Has anyone tried using the Steam Machine as an all in one living room entertainment box?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨magguzu@lemmy.pt⁩ to ⁨steamdeck@sopuli.xyz⁩

I’m interested in the Steam Machine’s potential to be what the Xbox One wanted to be without the bullshit.

There are some Linux apps like Jellyfin (where I watch most stuff by far) but it seems like Waydroid can fill in a lot of the Android gaps that are missing. With a TV like remote.

This would need to have the family approval factor. No hoops to jump through for the wife, just launch apps and watch.

I’m sure there are some tradeoffs specifically in the DRM camp, but the only actual potential DRM app I use is Nebula so that might be fine. I currently watch YouTube via SmartTube to circumvent ads.

Ars there other tradeoffs I’m missing?

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piskertariot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
I use my steamdeck in a docking station with extra USB ports.
You can get a FLIRC or equivalent IR receiver to navigate with an old/universal remote or USB keyboard.

I load PLEX-HTPC as a non-steam game.

I also loaded Firefox for Youtube with support for uBlock and other extensions.

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- magguzu@lemmy.pt ⁨17⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  How’s the navigation of something like YouTube in the browser with a remote? This is another curiosity of mine
  
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Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
If you have any PC around the house you can install SteamOS or Bazzite or even LinuxTV onto a USB stick, boot into it and give it a go on your TV. Most streaming services can be “installed” as a browser shortcut on the home screen if there’s no app for it.

If you see it working for you and the fam is willing to learn how to use it, buy the steam machine or a small custom pc with better specs for the same money with SteamOS or whatever you like.

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- magguzu@lemmy.pt ⁨21⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  One thing I’m interested to know is the idle state of a normal PC vs a normal PC running SteamOS vs the SM on SteamOS. The PS5 pulls something miniscule like 4 watts when it’s in rest mode. A regular PC will probably use significantly more. So this is part of the machine’s attraction to me; I’m assuming Valve got that well optimized since my Deck is okay at it too. But if any SteamOS machine does that well, hell yeah I’m all in.
  
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Donjuanme@lemmy.world ⁨38⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
It’s mostly my primary, but I mostly only stream and play steam games with it.

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domi@lemmy.secnd.me ⁨40⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I’m planning to eventually do a fresh Linux install on my Machine which launches straight into Plasma Bigscreen.

Already got the multimedia situation sorted out with HDR, 4k and audio passthrough via Jellyfin MPV Shim. Now I just need to check if the Machine still gets firmware updates when launching Steam even when it is not running SteamOS.

Didn’t have time to do the setup yet but I’m planning to replace my Odroid N2+ running CoreELEC with this.

For controlling it I wanted to use my Remote 3 and/or the Steam controller.

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- magguzu@lemmy.pt ⁨19⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  What makes you want to change to Plasma Bigscreen? I said it in another comment but one big attraction to SteamOS and/or the Machine is the low power idle state, like a regular console or streamer. Curious how other distros handle this.
  
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The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Its my dedicated TV so no family issues that I can advise on, but the Plax app I use is unavailable but available on the web so zero issues there.

Proton VPN works great with all my ahem totally legitimate sports ball watching need.

…honestly I have very little needs for a multi media box like I used to have on the Xbox, and the only major issue is that I (read: my son) can’t get the printer set up.

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- magguzu@lemmy.pt ⁨18⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  How’s the web navigation with a TV controller?
  
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  - The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org ⁨12⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    I have the Xbox controller hooked up, it works OK, I need to play around more to get the buttons down to what they’re used for. the mouse has issues with connecting but thats the mouse fault.
    
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- WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  Not sure how steamOS is, but bazzite has a version that launches into what seems like steamOS, but you can switch to desktop mode and use it like a normal desktop if someone wanted to do something like print. Haven’t really tried either with a couch setup yet though, but hopefully that changes by this weekend.
  
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  - The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org ⁨11⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    I’ll pass that along to the local IT (I spent the last 40 years in the kitchen instead of in front of a keyboard :( )
    
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Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
My problem with the machine for thr use of multimedia is that it wasnt really designed in mind for dense storage to host media, ao youre limited to streaming unless you got 8tb ssds layong around

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- magguzu@lemmy.pt ⁨21⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  That’s okay my server is another machine.
  
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