Using a Raspberry Pi as a Time Machine

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malpasolan

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#1576042 17-Jun-2016 21:47

richms:

I found that my rpi 2 was not able to play an actual bluray rip properly over ethernet. It was actually slightly better over an AC wifi stick, but still was not able to keep up and seeking was dog slow.

For less than the total cost of a raspi and sd card, wireless mouse/keyboard, case, power supply you can get an android based settop box with kodi already installed on it with a remote and power brick etc. Sure, not a nice fast 4k supporting one, but it plays stuff a hell of a lot better than the pi does.

Never tried bluray and think it would be a very sad experience on my v1 Pi but my setup works fine as it is so keeps me and the family happy

Like most people, I purchased an RPi without a clue what I was going to use it for and it consequently had several lives before settling down as a Kodi media center. I think the main advantage I see using the Pi with Kodi is that I can use my TV remote.

Username1

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#1576057 17-Jun-2016 23:29

I also tried to use my Raspberry Pi 2 as a NAS but that didn't work out so well, I could get about 80 Mbps read and 40-50 Mbps write on a 2.5" USB HDD through the network. Now I use it as a Plex server which actually runs really well.

I kind of feel like an upgrade though and I'm currently considering an orange pi as it has a sata port and gigabit ethernet but it doesn't seem as well supported on the software side of things as the raspberry pi:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Orange-Pi-Plus-2-H3-Quad-Core-1-6GHZ-2GB-RAM-4K-Open-source-development-board/1553371_32516755321.html

It is less then $100 so I guess its not that much risk to try out.

malpasolan

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#1576093 18-Jun-2016 09:22

Username1:

I also tried to use my Raspberry Pi 2 as a NAS but that didn't work out so well, I could get about 80 Mbps read and 40-50 Mbps write on a 2.5" USB HDD through the network. Now I use it as a Plex server which actually runs really well.

Yeah, I think a cheap media center is the RPi's niche for home use.

Seemed like your read/write figures wasn't that bad in all honesty. RPi 2 was certainly quicker with network throughput than its predecessor, version 1 was dreadful.

frankv

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#1576114 18-Jun-2016 10:28

malpasolan:

Yeah, if you use USB then your network throughput will suffer.

Not true. USB bandwidth is vastly greater than network bandwidth. As per my earlier post, you can increase throughput by putting in a Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

beard666

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1576126 18-Jun-2016 10:46

michaelmurfy:

timmmay:

A R.Pi3 isn't a slow computer. Sure it's not an i7, but it should do basic stuff just fine. It's more about I/O, I think. Interesting experiment anyway.

I use one as my DNS server - it is fine for that, however have played around with the Linux counterparts for Time Machine and have found it to be quite unreliable. But agreed it is not a slow computer, but it isn't fast either.

I've seen other people using the word unreliable when referring to the Pi as a Time Machine alternative. Why is it considered unreliable?

malpasolan

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#1576134 18-Jun-2016 11:08

frankv:

malpasolan:

Yeah, if you use USB then your network throughput will suffer.

Not true. USB bandwidth is vastly greater than network bandwidth. As per my earlier post, you can increase throughput by putting in a Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

I was referring to the fact that if you have USB storage for example then traditional network throughput will be diminished which is exactly what I observed. Sure you can use a gigabit USB adaptor for faster access speeds but you will utilise less than 50% of that adaptors capacity. There lies the basic problem with the Pi, it's was designed as a low cost experimenters platform but caught the attention of some as being a low cost server which it is not.

I can happily add adaptors here and there to make its performance better (to some degree) at the same time with a cost equalling a standard low cost motheroard/cpu combo which could blow the performance of an RPi out the water.

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RickW

302 posts

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#1576163 18-Jun-2016 11:42

richms:
malpasolan:

My RPi is a Model B v1 but is quite happy playing 720 and 1080 movies off my Debian NAS via Samba.

I found that my rpi 2 was not able to play an actual bluray rip properly over ethernet. It was actually slightly better over an AC wifi stick, but still was not able to keep up and seeking was dog slow.

For less than the total cost of a raspi and sd card, wireless mouse/keyboard, case, power supply you can get an android based settop box with kodi already installed on it with a remote and power brick etc. Sure, not a nice fast 4k supporting one, but it plays stuff a hell of a lot better than the pi does.

I was having similar issues but it ended up being some kind of incompatibility between my fritzbox and the Pi2s. I put a dumb switch in between them and now all is well playing full bluray backups from my file server, even 3D works perfectly with 7.1 audio too.

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