankly it's disappointing that most of the comments on HN so far have been focused on the "marketing" and the website. The FAQ states that this project is still in very early stages and not yet intended for use as a daily driver. So if you actually read the website, it's clear why it's not consumer grade. I would much rather they focus on developing than marketing at this stage. The basic thing going on here is simp…

Here's a link with a lot more information. The big news today is that the UI component for Bigscreen has just gone live as a part of the KDE 5.26 beta, which is relatively straightforward to install on any Linux distro (or image to a USB stick): https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.25.90/

Maybe the post's main link should be changed to this one? That Bigscreen website seems to be confusing and out of date.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#244

Post by cestith »

MBCook wrote: post #78
CharlesW wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this some sort of alternative firmware to replace the junk installed as standard on most "smart" TVs now… I believe it's more along the lines of an open-source Apple TV or Roku box.

What could you actually run on something like that? None of “normal” apps would be there for the various streaming services. I guess it could be a plex front end but outside of that can it really do much people usually do with their TVs?

My TV is WebOS. One of my streaming boxes is Android. I stream to my phone from an Android phone sometimes. I have an old Mac Mini with Ubuntu hooked up to a TV. I have two different XBox systems hooked up to two different TVs. These devices all have applications to stream video from things that aren't Plex.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#245

Post by chungy »

safety1st wrote: post #243
safety1st wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly it's disappointing that most of the comments on HN so far have been focused on the "marketing" and the website. The FAQ states that this project is still in very early stages and not yet intended for use as a daily driver. So if you actually read the website, it's clear why it's not consumer grade. I would much rather they focus on developing than marketing at this stage. The basic thing going on here is simp…

Here's a link with a lot more information. The big news today is that the UI component for Bigscreen has just gone live as a part of the KDE 5.26 beta, which is relatively straightforward to install on any Linux distro (or image to a USB stick): https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.25.90/ Maybe the post's main link should be changed to this one? That Bigscreen website seems to be confusing and out of date.

It makes me happy Big Buck Bunny is still being used for demonstrations.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#246

Post by water8 »

capableweb wrote: post #184
water8 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes the TV software better than OS software?

Usually software designed explicitly for the hardware where it runs, while OS software is designed to run on general hardware. If there is hardware specific fixes, they might be skipped as it'll make compatibility worse while software designed for exact hardware doesn't make tradeoffs like that at all.

I don’t think the actual hardware components inside a TV are all that different from an SOC because they’re essentially doing the same thing.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#248

Post by TaylorAlexander »

saaaaaam wrote: post #156
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you’ve noticed this already but having bought my last TV in 2008 I had no idea how cheap they’ve gotten! Checking Amazon right now I see a 50” 4k Samsung for $450.

Expense doesn’t always mean purely financial. There is an environmental cost to buying something new as well, and a social cost in supporting the manufacture of electronics that may have less than perfect supply chain ethical standards. I’m not saying this to be snarky or judgemental - your comment genuinely made me think about the issue and this was my response.

Yes absolutely.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#249

Post by bee_rider »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #122
bee_rider wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is also pretty unpolished, I think it is impossible to get people to work on polishing unless you have infinity dollars, like Apple. At least Linux has the excuse that it is a community project -- things that the community decides not to work on are sort of definitionally not annoying enough to be worth working on, or they would.

Windows is polished, but their product people are terrible / constrained by someone higher up to do terrible stuff. Apple is getting there though, probably because of the same managerial culture.

The whole "3 different settings UIs, one from each era of Windows, in Windows 10" thing, despite being a bit over-played, seems a bit unpolished. Maybe the plumbing is really polished, I just don't muck around with that in Windows.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen

#250

Post by seba_dos1 »

miked85 wrote: post #208
dmos62 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think you mean KDE-savy - I've been using Linux for over 20 years and had no idea what this heading meant.

"reference rootfs" makes it obvious what it is to Linux-savy people, so you don't need to know what Neon is to assume that it's some kind of a distro.
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