Use the KDE "plasma screen" to turn your regular TV into a smart TV

radiogaga

Member
Today, smart TVS are the new normal. These smart TVS are mainly based on Android and let you play YouTube, Netflix, Spotify and other streaming services. You can even use voice commands to control your smart TV.

One of the main problems with these so-called "smart TVS" is that they may be watching you. Your data is collected when you may or may not know it.

That's the problem KDE's plasma big screen project aims to solve.


"Plasma big screen" : making TVS smarter through open source technology

You may know about the KDE project. It started as a Linux Desktop Environment project, and over the course of 20 years, the KDE project has grown in size, which is why they created Plasma to make it clear that KDE is no longer just a "K Desktop Environment" (KDE).

The Plasma project itself has several USES, of course, you can use it on a desktop Linux computer, and Plasma has a mobile version that you can run on linux-based smartphones such as Librem5 and PinePhone.

"Plasma big screen" is a new project of KDE that aims to provide an interface and functions similar to those offered by smart TVS.

All you need is a single board computer like a raspberry PI and a TV with an HDMI port. Then install the "plasma screen" on your raspberry PI device and connect it to the TV.


Plasma screen features: not just media servers

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YouTube In Plasma Bigscreen​


At first glance, it looks a lot like a media server, but unlike Kodi and other Linux media servers, plasma big screen doesn't stop there.

Use a regular remote control

You don't need a new dedicated remote control. Thanks to CEC, you can use a regular TV remote control.

Voice control with open source Mycroft AI

Plasma big screen leverages the open source Mycroft AI project. With Mycroft AI built into the plasma screen, you can use voice commands to play content, check the weather and control other aspects of the smart TV. You can train it further by teaching it new skills.

Traditional desktop applications

Plasma big screen not only provides rich media applications, but also traditional desktop applications that have been redesigned to fit its experience.

Free open source software

Most importantly, it's an open source project that USES other open source technologies to give you complete control over your data and your smart TV.

Since it's open source, I'm sure some vendors will offer it as a plug-and-play device once it's released.
 
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