Raspberry Pi - $35 Linux computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter daz
  • Start date Start date
Isit possible to put a Windows back up of my XBMC onto my Pi? just save me going through all the set up process.. im guessing not though due to different operating systems etc.
 
Set it up yesterday originally through ethernet got the wireless dongle connected and the yatse app working great how ever when I installed add ons and tried streaming where it says (working) it was running incredibly slow and barely doing anything at times it wouldn't even load is it normal for the Pi to be that slow? I'll probably try over clock it tonight and see if that improves it, I'll also try ethernet and see if it's the wireless connection as apposed to the Pi being slow. Final question is that when I installed add ons it prompts asking to reboot xbmc once I accidentally did this and it froze xbmc is there a way to unfreeze or reboot properly or is it SSH only?
 
Also if i overclock my Pi which i certainly think it needs do i really need a Heatsink? or can i get away without?

It's probably a good idea to prolong the life of the Pi.
I decided to op for a cheaper solution and simply connected a 110mm fan to the 5v I/O pins and plonked it ontop of my Pi :p Keeps my heavy overclock at around 40C, silent and rock solid.
Whats more important for a good stable overclock is a beefy 5v supply, I tried various 1.5A phone chargers and none could keep it stable @ 1.1Ghz.
I connect it too the 5v output of an old ATX power supply and this stabilized the overclock so I knew it was a supply issue.
I have since bought an Anker 5A phone charger and this now keeps my power hungry setup rock solid :-)
 
Last edited:
It's probably a good idea to prolong the life of the Pi.
I decided to op for a cheaper solution and simply connected a 110mm fan to the 5v I/O pins and plonked it ontop of my Pi :p Keeps my heavy overclock at around 40C, silent and rock solid.
Whats more important for a good stable overclock is a beefy 5v supply, I tried various 1.5A phone chargers and none could keep it stable @ 1.1Ghz.
I connect it too the 5v output of an old ATX power supply and this stabilized the overclock so I knew it was a supply issue.
I have since bought an Anker 5A phone charger and this now keeps my poer hungry setup rock solid :-)

Can you guide me to the fan you used and any installation guide you may have followed, i may just go for the heat sinks as it seems easy to do. Does it get really hot when overclocking then and how do you find the temperature out and the speed of the overclock is there a programme to see if its stable? also is it safe to be left on at all times when overclocked?

sorry for the questions.
Thanks.
 
I've overclocked my Pi to turbo and its running fine, however with and without the ethernet cable HD streams are buffering a little, more so with the wifi adapter as you suggested. But we have a 120mb Virgin media connection, any idea why its buffering?
 
I had issues with buffering, but there is an advancedsettings.xml file you can use to mess with how the buffering works... In the end I think I got the best results by outright disabling buffering alltogether, as it seemed to me it was actually the process of handling the buffering that was causing problems. Been rock solid ever since
 
Can you guide me to the fan you used and any installation guide you may have followed, i may just go for the heat sinks as it seems easy to do. Does it get really hot when overclocking then and how do you find the temperature out and the speed of the overclock is there a programme to see if its stable? also is it safe to be left on at all times when overclocked?

sorry for the questions.
Thanks.

I just used an old fan from my fan box (I always cannibalize faulty products before chucking them out :p )
Any fan will do, -/ground = i/o pin 6 and +5v = i/o pin2 on the raspberry pin header.
raspBMC gui has readouts for both CPU & GPU temps


As for buffering issue I cannot really help, my Raspbmc doesn't suffer any stutter even on streamed 40GB VC1 BluRay .MKVs, silky smooth :-)


How come mate and I would much rather wireless than mess with a ethernet.. I've heard mixed reviews with the edimax wireless dongle hopefully it will work fine as we have a great connection.

Streaming 720 even 1080p HD using WiFi will work fine for OnDemand stuff as they have naff low bitrates :p but streaming high bitrate 1080p VC1 Blu-Ray ripps is not gonna happen over WiFi!
 
Last edited:
I just used an old fan from my fan box (I always cannibalize faulty products before chucking them out :p )
Any fan will do, -/ground = i/o pin 6 and +5v = i/o pin2 on the raspberry pin header.
raspBMC gui has readouts for both CPU & GPU temps


As for buffering issue I cannot really help, my Raspbmc doesn't suffer any stutter even on streamed 40GB VC1 BluRay .MKVs, silky smooth :-)




Streaming 720 even 1080p HD using WiFi will work fine for OnDemand stuff as they have naff low bitrates :p but streaming high bitrate 1080p VC1 Blu-Ray ripps is not gonna happen over WiFi!

Thanks for the information. I plugged the same ethernet into my laptop and did a speed test I'm getting 80mb/s that's surely efficient to stream even 1080p and does with xbmc on my laptop now when it's plugged into the Pi and I try stream something from an addon I've only tried 720p for the moment and it loads but eventually starts to buffer and lag on the laptop the little grey buffer line would fill up on its own, on the Pi it doesn't I over clicked it to turbo last night and it went great the cpu is around 64c after being on 13hrs since is that safe?

Final question and this has been baking my head all night. How do I fix the youtube plug in I'm no pro with ssh or Linux but I eventually figured how to edit the youtubelogin.Py file and replace a paragraph of text as required and tried to save it but it said read only I then try to figure how to make it read, write so I mounted storage and made it read write (I think) by putting in the ssh "mount /storage -o remount,rw" then nano youtube login.py and tried to edit the text from there and it saved the file but still no look. Not even sure that's the right way to do it either so any confirmation and instructions would be grand.

I've seen people say put your pis openelec in the Windows browser and you can access files however when I do this it just brings up xbmc and then my movies tv shows and music nothing regarding the files in my pi? So basically is there a way to edit files and add install files on to my pi remotely without ssh? So I know where I am and what's what in a windows format
 
Last edited:
64C would be too hot for my liking tbh, the simple silent fan mod would easily drop 15-20C off that so well worth doing if you have the spare parts.

Fix the youtube plug :confused:
What needs fixing ?? I've just this second fired it up and it played the Godzilla trailer just fine @ 1080p (the settings where you put your youtube account details in lets you choose 720, 1080 ..etc)
Working out-of-the-box here on raspbmc :confused:

Also you want to google 'Icefilms' and get that installed, fantastic xbmc addon :-)
 
Final question and this has been baking my head all night. How do I fix the youtube plug in I'm no pro with ssh or Linux but I eventually figured how to edit the youtubelogin.Py file and replace a paragraph of text as required and tried to save it but it said read only I then try to figure how to make it read, write so I mounted storage and made it read write (I think) by putting in the ssh "mount /storage -o remount,rw" then nano youtube login.py and tried to edit the text from there and it saved the file but still no look. Not even sure that's the right way to do it either so any confirmation and instructions would be grand.

I've seen people say put your pis openelec in the Windows browser and you can access files however when I do this it just brings up xbmc and then my movies tv shows and music nothing regarding the files in my pi? So basically is there a way to edit files and add install files on to my pi remotely without ssh? So I know where I am and what's what in a windows format

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=79487&pid=1646500#pid1646500

Follow the instructions in post #3980 exactly.

Use a program like WinSCP on a PC to edit the settings.xml file directly without having to mess with nano. The web python console in para 5 is broken, use the alternative in #3988
 
Thanks gents will check it out. my youtube doesn't allow me to log in I had the same problem on my windows xbmc too I had to change a bit of the file and it worked hoping for the same result on the Pi.. Ahhh winscp that explains it don't I feel silly. I thought everyone was doing It through putty which is much more difficult I'll have a go tonight. Will also set the buffer to 0 and hopefully my heatsinks will arrive tomorrow and that may reduce the 64c? I suspect.
 
I SCP'd my Pi and got the Login on Youtube working, i also changed the buffer to 0 and for streaming addons etc (tried 720p) its not stuttering its playing smoothly. However on youtube its a different matter, it buffers a lot and badly. I dont get it the files are smaller and the quality isnt as high for the most part yet it wont play smoothly like the other things ive tried why?

also if i wanted to install a deb file or a addon that i cant get on XBMC where do i put it in the root directory?

Thanks again.

edit: Streaming 1080p now looks great and its stuttering again. I watched the info on the cache and when it started it shot up to around 14mb cache then as i carried on watching about 2 minutes in it slowly went down to around 0-1mb cache and started stuttering quiet often i dont understand. As i said the ethernet is getting 70mb in my laptop so i suspect its getting the same in the pi.

edit 2: i just noticed the CPU is floating between 98% and 100% when i pause the movie to let it buffer then when i start it back up again it goes down to around 65-85% CPU
 
Last edited:
Quinaay, what version of xbmc are you running? Are you using the builds in the link i posted above? 1080p, youtube, DTS, AC3, everything runs flawlessly with a 1ghz pi on those builds. its now looking like TrueHD downmixing is working too.
 
Back
Top Bottom