Makerfabs has released the Raspberry Pi CM5 TV Stick Lite, a $35 (€32) carrier board that plugs directly into any HDMI port and turns a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 into a full desktop computer hanging off the back of your TV or monitor. Unlike typical carrier boards that require a separate HDMI cable, the CM5 TV Stick Lite has the HDMI connector built right in, keeping the setup compact and cable-free.
The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 at the heart of this setup measures 55 x 40 x 4.7 mm (2.17 x 1.57 x 0.19 inches) and packs a 2.4 GHz BCM2712 quad-core processor, between 2GB and 16GB of LPDDR4-4267 RAM, up to 64GB of eMMC storage, WiFi 5, and Bluetooth 5.0. The carrier board itself adds a USB-C port for power and data, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports for peripherals like keyboards, gamepads, or external storage, a microSD card reader, an IR receiver, a fan connector, and power and user buttons.
The practical applications are broad. You can run Kodi as a media center, fire up RetroPie for retro game emulation, or just boot into a full Linux desktop. LibreELEC is a natural pairing for the media center case, offering a minimal Kodi-focused Linux distribution with confirmed CM5 support, and the board's onboard IR receiver means a standard TV remote works without any extra hardware or USB dongle. Batocera is another open-source option worth considering alongside RetroPie, with Raspberry Pi 5 platform support covering a broad library of emulated systems. The design echoes Makerfabs' earlier CM4 TV Stick, which is currently out of stock, suggesting reasonable demand for this form factor. Hardware design files are also available on GitHub for those who want to build or modify their own.
The carrier board itself is $35 (€32), but the CM5 module is sold separately. Entry-level CM5 configurations start at $67.50 (€62), while a fully loaded 16GB RAM and 64GB eMMC variant now runs $325 (€299) following recent memory-driven price increases across the Raspberry Pi lineup.
