Raspberry Pi - $35 Linux computer

[PinkFloyd]

Media remotes work over wifi in the case of XBMC or you can use your TV remote over HDMI-CEC

As for the other question... You'd be mad not to. Can you not spare £7.88?

Not sure the TV we've got in the house has HDMI-CEC, will look at other remote options. I just think remote control from the phone would be pretty nifty

As for the SD card - I fully intend to buy one! But it won't be here tomorrow in time for me to have a very basic play before I go away for the next few days.

 

[jaybee]

I'd put it more down to the power supply really, plus possibly whether you're using the Pi to decode the audio or not?

SD card wise I've tried two, a brand new class 6 that has shockingly bad performance and an ancient Class 2 which is perfectly fine in the menu's etc of xbmc (not loading any films off it, obviously), I think the problem is the pi's support of SD cards is so patchy it's not just a case of 'get a class 10' it's more specifically get a card that's known to work well in the pi...

Video performance I use a 2amp charger as a power supply and it has no issues with any 720p stuff I've tried, it does have issues with high-bitrate 1080p stuff when also asked to decode the audio, after getting an av receiver and outputting the DTS directly over HDMI for the receive to decode it's handling the high-bitrate 1080p stuff fairly well (still some tweaks needed, gonna try overclocking, changing the memory setup and probably more importantly upgrading to RC3 )

OK cool. All things to try. I happened to be using PS3 media server to feed the PI media so that would have taken care of transcoding stuff I think. It's possible it's because I didn't cap anything to run over 100mbps network and have had everything on super high quality via gigabit. Sometimes the buffer in PS3MS I have seen peak over 100mbps on very hq 1080p rips.
Will try a better PSU tonight and also my new SD card when it comes.

 

[boxman2000]

I use Samsung 8gb Class 10 from 'Start Button' and just ordered a second so I can test out betas and maybe look at the retro console stuff.

Some good advice a page or two back about laggy response on RaspBMC - make sure you've disabled any addons you aren't using and also wait for your files to finish indexing (I just left mine on overnight as I have several terabytes).

 

[jaybee]

I use Samsung 8gb Class 10 from 'Start Button' and just ordered a second so I can test out betas and maybe look at the retro console stuff.

Some good advice a page or two back about laggy response on RaspBMC - make sure you've disabled any addons you aren't using and also wait for your files to finish indexing (I just let mine on overnight as I have several terabytes).

Ok will try disabling all add ons. What do you mean wait for files to index? I'm not sure I understand how indexing works. All my files are hosted on a server, the PI's job is simply to play them. Does it hold a local DB cache of directories it is linked to to aid menu browsing of files? Surely this would only affect performance in menus rather than actual live playback?

 

[jaybee]

Oh ok I see now...lol. I think the below described me as well. I noticed my CPU and ram were very high even just "in the menus" so perhaps I didn't give it a chance to retreive all its info from the net on my movies and stuff?

I've started again from scratch (same build) and things are looking different - my 'recently added movies' art wasn't appearing before and some other art was missing which is now there. The difference is that this time I didn't go gung ho into playing movies before it had all settled down so it's looking promising. Will wait for CPU to settle (its about 80% at the moment) before doing anything as I have quite a few films.

 

[boxman2000]

Ok will try disabling all add ons. What do you mean wait for files to index? I'm not sure I understand how indexing works. All my files are hosted on a server, the PI's job is simply to play them. Does it hold a local DB cache of directories it is linked to to aid menu browsing of files? Surely this would only affect performance in menus rather than actual live playback?

I believe by default once the Pi has, for example, been pointed to the network location of your TV programs, RaspBMC will go and scrape for program information - that absolutely killed my performance and I couldn't play anything until that was finished. It is quite obvious when the software is doing this.

That was only on initial setup and it depends how the software has been configures - you'll know when it's scraping as there will be progress bar on top of screen.

I've not played around much with RaspBMC yet and I intend on disabling some addons but it's playing absolutely fine and most of my rips are 1080 anyway.

Oh ok I see now...lol. I think the below described me as well. I noticed my CPU and ram were very high even just "in the menus" so perhaps I didn't give it a chance to retreive all its info from the net on my movies and stuff?

Yes that's right - just saw your post

 

[lemonade]

As said previously I'd highly recommend Samsung 8GB Class 10 SDHC model code: MB-SP8GAEU. Only £6 and top notch quality card.

 

[lukext]

I got mine yesterday and had a play with RaspBMC last night.

I got it all up and running and handles my SD videos fine. 720p youtube is good too. I will be getting on demand video service setup tonight hopefully.

A few issues I'm having though:
1) When I connect the Pi to my TV or AMP (both Sony) when the Pi is powered off, the TV will complain that it has lost connection to my amp and play sound though its internal speakers??? When the Pi is on, all is good as far as I can tell. Any ideas>

2)NFS file shares from my synology Ds212J. I have followed the instructions from the wiki and the Pi can see my NAS. However when i navigate to a mapped folder with files in it it loads the list of files for a slpit second then the Pi reboots. Upnp shares however work fine.

3)1080p blu-ray rips I have re-encoded. I need to investigate this more but they freeze every 5 seconds or so for a split sec. I am using DTS-HD pass through which i have heard is problematic?

Not bad for a first go but need to play more!!!

 

[Gooner Leroy]

I will finally get round to playing with my Pi this weekend but I am a complete noob to Linux. Can someone recommend me a guide for beginners? Also, what's the best OS to use? I've heard Debian being mentioned?

Just about to order SD card (8gb class 10 ok?), power supply , usb hub and card reader. Anything else? Also, will the Pi be able to power all the accessories plugged into the usb hub? I'm looking at a 4 way hub.

Any nuggets of wisdom will be gratefully appreciated

 

[jack.mitchell]

I will finally get round to playing with my Pi this weekend but I am a complete noob to Linux. Can someone recommend me a guide for beginners? Also, what's the best OS to use? I've heard Debian being mentioned?

Just about to order SD card (8gb class 10 ok?), power supply , usb hub and card reader. Anything else? Also, will the Pi be able to power all the accessories plugged into the usb hub? I'm looking at a 4 way hub.

Any nuggets of wisdom will be gratefully appreciated

You should get a powered USB hub to take the strain off the Pi.

Do you have a HDMI cable and an Ethernet cable? Check the downloads on the raspberry pi websites for 'supported' distros.

 

[Gooner Leroy]

You should get a powered USB hub to take the strain off the Pi.

Do you have a HDMI cable and an Ethernet cable? Check the downloads on the raspberry pi websites for 'supported' distros.

Yeah, got those. Just remembered to get a case too.

What's a distro?

 

[jaybee]

Distro = Distribution

 

[siege2]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/805

Kenneth.

MOD Needs deleting please.

Thanks.

Kenneth.

 

[siege2]

Yeah, got those. Just remembered to get a case too.

What's a distro?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/805

Kenneth.

 

[[RB]]

Danger! Danger! "Pi Voltage"

Been meaning to get round to doing this for quite a while now. Saw some pics of this on the net and decided to give it a go and all has gone to plan!

Mods if the Ebay links below are deemed not suitable please let me know and I'll remove them!

Required Items:

• A Raspberry Pi (Duh!)
• Micro USB Cable
• Pair of POE injectors - Ebay
• 5V DC 1.5A 2.1x5.5mm Adaptor - Ebay
• Insulation Tape

POE Injectors

DC Adaptor

Micro USB - This is a Sony one from an old android phone. Quite thick and feels durable.

Remove the male DC jack from the injector and strip the wires back.

A little stripping of the wires later and all is wrapped up in insulating tape. I've not got a soldering iron but I think if you do it would be advisable to stick the wires together and then wrap up if you do. The wires here were simply wrapped and taped around one another.

DC Adapter on

And all done and working

Quite pleased with the result as this means I only have two cables going to the board now - HDMI and CAT5E

 

[jaybee]

All that faff to free up one "cable going to the board" when in fact three cables still in the end go into the actual PCB. Hey ho.

 

[jaybee]

I am reading conflicting information about the power requirements of the PI and I am starting to get miffed about it. What is truely required? I just read an amazon review where someone has said on a Samsung travel micro usb charger (standard shipped charger with modern day smart phones @ 700ma) that it "did not power a Pi reliably as it kept getting a blank screen under load".

Then I read of people saying things like "yeah I'm using a 2amp charger which seems best" and others use a 1amp one. Others use the 500ma off of a USB socket with no complaints. So which is it?

 

[Longbow]

The official requirement is 5V 700mA, however, perhaps 1A is better?

 

[[RB]]

The ratings provided on the charger is the maximum they can provide.

Using a charger that can provide 2A, wouldn't be any different from using a 700ma in theory as the device itself is only going to draw the required amount.

 

[jaybee]

So running it off of a TV USB port sounds like it's out really. Would have been good having it turn on and off with the TV. Is there another way I am overlooking as to how this could be done to turn on and off with a TV automatically? Any other ways to turn on and off more easily than connecting a micro usb cable physically? What ways are you guys using it or are you just going to leave it on all the time?