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Comment by mastazi | Hacker News Reader

> Would you want a command line interface on your Smart TV using only a remote? How about XFCE? Or GNOME? No

Yes. After struggling with every single type of Smart TV platform (Google TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV). I settled for a Linux HTPC that I control with a Logitech K400. I finally found what I needed and I'm never going back to looking for crappy apps on some semi-empty store. Walled gardens are really sad.

You just need a remote with QWERTY and trackpad, and a few adjustments to the OS (e.g. 125% UI scaling works pretty well for me).

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>You just need a remote with QWERTY and trackpad

Sure, if you change your requirements and sidestep mine then everything becomes easy. Now try doing the same with an actual TV remote, which my question actually asked about.

Is there some law that mandates using a remote? I don't really understand your point

Using Linux on a TV is not the same as using a TV as a general computing device. You still use it as a media consumption machine, and that's why you've been able to set it up accordingly. Now what if I asked you to set up your TV to do everything I do on my general purpose laptop or desktop computer? It would suck, plain and simple.

Yes, this is true, point taken, I wouldn't try and use that TV to do work. But, as a streaming machine, it is really awesome, I get a level of flexibility that Apple/Google/Fire TV would never allow. But I agree with you, it's not going to replace my desktop or my laptop any time soon.

> Now what if I asked you to set up your TV to do everything I do on my general purpose laptop or desktop computer? It would suck, plain and simple.

I don't understand the distinction you're trying to make between having an Intel NUC on my desk connected to a monitor and a keyboard, or having one mounted to the back of my television (or monitor placed in the room as if it were a television), and controlling it with my remote keyboard. They're both general-purpose computers, they both do exactly the same thing, the TV runs Debian Stable and my PC runs Debian Testing.

Fair but the point is you are trying to solve the problem with the wrong tool.

GP adapted the the form factor to his needs.

The remote form factor was created for a long gone use case of 'zapping' through channels coming from an analog source.

Home theater nowadays has no similarity with the interface needs of cable/satellite TV, so why would you be hung up on using the same remote control interface?

Remote controls have been tortured into fitting smart TVs with ever more ridiculous tiny buttons and confusing silk labels the remote control concept needs to be retired anyway.

>GP adapted the the form factor to his needs.

My point is that drastic I/O adaptation almost always require UI/UX adaptations, which doesn't happen with these enthusiast projects.

>Home theater nowadays has no similarity with the interface needs of cable/satellite TV, so why would you be hung up on using the same remote control interface?

Because that's what people use. If we went by some "blank slate" argument then we could make a ton of things possible, but that's not what this problem is about. Additionally, even if you had a keyboard+touchpad combo, would you rather use your TV from your couch with GNOME or XFCE or would you prefer Kodi's interface?

I use Gnome on my TV, with a Bluetooth keyboard. It works great. I don't see what advantage Kodi's interface has.

I use MATE. I'd like a better tv-tuner application, because that's a hole in FOSS, but I also can't stand the Kodi interface although I've have made many attempts to adopt it to my use case from back when it was XBMC. The Kodi interface is more annoying and difficult to navigate than a standard PC desktop with the font sizes bumped up used with remote keyboard/touchpad that is smaller than my remote.

Kodi is theoretically a better fit for the 10-foot display use case. It also has a bunch of features built in for dealing with video libraries, their management/filtering and so on that you won't get with a generic interface like the Gnome or KDE file browser.

I have a Logitech Ksomething wireless keyboard with integrated touchpad, and a standard IR remote.

They cost about the same. Some machines come with IR receivers, some need them added on via USB. If you need one, I can highly recommend the FLIRC: https://flirc.tv/

I flip between the devices depending on what I'm doing. Mostly, it's the remote.

You didn't even list the two most popular platforms LG WebOS and Samsung Tizen.

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