So for the past little while I’ve had a Pi 4 hooked up to my TV as a Kodi box running OSMC, which has been okay I guess. Having recently built a new PC, my old Ryzen 3600/GTX-1080 box is freed up, so I’m thinking of replacing that Pi with something that can also run Steam.
I’m completely at a loss for what system to run for a living room couch/TV experience. Kodi…could be better, OSMC doesn’t have a desktop and won’t launch just a normal web browser, it uses Kodi as its only UI and it’s just not fully good enough.
I’m also not sure if Steam Big Picture Mode is capable of being a media center. Like, can it play movies from there? My experience with Steam’s Big Picture Mode is it runs like microwaved shit anyway, feels as responsive as the average dogwood.
I want to be able to get to my collection of movies on my NAS, play Steam games, and do some web browser tasks like watch Youtube and that kind of thing. I just don’t do the streaming services, I don’t need Huflix or NetMax or whatever.
I can do 2 out of 3. instead of running the abomination that is Kodi, you can install normal linux to the Pi (Raspbian), and then add on jellyfin-mpv-shim (or plex-mpv-shim) and macast (for youtube, peertube, etc and it also supports DLNA). they are sinks, i.e. there is no UI for you to interact with. instead, you use your mobile phone or tablet to browse your library, youtube, whathaveyou. when you want something played, you send it to the sink and it plays it in full screen. you can use the mobile device to control playback (pause, ff/rew, change subs, etc.).
can’t help with the gaming part, moonlight/sunshine should do that but I haven’t got any experience with them.
the Pi 4 you got is more than adequate for all the mentioned tasks.