I gave up on HTPCs after a decade or more of trying because I never found a good way to control it that was practical for everyone in the house. I ended up with a Roku Ultra (even though my feelings toward Roku are lukewarm) because it has a simple remote, or can be controlled/automated by home assistant, or can be controlled from Alexa (via a custom skill I wrote), or it can be screen casted to, or it could be controlled by a Harmony Hub (RIP Harmony).
But separate smart box together with a dumb TV is the the way to go.
I put Kodi on a raspberry pi, and my TV supported CEC, so I was able to use the TV remote to seamlessly control Kodi. It was as close to a native interface as I could wish for. And that was all the way back in 2016
CEC is such a nightmare of a technology though. I have problems with it constantly to the point where it’s just expected it won’t work 50% of the time, and it’s impossible to troubleshoot
Harmony was how I controlled my HTPCs. But once I moved from MythTV to Plex, I just started using Roku or Google TV frontends. They just worked so much more reliably and were super cheap.
I tried to get the the HTPC working with Harmony. Even got a flirc to extend it’s capabilities, but never found a decent way to get good mouse control with it.
I gave up on HTPCs after a decade or more of trying because I never found a good way to control it that was practical for everyone in the house. I ended up with a Roku Ultra (even though my feelings toward Roku are lukewarm) because it has a simple remote, or can be controlled/automated by home assistant, or can be controlled from Alexa (via a custom skill I wrote), or it can be screen casted to, or it could be controlled by a Harmony Hub (RIP Harmony).
But separate smart box together with a dumb TV is the the way to go.
I put Kodi on a raspberry pi, and my TV supported CEC, so I was able to use the TV remote to seamlessly control Kodi. It was as close to a native interface as I could wish for. And that was all the way back in 2016
CEC is such a nightmare of a technology though. I have problems with it constantly to the point where it’s just expected it won’t work 50% of the time, and it’s impossible to troubleshoot
I have to unplug my docked Steamdeck anytime I want to watch any other input because screws with the CEC functionality so much. It’s a hot mess.
Yeah, Kodi was slick when I had it first on my HTPC, then on the OG Kodi Box. That was about 40% of what I used the HTPC for at the time, though.
Never knew about CEC, learn something new everyday! Thats pretty neat.
Harmony was how I controlled my HTPCs. But once I moved from MythTV to Plex, I just started using Roku or Google TV frontends. They just worked so much more reliably and were super cheap.
I tried to get the the HTPC working with Harmony. Even got a flirc to extend it’s capabilities, but never found a decent way to get good mouse control with it.
Oh I never tried using the mouse with Harmony. I’m not even sure I knew that was possible.
Valid point, not everyone likes to use a mouse and keyboard for watching shows in the livingroom.
My tv is “smart” but ive never setup any internet for it effectively making it dumb.
You could not have described my exact scenario any better. I’m in the same boat.