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    [DESKTOP] Plasma Media Center rocks on a large screen t.v.

    PMC was originally intended to be the media player for a tablet.
    99 percent of "reviewing / talking heads" just did not understand this and badmouthed it after trying to run it on a regular computer.
    The tablet has gone by the wayside.
    PMC has been left by the wayside also.
    If one looks at the actual history of the app it was originally going to be able to handle you tube, etc. and nowadays they might have tried to include a DAC.
    However, it was never really configured to be a VLC or Amarok type app which would be able to index, create playlists and all the wonderful stuff that such apps do.

    It was intended to play "some" music, show "some" pictures, play "some videos", and have a very pretty interface.

    And that it does in Spades. ( I was going to add " no..." but won't" )

    It will not even recognize a USB and that is a good thing because the interface itself would become so unworkable with trying to provide nice pretty AND LARGE album covers and pictures of artists for hundreds of songs that it would crash.

    It was intended to be used by SLIDING WITH A FINGER...

    And that is where the Airmouse(tm) or WII(tm) makes it rock.

    But bet that as it may.

    The simple fact of the matter is that PMC rocks when I have a bunch over for a get together, there is nothing like it in the Windblows world.

    I did a very long...verrrrryyyyyyy looooooonnnnnnnnggggg description of my own "spin" ( Kparadigmshift) or maybe twisted peppermint ( considering the holiday season ) of how to use a large screen t.v. as a working and playing device in another thread which is buried somewhere down below Matilda's floor.

    It was complicated because I was trying to explain how to get it all set up for the completely uninitiated ( I detest the derogatory term "newbie ) and PMC kind of became lost in the digits.

    However, even that setup is now not necessary.

    KDE Neon makes linking an app to an activity dead simple and I imagine that Bespin Bovine does the same so I won't waste time on it.

    But, the point is that ...

    Since PMC was originally intended to be used on a tablet it was originally configured to be DEFAULT FULL SCREEN.

    That...is the only problem with it in terms of a computer use.

    It really is not much use on a sit down work computer.

    But, for a wide screen t.v. which is operated FROM A DISTANCE...with something like a Gyration ( tm ) "Airmouse" or a Wii(tm) ( that is WEE not a truncated world war II ) it is an outstanding media player that is just drop dead gorgeous in it's simplicity and presentation.

    So

    Three things if you want to try this out.

    a) you will have to actually hook up a computer to a large screen t.v. and I recommend a hard drive device not running from a USB.

    b) you will have to move "SOME" music that is offboard using a regular mouse or the AirMouse(tm).

    And I say "some" for a reason. When that is done PMC finds it INSTANTLY as in INSTANTLY and provides album covers / artist IMAGES( not info) etc.

    c) One has to change it from Full Screen to a smaller configuration.

    I) open PMC

    II) hit ctrl-F3 to get the interactive activity box.

    III) UNtck the full screen box and fiddle around by changing the size in the dimensions box, it will change auto-magically in real time when apply is hit. I highly recommend leaving maybe " a couple of inches" ( maybe five) or fifty centimeters( approx) at least around all sides so one can easily change activities etc.

    IV) set default to center placement.

    In all cases change the settings to FORCE.

    Because of the peculiarities of the interactions between window settings and the app settings the border can be lost which means that instead of hitting the X to close one has to hit Alt-F3 but one can also close from the panel.

    However, no border was the original design intention of the app because it was intended to run full screen and therefore no border was needed.

    And having no border is just trey cool for the Windblows people .

    woodsmoke
    Last edited by woodsmoke; Dec 23, 2017, 12:15 PM.

    #2
    Good writeup! Funny you post this now as I was just thinking about PMC and wondering where it had gone. A quick check did indeed confirm that development is all but stagnant currently and without an updated roadmap and feature list from new devs coming on board it will likely go the way so many other niche "me too!" type applications. Also, playing media back on a certain device with a certain OS is certainly too narrow of a use-case to likely gain any real traction.

    For example, with Plex I can use my phone OR TV remote to control the media on the big screen. I can further playback my media from my media server on any TV, phone, tablet, set top box, Roku, Firestick, or any other device I can throw at it. Not to mention things like hardware transcoding and the ability to customize it no end, should I want to. Is it open source? No. And that kinda sucks. But I also tried PMC and it's just a no-go for me, though if it were re-done to be a bit more flexible / powerful I would certainly consider it.

    Your use case seems like an unforeseeable success though, and that's one of the things that makes open source so fun still after all these years!
    ​"Keep it between the ditches"
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