a bit of help

[Ste H]

Hi Hack Space Leeds,

I have known about you, as a group, for a few years. I first heard about you in a Bettaculture talk, when you were in Holbeck.

I have not had any ideas of what I might do - techwise - until now.

I am not that tech-savi, but am hoping to become more -so. 

I have recently installed Kodi onto a couple of computers. This has given me the idea of building my own media box, using Raspberry Pi. It seems not too complex, but as my only real experience is updating my RAM on a very old Packard machine and installing Unbuntu onto a couple of my old laptops, it seems some advise is in order.

I have obviously done some Googling, youtube tutorialing, and reading some techie-for-noobs blogs. What I really feel would be good would be some face-to-face advise.

Can you help me a bit, please.

[Daniel F]

Hi Ste,

It might be easiest if you come down on a Tuesday night where you can get some advice in person, however:

Media box: relatively easy to do.

Raspberry Pi: The Pi2's make good media streamers (plugged into your TV) but I wouldn't recommend it as the server side of things -especially if you're expecting more than 1 person to be able to stream media off've it. They're a bit rubbish when it comes to CPU (much better with a Pi2) and don't do a good job of pushing large blobs of data around.

After running XBMC (what became Kodi) for about 15 years, I've finally given up and moved over to using the free version of Plex Media (which was also forked from XBMC a while ago). If you have a box to use as a server then the Pi2 running RasPlex makes a really nice little unit to plug into the TV :)

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[Robin Wood]

Out of interest, what do you use as a remote control for your Pi?

Robin

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x

[Daniel F]

My favourite controller was an XBOX-1 controller, but then I've been using xbmc since it was called xbmp and until recently on an original xbox (xecuter3 still rocks my box).

For a more realistic alternative, I'm a massive fan of the XBMC/KODI android remote app. Even 5 years ago it'd do clever/nice things like pause your film when you answered a phone call. iirc it was free.

In my recent plex adventures, once you've got the Pi set up as a remote screen you can just control it via their web interface; instead of playing back on your PC it gets slung to the remote screen. There's also a Plex android app which (iirc) you can use free as a remote control or pay £3 to unlock it to do local video playback too.

It's nice to be able to get half way through a film and switch it from the TV to my phone so I can continue watching whilst making dinner :)

[Robin Wood]

I keep meaning to play with XBMC and Plex but have never had time,
currently running a Boxee which works well enough to not need to
fiddle. I've now got a spare TV and want to use it so need to get
sorted. A phone based control seems like a good alternative to IR.

Robin

[Daniel Fligg]

Never had chance to play with a Boxee box, but there do seem to be android remote apps, at least :)

[James Hitchcock]

Recently I have switched to one of these Android boxes. Basically it thinks its a tablet, with plenty of ram and fast processor, HDMI out, and they come quite cheaply. If you want XBMC you can obviously run the Android XBMC, but in the end I wrote my own apps, and a launcher fit for a TV with remote, rather than touch, as our main use was to stream UK TV abroad. They are often sold with a remote / Air Mouse too (One of the main reasons for writing the app was I wanted one that responded to arrow keys correctly, rather than expecting 'touch' which isn't great for TV. 

Happy to go into more detail if its of interest, and share what apps I'm using. 

Kind Regards,

James

http://jhitchcock.com
+44 7858 383794 (UK)

+34 60 338 5534 (Spain)

[Alex Silcock]

Some newer TVs support HDMI-CEC which allows you to use your TV remote to control your Pi, as it sends the control signals down the HDMI cable. CEC goes by a few different names depending on your TV manufacturer though, so it's worth having a look in case your TV supports it under a different name.

If I wasn't able to use CEC though, I'd consider using a PS3 remote, which connects via Bluetooth. It seems fairly easy to set up to work with Kodi on a Pi.

[mar...@ranyard.info]

Another Plex convert here, it's very smooth what you can do with it, and
I have always had some issues with Pis. I don't have a TV but a
projector, so I have an interesting setup, with plex server running on
my HP Microserver and a NowTV box running plex. Not many people know
but the NowTV box (£10) is basically a 720p roku which means you can
sideload a single app onto it as well as use it's normal features. Plex
has a build for roku and it works really well, albeit the nowtv remote
is a little "limited" (13 buttons!), it is IR and I got a multi-remote
so I can control my projector, hifi, nowtv, blu-ray, hdmi
switcher/splitter(optical audio to the hifi) and sky box all from the
remote.

Anyway, there's a few more things for you to think about.

Cheers,
--
Martyn

[Robin Wood]

On 1 June 2015 at 17:35, Daniel Fligg <themidn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> Never had chance to play with a Boxee box, but there do seem to be android
> remote apps, at least :)

I've got an Android control installed but never use it, the handful of
buttons on the main remote magically do everything.

The Boxee is a good little device, handles HD and has a good library
feature. Its a shame that support has been discontinued. I know I can
flash it and get newer stuff on it but this is a family TV box and if
I start messing it will never quite work properly and always be a work
in progress so I leave it alone.

Robin

[Robin Wood]

On 1 June 2015 at 18:08, Alex Silcock <al...@alexsilcock.net> wrote:
> Some newer TVs support HDMI-CEC which allows you to use your TV remote to
> control your Pi, as it sends the control signals down the HDMI cable. CEC
> goes by a few different names depending on your TV manufacturer though, so
> it's worth having a look in case your TV supports it under a different name.
>
> If I wasn't able to use CEC though, I'd consider using a PS3 remote, which
> connects via Bluetooth. It seems fairly easy to set up to work with Kodi on
> a Pi.

I've not got CEC but bluetooth does seem like a good idea, I'll have a
look at the PS3 controller, looks nice and cheap.

[Rob Whitfield]

The Android Kore app is also now much improved over old versions. If you simply want to watch movies and TV, you rarely have to go into any on screen menus.
The remote function on it also works fine. As well as any touch screen remote anyway.

Rob

[Robin Wood]

Now I just need to find a spare few hours and get it all built up.

Robin

On 2 June 2015 at 07:57, 'Rob Whitfield' via Leeds Hack Space

[Jon Stockill]

On 01.06.2015 16:13, Robin Wood wrote:
> Out of interest, what do you use as a remote control for your Pi?

It'll happily communicate over HDMI - you can use your tv remote.

--
Jon Stockill
li...@stockill.net

[Stanto]

I think that's the CEC support which TVs might not have, just to be wary.

[Daniel Fligg]

Yeah, TV very much needs to support it. My Pi does (recent RasPlex has it built in and configured) by my TV is old and useless :(

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