Bought a Raspberry Pi for XBMC- what next

Damien360

I am reading the various OS available but I am confused as hell. I also bought the dummys guide to raspberry pi to try understand it.

I require XBMC but I also want RTE, Aertv etc.

Mossys repository uses Frodo 2.2 but I cannot figure out if that is an OS or a BIOS. Lots of forums including here say to use RaspBMC for ease of install. Also there is Eden and Rapbian.

I have seen Android XBMC players and would be looking at a dual boot to android if required using BerryBoot if I can.

I am essentially lost as to the requirements to get what I want. Once I click on a link, it jumps to Wiki page with too many options.

Anyone here willing to explain a setup to get this working.

neacy69

XBMC can be installed a few different ways.


The most popular options are Raspbmc or Openelec. The easiest would be to install NOOBS (has RASPBMC, Openelec, Raspbaian) on an SD card and then you can choose which OS to install.

http://www.howtogeek.com/173101/how-to-enjoy-dead-simple-raspberry-pi-setup-with-noobs/


heres a decent guide to install openelec on its own;
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Installing_OpenELEC_on_Raspberry_Pi#tab=Windows

Once you have XBMC setup then you can install the Add-ons (1channel, AerTV etc for streaming movies/tv/live streams). These add-ons are usually located in a repository which can be downloaded or added from online sources....

Tom Dunne

I found Openelec to be the most straightforward overall.

Having said that, I did run into a few problems and I would consider myself very technically competent (familiar with Linux, partitions, writing disk images to SD cards, you know, the usual ). I live abroad and I have the RTE add-on installed without issues (though I cannot access some content that is restricted to Ireland).

While I haven't tried it, NOOBS sounds like the best bet.

Damien360

Thanks for all your help, I was up and running in an hour. I tried raspbmc but I ran into difficulties with the repositories as they would not go to the install screen. This was very apparent with mossy irish tv repository.

I removed raspbmc and loaded openlec and have some nice repositories loaded and a nice xbmc remote control via iOS.

But, the CPU usage jumps from 16% to 53% every second and it can be "working" a bit too long before loading a selection.

I looked on raspbmc when it was loaded and the CPU was sitting at 3% and appeared faster, albeit with the problems above.

Using the 8gb flash card as storage but using only 3% and flash memory on same card says 78%. CPU available listed about 300mb.

What is causing the high CPU usage when not in use. Is this common in openlec.

degsie

You might want to try a custom build from Rbej. I use the Frodo branch and find it very stable.

http://netlir.dk/rbej/builds/

Agueroooo

Damien360 wrote: »

Thanks for all your help, I was up and running in an hour. I tried raspbmc but I ran into difficulties with the repositories as they would not go to the install screen. This was very apparent with mossy irish tv repository.

I removed raspbmc and loaded openlec and have some nice repositories loaded and a nice xbmc remote control via iOS.

But, the CPU usage jumps from 16% to 53% every second and it can be "working" a bit too long before loading a selection.

I looked on raspbmc when it was loaded and the CPU was sitting at 3% and appeared faster, albeit with the problems above.

Using the 8gb flash card as storage but using only 3% and flash memory on same card says 78%. CPU available listed about 300mb.

What is causing the high CPU usage when not in use. Is this common in openlec.

have you considered running Openelec from a USB rather than the SD?

You will still need the SD card for system files/boot , but the difference when being run from USB is massive.

screens refresh, menus and skins perform excellently, and allows better use of the overclocking options.

Damien360

Agueroooo wrote: »

have you considered running Openelec from a USB rather than the SD?

You will still need the SD card for system files/boot , but the difference when being run from USB is massive.

screens refresh, menus and skins perform excellently, and allows better use of the overclocking options.

I read that and cannot figure out what size USB is required and more importantly why it is required. Is USB faster than SD card access ? I have a 500Gb powered USB drive for my movie storage but I have not connected this to the Pi yet.

Agueroooo

Damien360 wrote: »

I read that and cannot figure out what size USB is required and more importantly why it is required. Is USB faster than SD card access ? I have a 500Gb powered USB drive for my movie storage but I have not connected this to the Pi yet.

I have a couple running off 10gb 3.0 USB and the performance difference than just off SD is considerable.

Rpi only supports USB2.0 but on that same forum there is a thread that recommends 3.0 as you get better write speeds and more bang for your buck.

Johnboy1951

Damien360 wrote: »

I read that and cannot figure out what size USB is required and more importantly why it is required. Is USB faster than SD card access ? I have a 500Gb powered USB drive for my movie storage but I have not connected this to the Pi yet.

It is not a 'requirement' as such as everything will work from SD card.
The advantage in using a USB drive (HDD or Flash drive) is that the stored information can be read back much quicker as well as written much quicker to USB storage than to SD card.

In that set up the Openelec operating system is loaded into memory from the SD card.
All the configuration files, artwork etc etc are stored on the USB and will load much faster.

A small USB stick (4GB) would be a good start to try it out. If buying check the read/write speed of the device .... those vary greatly between devices ..... and get the fastest you can. As mentioned a USB 3.0 device should have much faster speed specs.

Tom Dunne

I'm running my Pi with a 32Gb SD card and encounter no issues with Openelec. Video files and the like load without issues.

In fact, in a tragic irony, when I plug in my USB drive, things slow down incredibly. Granted it is a fairly old drive.

Agueroooo

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I'm running my Pi with a 32Gb SD card and encounter no issues with Openelec. Video files and the like load without issues.

In fact, in a tragic irony, when I plug in my USB drive, things slow down incredibly. Granted it is a fairly old drive.

What skin are you using?

have you configured or setup a Library (Movies, Music etc) scraping Covers, Fanart etc?

It all depends what you want to get out of your Openelec Media centre.

If its just to play movies or music from a storage device (which most people do) then slap in a simple SD card with Openelec installed and away you go.

but I like to scrape all metadata for all my media and music, and have all libraries setup, and I also like to scrape all metadata for the available Movie add-ons

this is where a USB/SD combo comes into its own, and it also lets me choose some pretty heavy skins to use to get it looking the way I like it without having to worry about screen, or menu lag.

I also couldn't get my STB (Amiko Alien 2) to stream to my Pi when I was just using an SD Card using the Enigma add-on as a TV PVR backend, but I could when I installed Openelec onto a USB.

again its down to preference but for the extra ~€15 for a USB3.0 stick you get a lot more bang for your buck.

Mickalus

Not sure if this is too obvious or has been overlooked, but to get to the internet for those plugins and scraping content for your media.... the pi also needs to be connected to the internet via your local network, so either an ethernet cable connected directly or a wifi connection that you can plug into the pi.

Once you're on the network, you can also control XBMC via apps for your smartphone/tablet. Those are great - you can get a full listing of all your available XBMC content on your app and whatever you select will play.
Also has basic buttons to allow you to scroll through menus etc.

Alternatively you can get a real physical remote and an IR receiver that you plug into the pi.

tommycahir

Going to be setting mine up tomorrow night.and just wondering do all repos and plugins work on.openelec? As I remember reading somewhere that it doesn't...

Ste-

Any repo I've tried has worked on my pi with openelec.

Agueroooo

tommycahir wrote: »

Going to be setting mine up tomorrow night.and just wondering do all repos and plugins work on.openelec? As I remember reading somewhere that it doesn't...

I have never had a problem with any repositories on the Pi that I have working on other XBMC installs.

To get you started Google/You Tube 'Fusion Installer' and 'Mashup repo'

homewardbound11

The lag is very poor on a pi with openelec . Have it on an arctic small form and it is very noticeable how slow the pi is with an Sd running the openelec.

Agueroooo

homewardbound11 wrote: »

The lag is very poor on a pi with openelec . Have it on an arctic small form and it is very noticeable how slow the pi is with an Sd running the openelec.

Again invest €10 in a USB 3.0 stick and run it off that rather than the SD.

you won't look back and my Pi out performs my ATV2 hands down.

Mickalus

sugarman wrote: »

USB 3.0 is pointless as the pi doesn't support it!

From earlier in this thread:

Agueroooo wrote: »

I have a couple running off 10gb 3.0 USB and the performance difference than just off SD is considerable.

Rpi only supports USB2.0 but on that same forum there is a thread that recommends 3.0 as you get better write speeds and more bang for your buck.

Duggy747

Forgot we had an old CRT lying about in one of the spare rooms so I hooked up the Pi to that and stuck it in the bedroom. It's running OpenElec and is controlled via Yatse.

Was straight-forward for it to display properly, just had to add sdtv_mode=2 for PAL and disable HDMI forcing in the config.txt.

Runs great and does the job perfectly for streaming video and channels but a major problem is that the audio jack is providing absolutely dire sound, the buzz from the speakers has rendered it pretty much unusable at the moment. They're USB speakers but have tried a powered USB hub to no avail.

Possibly could be because they're fairly low-end speakers (though they work fine for everything else I've tested them on) or that I have the Pi overclocked to 900Mhz which is a bit of a known issue for causing that.

Will have to check that out a bit more.

digitaldr

I can vouch for the speed improvement of a USB install - used this guide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGFdQVwc8Q0

just be sure to set both partitions (on SD card and USB stick) as active. I used this USB 3.0 stick and a certified PSU as I wanted to make sure there was enough power to cope with a turbo oveclock. The three Pis I have done are both very stable - no crashes and apparently much more difficult to corrupt the SD card or USB stick. Since the USB card is only used for booting any old one will do.

Johnboy1951

just be sure to set both partitions (on SD card and USB stick) as active.

I do not understand this instruction ..... what do you mean by 'active'?
I have never seen (that I recall) such a flag for a partition.

Please explain, thank you.

digitaldr

Setting the partitions as active is specific to the method referred to in the YouTube video in my last post. You cab do it in more minitool partition wizard.

Johnboy1951

digitaldr wrote: »

Setting the partitions as active is specific to the method referred to in the YouTube video in my last post. You cab do it in more minitool partition wizard.

OK I found some references to this 'Active' ....... apparently it is the 'boot' flag ...... the flag that marks the partition of the drive that is to be booted by default.

I played through that video you linked to again and there is no mention, that I heard, of setting the boot flag on either the SD card partition or on the STORAGE partition.
The STORAGE partition is not being booted so that would not need the flag set.

Windows requires the boot flag to be set but does Openelec?

Seems not ..... so I think you might be mistaken about the necessity of marking those partitions as active/boot.

digitaldr

I take all your points but after many hours of trial and error that was the only thing that worked for me. Maybe it would have worked if I had just marked the system partition as active.

Johnboy1951

digitaldr wrote: »

I take all your points but after many hours of trial and error that was the only thing that worked for me. Maybe it would have worked if I had just marked the system partition as active.

I just checked my R-Pi SD card ....... the SYSTEM partition is FAT16, with both boot and lba flags set.
The storage partition (on same card) has no flags set, as expected.

I know nothing of the R-Pi hardware, tbh, so have no idea if IT requires the boot flag or not on the SYSTEM partition ...... it might do.

Anyway, back to normal programming

All I really wanted to know was what the 'active' flag meant

digitaldr

To tell you the truth I'm no IT expert by any means - usually just get things to work by trial and error and am not that familiar with linux so have set up my Pis using Windows. Anyway did a quick search and seems that system partition needs to be marked as active.

neacy69

Anyone have any issues getting WiFi to work with openelec?
Wired network works fine but when i switch to wireless i can see the network and select it but i get an error and cant get connected. I cant find the error now as I'm at work but its something about the network not responding...

using this wifi adapter

digitaldr

Worked fine for me but changed to homeplugs as wifi was too slow for streaming.

Ste-

neacy69 wrote: »

Anyone have any issues getting WiFi to work with openelec?
Wired network works fine but when i switch to wireless i can see the network and select it but i get an error and cant get connected. I cant find the error now as I'm at work but its something about the network not responding...

using this wifi adapter

Are you using the usb ports on the pi or a hub to power it ?
I had it running on a hub and didn't find it great, switched to the pi's ports and haven't had a problem since. Something to try anyway.

neacy69

Ste- wrote: »

Are you using the usb ports on the pi or a hub to power it ?
I had it running on a hub and didn't find it great, switched to the pi's ports and haven't had a problem since. Something to try anyway.

I have it connected directly to the pi....still no luck last night. I took the security off my WiFi to see if it was an issues with WEP or WPA but still the same issue. I might move it close to the router to see if the signal isnt strong enough....im also having problems connecting an old WDTV to the WiFi aswell but i thought that was another so could be the router....

neacy69

sugarman wrote: »

What version of openelec are you using?

Version:3.2.4 as far as I can remember

digitaldr

Might be worth up/downgrading your router firmware or maybe flashing ddwrt if supported.

TheDoc

Agueroooo wrote: »

Again invest €10 in a USB 3.0 stick and run it off that rather than the SD.

you won't look back and my Pi out performs my ATV2 hands down.

^

I'm currently operating XBMC on an ATV2. Been using XBMC for years since the original implementation on the Xbox.

I got myself a lovely new TV at christmas, and tried my first few blurays thanks for the PS3 and 1080p blew me away. I've been kinda humming and haughing over wether or not to change to Raspberry PI as my main XBMC device.

I have a Raspberry pi that sits idle on my desk, nothing done with it. Was thinking of setting up tonight and giving it a spin to see what it's like.

My ATV has started to stutter a "little" through menus now that my library has grown massive. I store all my content on my NAS, and tbh I wouldn't mind having something to utilise 1080p , which I'm lacking at the moment.

Anytime I attempt ANYTING with linux I end up stopping and ditching it. I've tried to turn a laptop into a linux machine so many times only to end up back at windows.

Relatively straight forward to setup XBMC on the PI? I keep seeing openelc referenced, not familiar with it. I've a few SD cards I bought for the PI, can't remember size, but also have some USB sticks aswell to use if required, as it seems to be the way to go.

Any typical linux "thing" with me takes hours, would be pissed if this took the night and turned out to be the same or worse then my ATV

I'd also be interested to know if the PI can run effectively via the USB outlet on a TV. Have read one or two people mention they just have their PI powering off the USB port on the TV, which sounds pretty slick and would save some socket space on the wall.

Ste-

Mine runs off the usb socket on my tv no problem. I have a usb remote and usb wireless running off the pi too. Nice set up.
Shouldn't take too long provided you don't have a large library to index and scrape.
Loads of guides on the net to follow.

Johnboy1951

I'd also be interested to know if the PI can run effectively via the USB outlet on a TV.

That will depend on the TV and how much power it makes available on the socket.

If you find the Pi glitchy, then it is possibly a lack of power available to it.

TheDoc

Ste- wrote: »

Mine runs off the usb socket on my tv no problem. I have a usb remote and usb wireless running off the pi too. Nice set up.
Shouldn't take too long provided you don't have a large library to index and scrape.
Loads of guides on the net to follow.

Only connections I can forsee are HDMI to TV, Ethernet to Router and either USB thumbstick or actual USB external drive.

I've a 500gb Western Digital external drive. I'd probably go with the USB thumbdrive, since all my media is housed on the NAS, I see little to no reason for having storage attached to the Raspberry PI exclusively.

I don't have any major beef with my ATV2, just getting a LITTLE laggy when it comes to scrolling around menus, updating the library etc. I've not got a massive library, but my atv seems to struggle a little.

As I said previously anything linux with me takes so much longer then normal, cause I ALWAYS hit random anomalies. So I'm low on confidence for this before I even begin

Found a website that has a pretty definitive and straight forward guide, so might just give it a run through tonight and hopefully if up and running will test for a week or two to judge comparison.

And I JUST did a massive library update of metadata on my ATV the other week

TheDoc

ITS ALIVE!

degsie

TheDoc wrote: »

ITS ALIVE!

Kool!

TheDoc

Wanted to check out Aeon Flux skin, completely ****ed everything up. Taken me nearly an hour to find the config file that houses the skins

Back to normal now, just ramped up to "Fast" profile under Raspbmc to see if overclocking is stable.

TheDoc

All setup lovely on the TV, immediate impressions are a much snappier interface over the AppleTV.

1080p videos playing without any buffering, 720p films aboslutely breezing. Slightly slower to kick off initially, but the removal of inplay buffering is a massive plus

Library scraped and updating SO much faster then ATv2.

Twitch.tv working flawlessly aswell which is brilliant, and unbelievably quality with no buffering ( ATV struggled with this big time).

Overall impressed initially, hopefully can keep up for the next week or two, then can give my ATV back to my Da.

I'm currently using the expoded board, don't have a case for it. "Assume" it's advised to go get a case?

Johnboy1951

I'm currently using the expoded board, don't have a case for it. "Assume" it's advised to go get a case?

Yes ...... there are a number of options available so you have a choice

TheDoc

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Yes ...... there are a number of options available so you have a choice

The lego ones look tempting

degsie

TheDoc wrote: »

All setup lovely on the TV, immediate impressions are a much snappier interface over the AppleTV.

1080p videos playing without any buffering, 720p films aboslutely breezing. Slightly slower to kick off initially, but the removal of inplay buffering is a massive plus

Library scraped and updating SO much faster then ATv2.

Twitch.tv working flawlessly aswell which is brilliant, and unbelievably quality with no buffering ( ATV struggled with this big time).

Overall impressed initially, hopefully can keep up for the next week or two, then can give my ATV back to my Da.

I'm currently using the expoded board, don't have a case for it. "Assume" it's advised to go get a case?

Why not sell your ATV2? They go for stupid prices on eBay and Adverts.

TheDoc

degsie wrote: »

Why not sell your ATV2? They go for stupid prices on eBay and Adverts.

Originally bought this one as a present for my Dad, I just "happened" to get great benefit from it in the house

He gave it to me when I moved out, but think I'll suprise him by setting it up over the weekend for him, he's always moaning about how he misses it

I also want to run the Pi for a week or two to ensure it actually works

Johnboy1951

You are using the TV USB socket to power the Pi as you intended?

TheDoc

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

You are using the TV USB socket to power the Pi as you intended?

O yeah should have clarified. I plugged it in and the screen had a flicker and weird pixelation, and whenever I would press the remote to move left or right, or eseentially perform and action the screen would momentarily go black then come back on, with the flicker and weird pixelation.

I booted it down, unplugged from Tv and using the same micro usb cable plugged into into a plug that came with my NExus tablet and into the socket on an extension lead.

Working fine since, so unfortunately looks like the TV isn't providing enough power.

The plus side being I have the USB slot available on the TV which is handy enough at times.

TheDoc

Also as a somewhat seperate question, followed a guide that held my hand through setup using the Raspbmc windows installer. As part of that , I had selected the option to utilise the USB stick.

So that's sitting in the Pi aswell, 32GB sandisk USB 2.0. I'm just wondering to what purpose can I use that. I assume the OS is running of the SD card, and it utilises the USB stick for file dumps or whats the story there?

Also somewhat interested to see if I can maybe do some additional functions on the PI, without inhibiting performance of XBMC.

I use IRC a lot and would love to maybe move my current setup (which I pay amazon for) to my Pi

Agueroooo

I am only catching up on this thread after not being in here for a while.

Also as a somewhat seperate question, followed a guide that held my hand through setup using the Raspbmc windows installer. As part of that , I had selected the option to utilise the USB stick.

SD card used for system files (boot up etc) and USB for storage, libraries, metadata etc.
Keeps the Rpi mean and lean.

...so go import your library from the NAS and scrape the bejasus out of it with fanart, covers etc etc without any fear of hogging the Rpi.

So that's sitting in the Pi aswell, 32GB sandisk USB 2.0. I'm just wondering to what purpose can I use that. I assume the OS is running of the SD card, and it utilises the USB stick for file dumps or whats the story there?

see above

Also somewhat interested to see if I can maybe do some additional functions on the PI, without inhibiting performance of XBMC.

This might interest you: BerryBoot



also if you are going to give back the ATV2 to your Dad and I see you mentioned its gone a bit glitchy then use 'FRESH START'.
It will default the XBMC install but you wont have to re-jailbreak.

Does a nice clean wipe..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUQR6igtdU

TheDoc

Thanks for the above.

To be honest the Pi hasn't skipped a beat yet. I have a NAS that houses all my media, and it's WAY too big to be putting anything on a USB stick.

The scrapping and appendment of metadata was lightning quick, and I havn't had any problems. Definitely being a good choice moving to the PI.

Only really had one issues where the screen didn't come out of it's sort of faded mode while on standby. I typically leave it on constantly, as to avoid the need to unplug and replug to boot it up after shutting it down.

So far so good, although one or two teething issues getting icefilms and mashup installed, which I used heavily on my ATV2, especially mashup.

Thanks for the above, think I'll run that before I give it back to the old fella.

Agueroooo

addon with the best HD content and stable streams that I have seen is now available.

TheDoc

Agueroooo wrote: »

addon with the best HD content and stable streams that I have seen is now available.

So it lets you watch the content while it downloads it in the background?

Interesting enough, but I guess I use things like Sickbeard to download all my stuff automatically, so its there by the time im even going to watch it