{"id":177614,"date":"2025-07-16T12:45:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T12:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/?p=177614"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:48:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T16:48:40","slug":"plasma-bigscreen-gets-a-fresh-boost-from-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/plasma-bigscreen-gets-a-fresh-boost-from-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Plasma Bigscreen Gets a Fresh Boost from the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plasma Bigscreen<\/a> is back in action. After a period of quiet development, the KDE-based TV interface has recently seen updates thanks to a renewed push from contributors stepping up to revive the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally launched around 2020, Plasma Bigscreen aimed to provide a comfortable TV interface, complete with navigation optimized for remotes and controllers. Initially, it was closely tied to Mycroft, an open-source virtual assistant, but the project lost momentum after early 2023, when Mycroft ceased development, and Plasma transitioned from version 5 to version 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to the past few months, Plasma Bigscreen has seen fresh activity, notably sparked by a KDE contributor who decided to spend a week rejuvenating the project. Initial housekeeping tasks quickly led to more substantial changes, significantly enhancing both the UI and backend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revamped Bigscreen UI now sports a more streamlined homescreen. Gone are the old shadows and cluttered panels; instead, there’s now a clean, flattened layout that reduces visual noise and improves navigation performance. A new, intuitive search function using KRunner makes finding apps a breeze\u2014users can now quickly access their favorite apps without the need for endless scrolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Plasma<\/a>
Plasma Bigscreen UI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the settings interface has also undergone a major facelift, now featuring a neat two-pane layout and a dedicated sidebar for effortless navigation. Settings modules, ranging from audio and display to Wi-Fi and KDE Connect, have been completely reworked to be more TV-friendly, making the user experience feel cohesive and modern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One notable improvement is the updated application-launching feedback, which mirrors the responsive system seen in Plasma Mobile, providing users with clear visual cues when an app starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, controller support has improved thanks to the plasma-remotecontrollers<\/a> repository, which enables Xbox controllers and TV remotes via HDMI-CEC to be conveniently mapped to arrow navigation keys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those eager to dive in, testing the updated Plasma Bigscreen is as simple as flashing postmarketOS onto a Raspberry Pi 5<\/a>, compiling the shell, and plugging into a TV via HDMI. Popular apps like Kodi<\/a> and VacuumTube have been confirmed to work seamlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these advancements, Plasma Bigscreen is far from perfect at the moment. According to the dev, there\u2019s still a lot of work to do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n