We’ve seen a few Raspberry Pi TVs in the past, including this retro TV simulator and The Simpsons-themed TV that plays episodes from the animated sitcom. But this is the first time we’ve seen a Pi-powered TV dedicated to playing live streams from Twitch streamers. Created by a maker named Bob (also known by his handle Rsheldiii), this custom Twitch TV can be programmed to start playing any live stream of choice as soon as it’s active.
The hardware is housed inside a purple, 3D-printed shell resembling the twitch.tv logo. Bob configured the system to play in real-time at full volume when a stream begins. He describes it as a “twitch.tv TV, a twitch.tv TV made to look like twitch.tv that plays twitch.tv on its uh... monitor.”
In the project details, Bob doesn’t specify the exact model of Raspberry Pi used in the project. However, you could recreate it using something as new as a Raspberry Pi 4 or even something smaller like a Raspberry Pi Zero. It would help to use something with built-in Wi-Fi support, but you could use a regular Pi Zero with a USB to Ethernet adapter. Raspberry Pis are notably hard to get ahold of right now, so be sure to check out our guide on where to buy a Raspberry Pi 4 if you’re in the market for a new Pi.
In addition to the 3D printed housing and Raspberry Pi, the project takes advantage of an Elecrow Raspberry Pi monitor. It spans 5-inches across and features an 800 x 480px IPS panel with a built-in speaker. This allows the TV to display the stream and play audio. Power is provided to the system via USB.
The Twitch stream is handled using an application called Streamlink. This can be installed on a Pi running Raspberry Pi OS and requires a bit of configuration to optimize it for a particular stream. You can find details about how to configure Streamlink on the twitch.tv TV project page at GitHub.
If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project or make something similar, check out the official GitHub, and be sure to see the demo video shared on YouTube of the TV in action. In the meantime, you can also follow Bob for more cool projects and any future updates on this one.
