Putting together a new Linux HTPC build and looking for a 10ft UI WM/DE to use with it. Essentially, it would be a launcher for a few PWAs (Emby, Netflix, etc) as well as Steam and maybe some emulators. Navigation would likely be a wireless keyboard and, if absolutely necessary, mouse (goal is to get a bluetooth remote working and use that, but that’s the next phase).
I haven’t used Kodi since it was still Xbox Media Center (running on an actual Xbox lol), but would it be a good choice? I used it forever ago as the dashboard for my modded Xbox, and it was great. However, for this, I’d rather not run Kodi, if possible, since Emby already covers those use-cases.
If there’s no “dedicated” one, any recommendations for which regular DE might be best modifiable/extendable to work for that purpose?
I think Kodi is a good choice, but not really sufficient for everything you might want to do IMO.
You could also look into KDE Plasma Bigscreen. It’s still pretty rough around the edges, but I think it aims to do what you want.
I am actually thinking about building something similar with different tech, as I’m not satisfied with any of the existing options. I really want something that’s primarily controlled via a mobile Web interface like the Kore app for Kodi.
Yeah, I currently boot straight into OpenBox -> Firefox Fullscreen -> Emby right now, and everything’s controlled from a second Emby session on my phone. I’d keep that, but I’d also want to be able to easily navigate the “desktop” part. Someone else mentioned BigScreen, but I’ve never had a good experience with KDE in general, so I’m hesitant. May still try it out, though.
Hold up
You have a 10ft TV!
Anyway I would just install a regular desktop and then adjust scaling
I’m an emby person myself and am enjoying LibreELEC a bunch. With the emby for Kodi addon I’ve gotten so used to having every single thing in one interface that when a situation presents itself where I’m using the actual emby app, I get disappointed with the fact that none of the other Kodi addons are there.
It’s pretty slick and once everyone is used to the Kodi interface for all apps/addons we’ve never looked back
Yeah, Kodi seems to be the leading contender.
With the emby for Kodi addon
How old is that add-on and howe well does it work? I was exploring Kodi at one point in the past (never got past planning stage) and was looking to see if there was a plugin to integrate Emby but couldn’t find one (there’s nothing really special about it’s streams, they just need to be requested the right way).
I may give that a try. I do like the idea of a unified interface versus a controller for the UI and a separate controller/webapp for Emby.
There’s an older and a new version of the addon. And it works well enough! Even has a helper to clean up the interface around the emby stuff.
The secondary emby app can still control the kodi box the same way also!
I’ve recently retired an old aio to be our tv using libreelec. There’s a new-ish bundled skin called copacetic which is highly configurable and I’m slowly organising the interface to move away from the conventional menu style interface that most other skins still use to something more like the interface of a steaming service. Copacetic has a video that demos some of what you can do.
KDE has Plasma BigScreen. It’s a little buggy but mostly world alright and automatically supports HDMI CEC to keyboard conversion so you can navigate most apps.
I’ve used Plasma off and on for years, and every time I just regretted it. Can’t point to one particular issue that ruined it, it was just a lot of little annoyances over a long period of time (mostly with multi-monitor setup and the panels glitching out all the time). So “BugScreen” sounds about right, lol.
That said, this would be more of an “appliance” configuration so I may give it a shot and keep Kodi as a fallback.
