I have an old laptop that I want to use to replace the "smart" features on my living room TV. Can anybody recommend a distro and setup which could act like a dashboard / remote control setup?
I want the PC to auto launch to a menu where I can use something like a remote to keep it convenient for lower tech people in my home. Are there remotes controls for this purpose? Distros?
I appreciate any guidance!
Use a wireless combined keyboard+touchpad as the remote
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Check out if KDE connect works for you. You can launch any scripts you make, and control the input from your phone.
If it does, any stable distro like Debian should work fine for that purpose.
Auto launch depends on the DE
Any distro should do it, you just need to set your media centre software to run at startup. I've done it with Plex and Kodi, and I think Jellyfin does it too :)
Piggy backing to ask how one could play video from streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, etc in full HD under such a setup? My assumptions are that videos would be played in a web browser, and most if not all streaming services like Netflix limit video playback to 720p in a web browser, although I’d love to be wrong about that.