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Deconceptualist@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

The top end Steam Deck was like $750 at release. Replace the screen with better CPU and GPU, and there’s your baseline for the Machine. Since it’s “6x” performance, price will probably be a bit higher. People thinking way less are smoking crack.
How many of you have actually had a Linux PC connected to your living room TV? I built one about 13 years ago (and upgraded the guts occasionally) and it’s been awesome. With a regular web browser you can watch YouTube (with uBlock of course), Plex/Jellyfin, or any streaming service, in addition to gaming. Plus I’ve done stuff like vacation planning with my partner, where we can easily bring up maps and hotel listings from our couch without hunching over a laptop or tablet.
While Linux hardware support is quite good these days, there’s still something to be said for buying a machine that you know is fully supported and targeted by game devs.

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brown567@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Ooh! Me! My TV has been a Linux box since 2016, and I’m NEVER going back
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- TrickDacy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Same, but I’m much more recent. Got a rpi 5 running Arch. Been happy with it for 2-3 years now
  
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  - jinwk00@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    How is ALARM recently?
    
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    TrickDacy@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Did you mean ARM? As in arm cpu support?
    
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coriza@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Did you get streaming services to stream 4k? That was some bullshit I discovered when I bought my first 4k TV, that streaming services artificially limit quality for browser and Linux streaming.

What is you solution for remote controlling? I used one of this mini keyboard+mouse combo in a shape of controller, but mine was really trash. Most of the time I used a good mouse that worked ok on the couch surface and some mouse binds to pop up a virtual keyboard. But I was never completely happy with the solution.

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- Deconceptualist@leminal.space ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Never tried 4K, sorry. I’ve only had a 1080p plasma TV (which recently blew a capacitor so I may have to get something else).
  
  For control, I use an old Logitech K830 which has a trackpad right on it. It’s a good step up from the K400 series (lithium rechargeable and backlit keys) but sadly appears to be discontinued 😞
  
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P1k1e@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Just set this up after the whole windows 10 support drop thing, and holy shit!!! This is awesome! Not only no ads but I can Strawhat everything! Just got a figure out how to do this for my phone now

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dogs0n@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Personally don’t think it’s as easy to compare the deck to a box. It’s harder to stuff the power of a steam deck into such a small package. I’ve seen the compute of the machine be related to about 600$ if you purchased parts on your own to build the pc, but considering Valve have economies of scale, custom deals for customized chips with amd and having priced “painfully” in the past, there’s a good chance it’s less than 750$. All the Steam decks had the same performance too, the expensive ones just came with more storage and a case (so using the top end price in your example seems unjust?).

Very true, those keyboard/mouse combo things that resemble a gamepad are the best!
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- Deconceptualist@leminal.space ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The new Steam Machine is very compact for a gaming PC of its caliber. That took some real engineering to find the right combination of component size, TDP, thermals and noise for such a small box. There’s obviously no screen and battery but otherwise it’s similar design work as on the Deck.
  
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  - dogs0n@sh.itjust.works ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Makes sense, I haven’t seen dimensions, but the space for pure compute has definitely increased greatly.
    
    It is still very small, but the deck (in comparison) is quite thin which I assume made it much harder to engineer. I’m sure a lot of knowledge has transferred over though and i’m not gonna act like i’d know anyways lol
    
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    Deconceptualist@leminal.space ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    If you look at a teardown of the Machine, it’s almost all heatsink inside. The remaining space isn’t really a lot bigger than a deck. But the components run much higher wattage (not constrained by battery) and put out a lot more heat, hence the need for the sink.
    
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Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I had a PC connected to my tv for a while, main issue was I didn’t want to use a mouse or keyboard to interact with it. I tried desperately to get more ways of starting via controller or other lite interface devices, but nothing convenient. It was an old machine, so eventually I gave it away.

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- moakley@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Something like ten years ago I got into a console vs PC argument on reddit, and everyone unanimously told me that starting up a PC with a controller was such an easy feature to add that it wasn’t even a consideration. I stuck with consoles.
  
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- TonyOstrich@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I use a Logitech K400 to control the PC connected to my PC and I generally find it to be much more convenient and responsive than using the remote on a smart TV or the controller for a console when over at someone else’s place. To each their own though.
  
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  - Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I feel like a lot of these pointer devices miss the simplicity of a remote. A simple one will have a tough time entering passwords, but it’s perfect and simple for the most common actions: Turn on without walking across the room, open the most recent application, play the next episode of the series I was watching last, usually just by mashing confirm. (Nothing to tell it to go fullscreen: Because that’s an obvious assumption for everything)
    
    Running it all on a PC just adds more steps, unless you follow a LOT of guides to configure it to get through those things easily.
    
    I’d really like it if web standards were better at allowing a video website to be navigated with an “Up/Down/Left/Right/Confirm/Back” device, so that you didn’t need apps for everything. That would be good for consumer devices like Apple TVs as well as people running home PC setups.
    
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    TonyOstrich@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    That’s kinda why I said to each their own. I personally find a full fledged keyboard with integrated touchpad controlling a PC using a media center UI to be my control/interface preference. The keyboard is small enough and light enough that it sits on the couch or end table with the other remotes or controllers without any issue. Until Logitech decided to be cunts there was actually a great solution more on your end of the spectrum in the form of the Harmony remote, but well, they killed it. Luckily though, there are a couple of open source efforts to create equivalent hardware as well as to dump their database of IR codes.
    
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  - chellomere@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I have one that I bought in 2013. Has fallen to the floor countless times, still works like day 1.
    
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  - Lfrith@lemmy.ca ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yep. Trying to type with anything but a keyboard sucks. I love my k400. I’ve had it for years and years. Not sure how old it is but I think I got it during the PS3/360 era for PC TV use and it is still works. And batteries last so long on it.
    
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  - 123@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Typing anything like a website for the apple TV is the most excruciatingly annoying thing ever, it could only be described as torture. I would punch the executives that approved the design.
    
    The shitty iOS input via annoying notification prompts when anyone in the house uses the TV are not a solution either, since they get so annoying you have yo disable them.
    
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- Deconceptualist@leminal.space ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That’s a tough one. The new Steam Controller will probably let you use the trackpads with an onscreen keyboard (as long as you’re running the Steam app).
  
  But you generally need some kind of keyboard with a PC. I have a little handheld Rii i4 with a thumb keyboard, maybe that would be better for you?
  
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tempest@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The majority of the steam deck SKUs were produced prior to the AI memory crunch.

These steam machines are being produced in a market where memory is 3 or 4 times more expensive.

This box will be more than a steam deck. Probably 1000 bucks or so.

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chellomere@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I’m happily running an Intel NUC as TV computer since 2013, and it’s awesome for exactly the reasons you state. I invested in it when I realized how fully crap the “smart” features of my Samsung TV are. The ultimate controller for it is a combo keyboard and touchpad, I have the Logitech K400r.

The NUC is starting to show it’s age now with its 4th gen i5, and I’m in the process of replacing it with a mini PC with an Intel N100.

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- nailbar@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Looks at my setup with Samsung tv, NUC, and wireless touchpad-keyboard combo… Huh? How about that!
  
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  - chellomere@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    It is a killer combo!
    
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captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I’ve got a Linux machine attached to my TV right now. It’s basically a Steam, Kodi and Firefox box.

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sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Yeah, I’m guessing $800-1000, and they’ll probably throw in a Steam Controller. That’s about how much a comparable PC would cost

I’ve been debating it, but it needs to be something my 5yo can use.

And that’s Valve’s target market here, those unwilling to DIY.
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psivchaz@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Had a Windows PC hooked up to my TV in I think 2008, before streaming boxes and mass adoption of Netflix. Then it was dualboot for a while starting in I think 2015, originally with Ubuntu. Now it’s full time CachyOS Linux as of 2023.

It’s always been great. Wireless keyboard with the built in trackpad, plus originally 360 controllers but now 8BitDo Ultimate controllers. Plus I use it for homelab tinkering.

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