The Matchstick is a small device that you can plug into your TV to play videos, stream internet content, or run apps… all while using your phones, tablet, or other device as a controller.

It looks a bit like a Google Chromecast (or Intel Compute Stick, for that matter). But the Matchstick runs open source software based on Firefox OS and it’s designed as a low-cost, open alternative to other TV sticks.

matchstick_02

The team behind the Matchstick raised nearly half a million dollars through Kickstarter last year, and plan to begin shipping the final version of the device to backers of the campaign in February. It’ll be available to the public soon for $25.

While the most obvious use of this sort of device is media playback, it can do much more. The Matchstick team developed a few apps to show off at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, including a video chat app that lets you use your smartphone’s camera while sending video to your big-screen TV, and another which lets you snap a photo on you phone, send it to your TV, and then use facial recognition to identify your eyes… and then replace them in the picture with cartoon eyes.

Matchstick recently started shipping early units to developers to come up with third-party apps for the ecosystem, which means we could see more apps that take advantage of the two-way communication between you Android or Firefox OS device and the Matchstick device.

Of course, you can also just use it to find videos on your phone (or on the web) and tap a button to send them to a TV.

matchstick_01

The MatchStick has a Rockchip RK3066 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and supports 802.11n WiFi.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,543 other subscribers

4 replies on “Matchstick open source streaming TV stick demo (video)”

  1. price is right. i tend to prefer a set top box. but I have chromecast and fire sticks, so not much interest in this unless the devs come up with something particularly cool. I prefer something with a remote over using my phone, but I know that’s just a matter of taste.

    1. This is meant more for streaming website videos, rather than using apps. I know that Chromecast can do that, but it isn’t something up to par quite yet.

      1. Nope. Matchstick can do whatever Chromecast can do and more.
        It supports the chromecast 1.0 protocol out of the box and apps that use the 2.0 protocol can use it with a (relatively painless, I’m told) recompile.
        Because it has an open protocol other apps & programs can cast to it as well. In the future I won’t be surprised to find VLC casting to it.

Comments are closed.