Plasma Bigscreen is back in action. After a period of quiet development, the KDE-based TV interface has recently seen significant updates thanks to a renewed push from contributors stepping up to revive the project.
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.
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.
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—users can now quickly access their favorite apps without the need for endless scrolling.
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.
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.
Lastly, controller support has improved thanks to the plasma-remotecontrollers repository, which enables Xbox controllers and TV remotes via HDMI-CEC to be conveniently mapped to arrow navigation keys.
For those eager to dive in, testing the updated Plasma Bigscreen is as simple as flashing postmarketOS onto a Raspberry Pi 5, compiling the shell, and plugging into a TV via HDMI. Popular apps like Kodi and VacuumTube have been confirmed to work seamlessly, offering rich media experiences with remote-friendly navigation.
Despite these advancements, Plasma Bigscreen is far from perfect at the moment. According to the dev, there’s still a lot of work to do:
- No virtual keyboard (yet)—so typing requires a Bluetooth keyboard.
- No clear roadmap—should Bigscreen focus on media apps, or stay a general-purpose TV OS?
- No official release—distros dropped it after Plasma 6, so getting it back into KDE’s release cycle is a priority.
Still, the project’s revival is showing some real promise, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how it develops.
For more information, refer to the developer’s blog post.
Image credits: espi.dev
