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I'm leaning toward a projector hooked up to a mini pc for my next living room 'tv'.
I only ever use mine for movie nights or special occasions anyways so it's always dark when I use it.
Any other regular viewing I usually do on my pc.
I went with a projector in my living room for years. I had it hooked up to my main PC but it was always an awkward setup until i stuck a mirror behind my monitors. Basically have the PC on the wall opposite where you want the projection, and put the projector on your computer desk way off to the side, angled so it shoots to the wall behind you. Set up the mirror so when youre sitting at your PC, the wall behind you with the projection is reflected in the mirror as a sort of extra monitor on top of the others.
I know it sounds terrible, but its super useful for quickly controlling the projector while still at the monitors.
Or get a little air mouse remote for $20 on Amazon. This is what i use for controlling my pc when its hooked up to the TV and it's so unbelievably good, even has a full keyboard on the back if I want to search something, full range of media controls on the front, and just point it and click to control the mouse cursor. Gamechanger.
I'm doing the exact same thing with a Mini-PC running Linux with Kodi.
Sure, for the linuxy stuff (management and other funcionality that has nothing to do with using it as a media player in my living room) it's way better to use a real keyboard and mouse (so I mostly do that stuff remotelly from my PC), but for the whole side of using it as a media player device that remote is perfect and since I bought an air-mouse remote which also has the buttons of a normal media player remote - which works perfectly with Kodi, be it on Linux or with the Android Media Player I had before - I seldom need to actually use the air-mouse functionality to move a mouse cursor around.
Absolutelly as you said a gamechanger.
That's what I was thinking about doing. I've already been doing a little research. I'm either gonna do standard wireless mouse and keyboard just on my couch or coffee table or one of those wireless keyboards with a TouchPad built in as a mouse replacement. I've also seen tiny Bluetooth wireless keyboards meant for phones but they also work with pcs.
I'm not planning on any crazy streamio RSuite setups as I don't torrent often and definitely not for shows I watch. Standard mini pc running Linux is all I'll probably do. Firefox with unblock serves me well on my main pc and it'll do here as well.
Seriously try one of the air remotes. It's like a gyroscopic remote and it works way better than I ever thought it would for controlling a mouse cursor. They're very cheap too, the one I have cost 30bucks, it can sense if you have it on the keyboard side or the media side facing up and disables the other sides buttons, deactivatable backlight on the buttons, and rechargeable battery, although it lasts for weeks without charging.
Good call I hadn't heard about them, I'll check it out.
I've been also doing this kind of thing for a few months and just want to suggest you look for one with the full media player buttons like this since that works directly in Kodi, so if you're using a PC/Mini-PC with Kodi on as a media player, as long as you don't exit Kodi with this you pretty much have typical experience you do with a smart-TV or an Android TV media box with dedicated remote.
That said, I don't recommend this specific model since the buttons are requiring stronger pressing to work already and I've only had it for a few months - the idea is great but this specific device is a low quality implementation.
That said, I started with a wireless keyboard and mouse and still have them connected to it but in a corner, for the few times I have to do stuff with that PC outside Kodi, since the mini-keyboard on the back of my air-mouse and the air-mouse functionality itself are more awkward to use than an actual keyboard and mouse.
I don't really have any intention on using any of those programs to emulate regular TV watching once I have the mini pc and projector running. Not because I can't set it up because I've done it before but I've found that regular Firefox with unblock is good enough for me. I know what I wanna watch and I know where to go to stream it for free.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely check out the media player button. I'm still doing research on what would work best for my use case.