So, after years of having my collection of movies & music split across CDs, DVDs, a few hard drives (a lot of duplicates-but-not-quite, so go figure where you put stuff), I decided to rationalise things, by setting up a media centre.
The main advantages will be:
For those who lived in a cave, the Raspberry Pi is a $35 credit-card sized computer that consumes almost nothing, got plenty of connectivity and runs Linux.
I'll try here to document the whole process, from day 1 to a glorious go-live (hopefully...), so this will probably span over several posts.
Our current setup
Our current video setup is a recent (2012) wifi-enabled Samsung Smart TV, and a desktop PC with all movies stored over several internal or external HDD, loosely backed up.
Since the TV is DLNA compliant, we can stream movies to it from the PC, either directly (with Windows Media Player), or with the TV remote with Samsung dismal interface, or from any Android DLNA app, like the excellent BubbleUpnP.
The drawback is that it requires to power on the desktop, and to use a phone as the remote. Also, Window Media Player library management is .... well, unpredictable at times, and won't play all formats natively (mkv for example).
We also have a hacked Wii, with WiiMC, that accesses video as a SMB share from the PC. Neat solution, unfortunately the Wii is severely underpowered and the image quality quite bad.
The plan
Our geeky solution for media domination is:
Oh, also the HDD will be plugged directly to the Pi, where it can probably (didn't dig that yet) be shared so we can add movies to it from the PC.
Now, the stuff
Here's the stuff I had to order and the associated cost, including the Australian rip-off tax (tm).
The main advantages will be:
- free up the cupboards of the 400+ DVDs, CDs, etc
- have everything available from a central location
- make backups easier
- no better opportunity to tinker with a Raspberry Pi!
For those who lived in a cave, the Raspberry Pi is a $35 credit-card sized computer that consumes almost nothing, got plenty of connectivity and runs Linux.
I'll try here to document the whole process, from day 1 to a glorious go-live (hopefully...), so this will probably span over several posts.
Our current setup
Our current video setup is a recent (2012) wifi-enabled Samsung Smart TV, and a desktop PC with all movies stored over several internal or external HDD, loosely backed up.
Since the TV is DLNA compliant, we can stream movies to it from the PC, either directly (with Windows Media Player), or with the TV remote with Samsung dismal interface, or from any Android DLNA app, like the excellent BubbleUpnP.
The drawback is that it requires to power on the desktop, and to use a phone as the remote. Also, Window Media Player library management is .... well, unpredictable at times, and won't play all formats natively (mkv for example).
We also have a hacked Wii, with WiiMC, that accesses video as a SMB share from the PC. Neat solution, unfortunately the Wii is severely underpowered and the image quality quite bad.
The plan
Our geeky solution for media domination is:
- a big external HDD (2TB, WD Elements)
- a Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC, which is the Raspberry version of the well known XBMC media player
- the TV. La television in French.
What makes the Pi ideally suited for the task?
- hardware video decoding, so even if its CPU it not powerful, it should play Full HD without any problem
- HDMI output, perfect.
- Supports TV remotes via the HDMI backchannel thanks to the CEC standard. Great.
- Free Software!
Oh, also the HDD will be plugged directly to the Pi, where it can probably (didn't dig that yet) be shared so we can add movies to it from the PC.
Now, the stuff
Here's the stuff I had to order and the associated cost, including the Australian rip-off tax (tm).
- Raspberry Pi w/ power supply : USD54.00 from RS Components
- External WD Element 2TB HDD : AUD89.00 from MegaBuy
- HDMI cable : haven't bought one, will scavenge it
- SD Card : not bought yet
You can use a mobile phone charger as a Pi power supply, but it's a bit hit-and-miss apparently, since the Pi needs a stable voltage/amp, and phone chargers are just made to, well, charge a phone, not power a device 24/7. So I opted for the more expensive but official power supply. YMMV.
I also had to order an internal DVD drive to rip my DVD collection. I had only an external, USB one, which would take ages to rip anything. At $18 the drive, there's no hesitation.
And music?
Yes, I mentioned music before. I've got a good Yamaha audio amp but it's just audio, and pretty old, so no digital/HDMI input.
On the other hand the Pi has an analog output but it's supposedly low quality (11 bit sampling, etc). A solution could be to use a HDMI splitter (like this), to extract audio from the HDMI output and redirect it to the amp, but I'll probably rather shell out a few bucks for a decent USB DAC, which should have a better quality.
RaspBMC's latest version (Frodo) supposedly now supports USB sound output, so the USB DAC option seems safe.
Anyway, I'll deal with video first, then Music at a later stage of the project.
Now we know what we want to do, stay tuned for Part II, where the actually work begins
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