Late to the party with Raspberry Pi

Forums › Linux › Late to the party with Raspberry Pi

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#116294 24-Apr-2013 13:04

Ok so I just orderded the Raspberry pi thru trademe

Trademe dealer

as the difference from OS wasn't that great.

Will be seeing how this words as a xbmc conduit. This will be as someone who doesn't mind a bit of fiddling but just really wants it to to do the job every night without having to reinvent the wheel each time so I will let you know how it goes

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

1 | 2 | 3

1935 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#804869 24-Apr-2013 13:16

All I would say is buy yourself a fast USB3.0 stick and run off this (rather than an SD card).

It will take some tweaking but you will get there and the end result is awesome.

NordVPN

Protect your online activity with NordVPN (affiliate link).

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#804877 24-Apr-2013 13:20

SumnerBoy: All I would say is buy yourself a fast USB3.0 stick and run off this (rather than an SD card).

It will take some tweaking but you will get there and the end result is awesome.

I already realised that I aslo have to obtain a HDMI cable a SD card a power supply I may have some of this laying around.

You say a fast usb 3 stick ? can you expalin as if you are talking to a layman.... which you are
whats the stick for?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

xpd

aka Fast Raccoon !
13023 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#804878 24-Apr-2013 13:23

SumnerBoy: All I would say is buy yourself a fast USB3.0 stick and run off this (rather than an SD card).

It will take some tweaking but you will get there and the end result is awesome.

I thought they were USB 2.0 :-/ Or is newest model upgraded to 3.0 ?

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree - kiwiblast.co.nz - Lego and more

Support Kiwi music! The People Black Smoke Trigger Like A Storm Devilskin

NZ GEEKS Discord______________________________

SumnerBoy

1935 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#804879 24-Apr-2013 13:24

I am not sure about other XBMC distros but with Raspbmc there is an option to run everything off a USB stick and just boot off the SD card (the Pi has to boot off SD). So you still need an SD card but it can be a super cheap/small one with just enough to store the boot partition.

Then the whole OS and XBMC itself, runs off the super fast USB stick. If you read around there is plenty of info about SD card corruptions, especially when overclocking the Pi. Using a USB stick you can overclock to your hearts content and there are no corruptions (yet?!).

This makes the whole XBMC UI a lot 'snappier' and much more usable IMO.

You will probably be streaming from a NAS of some sort, so there are other recommendations for improving the performance - i.e. using NFS mounts rather than SMB etc.

You will have a ball tweaking it!

SumnerBoy

1935 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#804886 24-Apr-2013 13:25

xpd:
SumnerBoy: All I would say is buy yourself a fast USB3.0 stick and run off this (rather than an SD card).

It will take some tweaking but you will get there and the end result is awesome.

I thought they were USB 2.0 :-/ Or is newest model upgraded to 3.0 ?

Nope - they are USB2.0 only, but from all accounts using a USB3.0 stick maxes out the port a lot more than USB2.0 and you see better performance. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of this, but YMMV.

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#804969 24-Apr-2013 14:43

Took me awhile to figure out thshould be the correct power adaptor

Trademe auction

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

LennonNZ

2449 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#804981 24-Apr-2013 14:53

I found it better to buy a powered USB Hub and power it off that. It also means you can come back out of the RP into the USB Hub and run lots of multiple devices off it (Wireless/Keyboard/Mouse/...)

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#805022 24-Apr-2013 15:28

Ok orderded a 16gb usb 3.0 from mighty ape $28 delivered

whats that so far

$79 unit
$9.85 PS
$28 Flash drive

I have a 4gb sd card and the hdmi cable and the vid lead

so see u back here most likely after the weekend with an update

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

hellonearthisman

1819 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#805294 25-Apr-2013 07:50

The Newer Pi's don't need a PSU if you have a USB HUB that can supply 1A.

I run xbmc off SD and it's fine, no need to overclock.

I got my 2nd Pi the other day (also have a 256MB early model) and that runs xbmc really well.

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#807271 29-Apr-2013 12:42

Ok ready to go!

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#807314 29-Apr-2013 13:11

Ok the research to set it up as i don't have a degree in computer science from mit

How to install Raspbmc on USB

Raspbmc

Raspbmc - USB INSTALL - TUTORIAL - (HD)

SD Card Formatter

More To follow......

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

afe66

3128 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#807316 29-Apr-2013 13:11

Thanks for suggestion about using a hub to power the pi.
.
Before I was running two power points...one to the pi and one to the hub.

Planing on running Rasplex on my one.

Bought this case. Makes things feel much more robust.

http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pibow-crystal

Looking forward to the camera accessory. 5M sensor able to do 1080 for only 25 us dollars. Will create network of high def webcams for much less than 100 each.

michaelmurfy

cat
12248 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#807333 29-Apr-2013 13:32

Raspbmc is really easy to install. Just run the installer from http://www.raspbmc.com/wiki/user/windows-installation/ - install it to the SD card, I find that once it's booted it's totally fine to use. Depending on what you're playing I'd recommend buying the codecs, just follow this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/137654/how-to-add-mpeg-2-and-vc-1-video-codec-support-to-your-raspberry-pi/

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Tessie | Tesla | Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#807436 29-Apr-2013 15:11

Next

raspbmc download

Ok

Ok a couple of things to be aware of when you plug the sd card and th eusb card in and it starts to install it tyakes for ever and it will reboot and funny stuff will come up on th escreen etc etc be patient get on with something else

Ok it was quite straighjtforward

now its just the usual setup for xbmc will let you know how it goes and if i keep it or go back to a full computer

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

gnfb

2398 posts

Uber Geek

#807445 29-Apr-2013 15:18

michaelmurfy: Raspbmc is really easy to install. Just run the installer from http://www.raspbmc.com/wiki/user/windows-installation/ - install it to the SD card, I find that once it's booted it's totally fine to use. Depending on what you're playing I'd recommend buying the codecs, just follow this guide: http://www.howtogeek.com/137654/how-to-add-mpeg-2-and-vc-1-video-codec-support-to-your-raspberry-pi/

why buy the codecs?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

fbwhatnot on trademe

Email Me

1 | 2 | 3