$25 Raspberry Pi running XBMC

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#685484 13-Sep-2012 11:31

timmmay: Thanks SB. Did you get charged shipping separately on the case? If so I may just buy another one off ebay or something.

Any tips or guides you used to help with the setup would be good. I read on this thread xbian is better, so I'll try that. I've never done this before, though I've installed Ubuntu and other OS's before, but I've never done much in Linux. I have putty installed for administering my server.

I have a spare SD card, HDMI cable, and power supply lying around. I may need a USB hub, though hopefully I can get away without one initially for the mouse and keyboard.

I plan to use my Android tablet as a remote, and maybe the harmony if I get an IR receiver.

i wouldnt say xbian is better, ive used both and similar speeds/performance. which means which one has better features. which raspbmc does with its update system and easy installer.

personally i recommend you try raspbmc first, its a little easier to setup being a installer (takes longer to install, because the original install is small and downloads most of it during the installation), but 1 click to install, then come back in 20 mins after plugging it in and it should be all ready.

timmmay

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#685485 13-Sep-2012 11:33

Ok, will try RaspMC first, thanks for the tip.

R Pi ordered, so the offer to piggyback has expired. It's free shipping anyway. Fingers crossed the black case turns up before too long.

reven

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#685489 13-Sep-2012 11:36

timmmay: Ok, will try RaspMC first, thanks for the tip.

R Pi ordered, so the offer to piggyback has expired. It's free shipping anyway. Fingers crossed the black case turns up before too long.

raspbmc not raspMC :)

raspberry box media center :) i wonder if the name will change some many people say raspmc....

StarBlazer

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#685490 13-Sep-2012 11:36

reven:
timmmay: Thanks SB. Did you get charged shipping separately on the case? If so I may just buy another one off ebay or something.

Any tips or guides you used to help with the setup would be good. I read on this thread xbian is better, so I'll try that. I've never done this before, though I've installed Ubuntu and other OS's before, but I've never done much in Linux. I have putty installed for administering my server.

I have a spare SD card, HDMI cable, and power supply lying around. I may need a USB hub, though hopefully I can get away without one initially for the mouse and keyboard.

I plan to use my Android tablet as a remote, and maybe the harmony if I get an IR receiver.

i wouldnt say xbian is better, ive used both and similar speeds/performance. which means which one has better features. which raspbmc does with its update system and easy installer.

personally i recommend you try raspbmc first, its a little easier to setup being a installer (takes longer to install, because the original install is small and downloads most of it during the installation), but 1 click to install, then come back in 20 mins after plugging it in and it should be all ready.

Good point - if you have a couple of SD cards - try both. I like Xbian but it's horses for courses. I still get some stuttering and so may switch to Raspbmc to check.

The page at raspberrypi.org/downloads has a link to the WIN32DiskImigar software you need to flash the SD card.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

timmmay

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#685491 13-Sep-2012 11:37

I'd have googled it once it arrived anyway :)

reven

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#685494 13-Sep-2012 11:42

StarBlazer:
reven:
timmmay: Thanks SB. Did you get charged shipping separately on the case? If so I may just buy another one off ebay or something.

Any tips or guides you used to help with the setup would be good. I read on this thread xbian is better, so I'll try that. I've never done this before, though I've installed Ubuntu and other OS's before, but I've never done much in Linux. I have putty installed for administering my server.

I have a spare SD card, HDMI cable, and power supply lying around. I may need a USB hub, though hopefully I can get away without one initially for the mouse and keyboard.

I plan to use my Android tablet as a remote, and maybe the harmony if I get an IR receiver.

i wouldnt say xbian is better, ive used both and similar speeds/performance. which means which one has better features. which raspbmc does with its update system and easy installer.

personally i recommend you try raspbmc first, its a little easier to setup being a installer (takes longer to install, because the original install is small and downloads most of it during the installation), but 1 click to install, then come back in 20 mins after plugging it in and it should be all ready.

Good point - if you have a couple of SD cards - try both. I like Xbian but it's horses for courses. I still get some stuttering and so may switch to Raspbmc to check.

The page at raspberrypi.org/downloads has a link to the WIN32DiskImigar software you need to flash the SD card.

xbian is slightly overclocked more than the vanilla install of raspbmc. i copied my config.txt from xbian to raspbmc and that improved performance a bit and made them pretty much equal.

xbian == 840 + some other things overclocked
raspbmc = 800 and thats it

StarBlazer

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#685497 13-Sep-2012 11:47

reven: xbian is slightly overclocked more than the vanilla install of raspbmc. i copied my config.txt from xbian to raspbmc and that improved performance a bit and made them pretty much equal.

xbian == 840 + some other things overclocked
raspbmc = 800 and thats it

Interesting! Strangely the stuttering appears to be intermittent. Watched a 60min SD and showed stuttering for around 3 minutes of the playback (in 30-60 second blocks). When I replayed the same sections another time no stuttering! Presumably the Pi or Xbian was doing something in the background!

Will let you know if Raspbmc has the same issue - although probably next week as I'm p155ing the wife off while tinkering!!

Procrastination eventually pays off.

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alvin

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#685534 13-Sep-2012 13:02

has anyone managed to stream movies to the Pi thru a usb wireless dongle? I managed to get a usb wifi dongle to work on raspbmc but streaming wirelessly is really slow and stuttering..

timmmay

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#685539 13-Sep-2012 13:05

I found wireless streaming unreliable even through a PS3, both with built in wireless and with two bridged routers. If a PS3 can't do it then a R Pi would have trouble.

hellonearthisman

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#685552 13-Sep-2012 13:16

timmmay, if I was going to buy another Pi I would wait until Oct - Nov or ask E14 to make sure I am sent a v2 of the Pi. Changes in Version 2 include a change to the GPIO port so that JTAG has got a control pin (missing from earlier versions of the Pi board). The JTag is great for developers as it allows you to control the Pi, ie you can stop a program running and look at the memory and processor state.

No much of a change if your looking at the Pi as a media player, but for the hacker it's a big fix.

timmmay

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#685556 13-Sep-2012 13:18

Not really bothered by that little change, but thanks for the heads up.

lchiu7

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#685592 13-Sep-2012 14:06

Just a few random points.

So far I have spent only for the Pi. I did order a case but since it was backordered I cancelled and as I mentioned earlier, just made one from a cassette tape box. That works just fine.

I also installed Rapbmc from the installer and waited as it downloaded the rest of the components. But it's much easier to just download the img files and write the entire SD Card offline. That means you can get the Pi up and running without it being connected to the Internet.

I like darkelec2 - a branch of ELEC. It seems a bit spiffier than Raspbmc. I save a few images on my local HD and can write the image I want to use fairly quickly.

Looking at getting a MPEG2/VC1 licence but the docs aren't clear on how to install it if you're running a XMBC distro. Can you ssh to a Pi running a XBMC variant?

Does XMBC play dvr-ms files from MCE?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

reven

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#685602 13-Sep-2012 14:16

lchiu7:
Looking at getting a MPEG2/VC1 licence but the docs aren't clear on how to install it if you're running a XMBC distro. Can you ssh to a Pi running a XBMC variant?

once xbmc is all installed, turn off the pi and plug the SD card back into your computer (mac or windows) and it will appear in the OS.

if there is a config.txt in the root of the drive use that, if not just create a config.txt in the root.

michaelmurfy

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#685618 13-Sep-2012 14:40

I just built one, just stuck it to the back of my TV with some double sided foam tape and works like a charm! Using a 16gb Class 10 MicroSDHC card with an adapter, was able to stream 1080p video from my server no problems.

As for a remote, using the Android / iOS software remotes, I needed to use a keyboard for the initial setup but that's about it, the rest is easy.

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lchiu7

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#685620 13-Sep-2012 14:44

reven:
lchiu7:?
Looking at getting a MPEG2/VC1 licence but the docs aren't clear on how to install it if you're running a XMBC distro. Can you ssh to a Pi running a XBMC variant?

once xbmc is all installed, turn off the pi and plug the SD card back into your computer (mac or windows) and it will appear in the OS.

if there is a config.txt in the root of the drive use that, if not just create a config.txt in the root.

But don't you still have to ssh to the Pi to get the serial #?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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