Raspberry Pi question

By The Evil Overlord
in Hardware Hangout

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
Posted

I don't know where to post this, so I'm posting it here. Mods please feel free to move this if it's in an incorrect section.


Hi mortals, your overlord has another question
I was kidding about the overlord. My title outranks it :p

Anyway. I currently use my ps3 and a hard drive assembly I bought from ebay.
The assembly is not that important, but it's an ide pc hard drive, an external enclosure and power supply that were on ebay. My media infrastructure is no media is saved or streamed from my pc to my ps3 as it takes up too much space on the ps3 as the constant saving of amazon music, tv shows and legal digital copies of my dvd/blue rays, and streaming gets to be a headache after a couple of hours as I have to clear and rebuild my media cache.

My question is within the specifics of the infrastructure I'm using.

I just connect my external to my pc, save, then play on my tv via ps3.

Problem.
My hdd recently has begun to shut down and restart when I listen to music or watch something... viewing pictures is fine. I know the hdd is ok as it works flawlessly connected to my pc.

Solution???
A couple of members here mentioned using a raspberry pi.
I know absolutely nothing about these. But I'm interested in finding out..
Can one of these machines just replace my ps3 so I don't have to change anything?
(Basically rpi sitting under my tv, usb connection to my hdd, is this possible)?

I really don't want to change the set up beyond substituting the ps3 for another device, I'm mostly interested in whether it can, cause if it can't then I wont bother as I know a full blown, windows pc will, but is far more expensive.

Can someone who has a similar set up, or knows more than I, get back to me on this?

My thanks. :)

 

 

Edit

Additional details:

I was looking at getting this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331052220885?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

They're relisted all the time

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

"(Basically rpi sitting under my tv, usb connection to my hdd, is this possible)?"

yes!

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Raspberry_Pi

http://lifehacker.com/5929913/build-a-xbmc-media-center-with-a-35-raspberry-pi

Wow, that was quick, thanks man :D

 

edit, sorry, I did mark you as best answer as you answered, but it might be better if I waited for more replies before I 'mark' it

to me, the question has been answered, but I now don't know what the exact ruling on the 'best answer' is.

Once clarified I'll be happy to re mark it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

DConnell Member

Posted
  • Member
Posted

Solution???

A couple of members here mentioned using a raspberry pi.

I know absolutely nothing about these. But I'm interested in finding out..

Can one of these machines just replace my ps3 so I don't have to change anything?

(Basically rpi sitting under my tv, usb connection to my hdd, is this possible)?

I really don't want to change the set up beyond substituting the ps3 for another device, I'm mostly interested in whether it can, cause if it can't then I wont bother as I know a full blown, windows pc will, but is far more expensive.

Can someone who has a similar set up, or knows more than I, get back to me on this?

My thanks. :)

 

 

Edit

Additional details:

I was looking at getting this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331052220885?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

They're relisted all the time

 

 

I'd be very careful about RaspPi. I bought 2, and had both of them arrive defective. The first one had a damaged SD card slot, which meant it couldn't boot reliably. That was was returned, and I got a refund (though I requested an exchange.) I still paid for the case and accessories, and kept them for another attempt.

 

My second wouldn't even power on correctly. I tried to exchange that one as well, and never heard back from Allied Electronics. So I wouldn't recommend buying from them.

 

If you get a good one, it's a great deal. I might even try a third time since the board isn't terribly expensive. If you're like me and get duds, with the time and money I've spent trying to get a RaspBMC system running, I could have started saving for a small computer to set XBMC up on.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

Bought mine from Allied Electronics, (one of the first batch).   I currently have it hooked up via ethernet running Xbian and I stream all my shows to it.  Found out recently that my TV can send the signals to the pi for Xbian, so I can use my TV remote without any special addons.  However, yes for what you want to do, just have your external plugged in via USB, and have Xbian (one I use), XBMC, OpenElec as the OS on the memory card.

It will play full MKV videos with no issue as well.

  • DConnell and The Evil Overlord
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

DConnell Member

Posted
  • Member
Posted

I have an raspberry pi runnung xbmc, play every movie perfectly over my network to a NAS drive, only drawback is the interface is a bit sluggish but otherwise all good...

 

From the sound of things maybe I should give a third one a try. Or at least make once last attempt at getting RPi #2 to work.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mentor

bucko

Posted
Posted

I don't know where to post this, so I'm posting it here. Mods please feel free to move this if it's in an incorrect section.

Hi mortals, your overlord has another question

I was kidding about the overlord. My title outranks it :p

Anyway. I currently use my ps3 and a hard drive assembly I bought from ebay.

The assembly is not that important, but it's an ide pc hard drive, an external enclosure and power supply that were on ebay. My media infrastructure is no media is saved or streamed from my pc to my ps3 as it takes up too much space on the ps3 as the constant saving of amazon music, tv shows and legal digital copies of my dvd/blue rays, and streaming gets to be a headache after a couple of hours as I have to clear and rebuild my media cache.

My question is within the specifics of the infrastructure I'm using.

I just connect my external to my pc, save, then play on my tv via ps3.

Problem.

My hdd recently has begun to shut down and restart when I listen to music or watch something... viewing pictures is fine. I know the hdd is ok as it works flawlessly connected to my pc.

Solution???

A couple of members here mentioned using a raspberry pi.

I know absolutely nothing about these. But I'm interested in finding out..

Can one of these machines just replace my ps3 so I don't have to change anything?

(Basically rpi sitting under my tv, usb connection to my hdd, is this possible)?

I really don't want to change the set up beyond substituting the ps3 for another device, I'm mostly interested in whether it can, cause if it can't then I wont bother as I know a full blown, windows pc will, but is far more expensive.

Can someone who has a similar set up, or knows more than I, get back to me on this?

My thanks. :)

 

 

Edit

Additional details:

I was looking at getting this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331052220885?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

They're relisted all the time

 

I think this will help you I have used it before it is good. http://www.raspbmc.com/  Also use a proper power unit for it. I think I bought a decent Nokia charger for my one, if you buy a cheap one expect problems. Also there are known problems with USB hubs, get a supported one if you use one. And a decent SDcard helps as well my one has a 32GB for it for all of my pictures.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Proficient

srbeen

Posted
Posted

raspberryPi is great and raspbmc is an excellent distro for media playback. If your TV does HDMI-CEC (has play/pause/record buttons on TV remote) it'll likely work to control the Pi's interface though the TV.. Downfalls are audio codec support for high def/downsampling, and its speed. Its a 300MHz pentium equivilant with 4-8MB/s throughput... Loading a huge MP3 library will take forever, Bluray images won't play due to high profile/audio codec, web plugins/streaming don't work for ARM yet, etc.

 

Get a 5V 1A (minimum) regulated power supply/micro USB charger (important its regulated) and a 1-4GB SD card. You won't need a USB hub if HDMI-CEC works, and your HDD has its own power supply. If you wanna do more stuff, get a 5V 2A regulated power supply and a USB hub and you can run all kinds of stuff from that. the raspberrypi wiki has a list of verified working devices. As a media player extras aren't needed, you can velcro it to the back of your TV if you want. dx.com carries everything but quality chargers cheap and also has nice cases, but taking the box it ships in and cutting some holes and velcroing to your TV out of sight works too...

 

If you are going wifi route ensure you use a powered usb hub to allow for the power the wifi adapter needs, the onboard USB don't like huge power jumps wifi requires (old builds had a current limiting pptc fuse that would pop), and possibly an extension cable to keep the dongle away from the pi/improve reception.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

FiB3R

Posted
Posted

I've just started looking at things like this...

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dual-Core-Android-4-2-Mini-PC-Smart-TV-Box-XBMC-Media-Player-1080P-WIFI-HDMI-/321253429684?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Internet_TV_Media_Streamers&hash=item4acc3251b4

 

Really don't have any opinions on it right now, but it's something I want to look into, in the hope that they offer better performance for XBMC.

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
  • Author
Posted

My heartiest thanks go to you all :)

 

You've all took time to answer me, and I am very grateful for the responses, and the extra information regarding power supply and OS troubleshooting, in my opinion you all deserve the best answer, but alas, I can only give it to one of you, and I did mark budman as soon as he replied, (I reconsidered as it might have been premature as the thread had only been open 15 or so minutes)

Like I said, you're all excellent users for taking the time to be helpful, and deserve my respect and admiration for giving mature explanations, for which I am grateful, and please don't be offended if I didn't mark your answer as best.

 

Regards, Aheer. R. S.

  • Dick Montage and bucko
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mentor

bucko

Posted
Posted

My heartiest thanks go to you all :)

 

You've all took time to answer me, and I am very grateful for the responses, and the extra information regarding power supply and OS troubleshooting, in my opinion you all deserve the best answer, but alas, I can only give it to one of you, and I did mark budman as soon as he replied, (I reconsidered as it might have been premature as the thread had only been open 15 or so minutes)

Like I said, you're all excellent users for taking the time to be helpful, and deserve my respect and admiration for giving mature explanations, for which I am grateful, and please don't be offended if I didn't mark your answer as best.

 

Regards, Aheer. R. S.

 

I forgot to provide the link http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals :pinch:

  • The Evil Overlord
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Ok, not to revive a dead thread, well yes, but it's my thread so I'll do what I like with it :p

 

I was looking for an alternative to the rpi and found this

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aopen-Digital-Engine-DE965-Ultra-Small-Form-Factor-Media-Center-Computer-/161170531128?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item2586832338

 

OS isn't a problem for me, as it's prime function will be media server only, (hell if I can set it up so it never goes online and only wifi to my pc all the better) I was wondering if anyone here has or has used one of these, does it send sound via hdmi etc...

 

I'm still leaning to the rpi but at what this could go for, it's too good to resist.

also can one buy remote control hardware for it, so I don't have to shell out and replace my antique wireless keyboard and mouse that have ps/2 connection?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Do you mean media server or media player?

It'll do both, I can simply connect my external to it, which will be it's prime function, but when I'm feeling lazy, it would stream from my main pc in the bedroom, (or go on youtube depending on how bored I get,) I found a Bluetooth remote that doubles as a keyboard and touchpad, the only thing stopping me right now is if it doesn't transmit sound via hdmi, I'll need extra wires, in which case the rpi will still be the simpler option.

 

edit

 

turns out it does send sound through hdmi, so I guess I just need to know if anyone has one or has used one, just so I can weigh up the pros and cons of this vs rpi

Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing