Anyone here use a Raspberry Pi as a media centre?

ArchAnGeL · 14 Jun 2013 at 21:07

installed abmc to a usb stick. it is ok with the right skin and if using passthrough. No match on a htpc obviously and i am anxious to try a high end android stick

cavemanoc · 14 Jun 2013 at 21:11

I finally gave in an bought the MK809III today - just can't get over the variety of stuff available for android now! Will fire up a thread when it arrives and let you know if it's all I had hoped for.

I'm still toying with getting a Pi as the centre of my automated home - just can't think of anything that I'd actually want to automate yet

Magic_x_uk · 14 Jun 2013 at 23:03

how much would one of these Raspberry and everything needed to run XBMC, remote etc cost me.

I have a external USB HD. So this would be great if it could run XBMC.

I have no knowledge on it though. So some 'this is what you need' etc would be great. If someone would possibly let me know.

Joebob · 15 Jun 2013 at 07:49

Magic_x_uk said:
how much would one of these Raspberry and everything needed to run XBMC, remote etc cost me.

I have a external USB HD. So this would be great if it could run XBMC.

I have no knowledge on it though. So some 'this is what you need' etc would be great. If someone would possibly let me know.

The Raspberry Pi itself only costs about £30 online, but you only get the actual Pi itself, so not even a power supply.

The rest of the costs are depending on your needs. I bought a case and a heatsink, less than a fiver for the two, but you don't actually need them. You will need an SD card though, some people on here are using hi speed ones although I had mine running on an old 1GB with XMBC without issue, I now use a 4GB class 4 card without any problems.

The one thing I would definitely recommend is a powered USB hub though. The Pi has minimal power requirements and only needs a micro USB lead to power it so if you plug in any USB devices, which require power from the device, you will run into problems. The powered hub solves this problem with the bonus that you can actually power the Pi from it as well.

With regards to the media centre remote, I bought a cheap one from the rainforest site for about £3 but to be honest I never use it as the Yatse app for smartphones is far better!

Needed
Raspberry Pi
SD Card
Micro USB Power Cable
HDMI cable
Either a mouse or some sort of remote
Ethernet Cable - not actually needed, but if you want to run scrapers etc then I definitely recommend it.

Magic_x_uk · 15 Jun 2013 at 08:12

Thank you Joebob. Gives me something to think about then.

I do not 'think' I would need a powered USB hub though as the external HD is Mains powered anyhow?

Is it easy to set the raspberry up with XBMC as well as that is all I would want it to do.

Joebob · 15 Jun 2013 at 10:48

Magic_x_uk said:
Thank you Joebob. Gives me something to think about then.

I do not 'think' I would need a powered USB hub though as the external HD is Mains powered anyhow?

Is it easy to set the raspberry up with XBMC as well as that is all I would want it to do.

Dead easy. Just download the latest build of Openelec from here pop the SD card into your PC/Mac and use some software like win32diskimager (or Mac equivalent) to write the image to the SD card. Then pop it into your Pi and fire it up - simples!

Trick · 15 Jun 2013 at 10:53

I cannot recommend a pi enough as an xbmc 'box'. I've been using a 512mb one for months and its been brilliant. Super low power, always on, silent, never crashes, fast enough at 1ghz, streams everything I can throw at it without buffering, lives behind the tv so is completely innocuous. And it's cheap. What's not to like?

Joebob · 15 Jun 2013 at 11:09

Trick said:
I cannot recommend a pi enough as an xbmc 'box'. I've been using a 512mb one for months and its been brilliant. Super low power, always on, silent, never crashes, fast enough at 1ghz, streams everything I can throw at it without buffering, lives behind the tv so is completely innocuous. And it's cheap. What's not to like?

And it doubles up as a simple NAS type drive to share all your media throughout the house. I can access all my media now on my laptop, phone or tablet with no issues streaming whatsoever.

Great little gadget

oli collett · 15 Jun 2013 at 14:39

niggyg said:
The buffer issues maybe because of the network protocol your using. SAMBA has more overhead than NFS, if your not already, and are able to, use NFS.

I've found Raspbmc's reliability has improved loads over the last 6 months and its definitely usable as the main media center.

I can't believe it's a network issue i'm having, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stream on other devices. I've also tried NFS but it still seems to be the same.

After installing the codecs it is better than before, but still not right - seems to particularly struggle with films that have 7.1 PCM audio tracks - DTS/DD films seem better but still not right. I guess that does suggest an issue somewhere with networking but it must surely be Openelec or the hardware rather than the network?

Confused · 15 Jun 2013 at 17:06

High transfer rates + SMB = more overhead, it's a fact that on Linux, SMB requires more CPU grunt than NFS. Most other devices are quicker than a Pi (which is about the equivalent to a 300Mhz Pentium 2), which is why you might not think it's a "network issue".

Also, remember that if you can pass through audio to a receiver, the Pi doesn't need to decode it. Add in SMB overhead, a high bitrate video AND decoding audio... that poor little CPU doesn't quite have the grunt behind it to do it all together.

FerretBoy · 15 Jun 2013 at 21:14

I can confirm that I found nfs better.

oli collett · 15 Jun 2013 at 22:41

Confused said:
High transfer rates + SMB = more overhead, it's a fact that on Linux, SMB requires more CPU grunt than NFS. Most other devices are quicker than a Pi (which is about the equivalent to a 300Mhz Pentium 2), which is why you might not think it's a "network issue".

Also, remember that if you can pass through audio to a receiver, the Pi doesn't need to decode it. Add in SMB overhead, a high bitrate video AND decoding audio... that poor little CPU doesn't quite have the grunt behind it to do it all together.

It ain't decoding audio though, HDMI is set to passthrough everything, and unless it's decided to change it's mind, it should be using NFS - although i've had issues as I found once I set up a share it was very difficult to remove/edit it. Is there an easy way to check and edit the settings for a particular share? I find it's easy enough to add a new one but modifying an existing one is another matter..

edgedemon · 16 Jun 2013 at 11:33

Confused said:
High transfer rates + SMB = more overhead, it's a fact that on Linux, SMB requires more CPU grunt than NFS. Most other devices are quicker than a Pi (which is about the equivalent to a 300Mhz Pentium 2), which is why you might not think it's a "network issue".

Also, remember that if you can pass through audio to a receiver, the Pi doesn't need to decode it. Add in SMB overhead, a high bitrate video AND decoding audio... that poor little CPU doesn't quite have the grunt behind it to do it all together.

My problem was that WHS2011 doesn't support NFS mounts, so Im stuck with SMB until the next upgrade cycle

Confused · 16 Jun 2013 at 15:57

oli collett said:
It ain't decoding audio though, HDMI is set to passthrough everything, and unless it's decided to change it's mind, it should be using NFS - although i've had issues as I found once I set up a share it was very difficult to remove/edit it. Is there an easy way to check and edit the settings for a particular share? I find it's easy enough to add a new one but modifying an existing one is another matter..

Maybe the video file you're trying to play doesn't have an audio codec that can be passed through HDMI, so the Pi has to try to decode it?

This also happens if you tell XBMC your receiver can decode a type of audio format and it can't - cue 1-2 FPS and no audio.

edgedemon said:
My problem was that WHS2011 doesn't support NFS mounts, so Im stuck with SMB until the next upgrade cycle

I haven't tested this, but have found a guide for setting up NFS on WHS2011:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011/12/23/guide-setting-up-nfs-in-whs-2011/

oHUTCHYo · 22 Jun 2013 at 10:31

Still tempted to try out a Pi to replace my WDTV Live. I really want to try XBMC and like the idea idea of scraping the artwork and synopsis for my movies. I used to make movie sheets manually using Thumbgen with my WDTV running customer firmware but got bored.

I keep hearing various opinions on whether the Pi can or cannot smoothly playback high bitrate 1080p rips, though the consensus appears to be an overclock and heatsink can resolve that.

Two questions then, to get 5.1 DTS/Dolby I'll need an optical out as my TV (Panny 50" G20) doesnt do pass through from HDMI. What's the most cost effective solution to get 5.1 optical out from a Pi?

The other question, I have a Harmony One remote, does the Pi have IR so I can use my Harmony One to control?

oHUTCHYo · 22 Jun 2013 at 12:25

...let me rephrase my question actually; I just want XBMC. Now looking at an Acer Revo unless anyone can suggest a sub £100 media player with optical out that can be hacked to use XBMC and play 1080P?

Joebob · 31 Jul 2013 at 15:11

with the help of this youtube guide

I have openelec running from a USB stick rather then an SD card and the improvement is huge!

Highly recommend you try this if you haven't already!