I’m looking for a combination of gaming and streaming on a smart TV. Because I don’t want the smart TV to connect to the internet and show ads or use AI companions, I’m looking for alternatives. Since small PCs are a good alternative to streaming boxes, I’m wondering, whether SteamOS can also do that? Or is it better to have two separate devices?
Yes. I use SteamOS and Bazzite (I have multiple TVs with different computers for this) with Steam Big Picture mode as my sole streaming interface. Here are some decent Linux apps for various streaming services:
Just add those as “non-steam games” and you’re mostly good to go. For some apps, like Jellyfin, you need to enable keyboard navigation (a.k.a. “gamepad controls”).
Get yourself one of these if you’d like a mostly seamless remote control experience (depending on how well each streaming app/wrapper works with keyboard/gamepad navigation). Easily the best $25 I ever spent.