The Raspberry Pi as a media center

Smart Raspberry

Article from Issue 150/2013
Author(s):

Tired of that big clunky media center unit taking up shelf space in your living room? We'll show you how to put together a tiny multimedia system with the versatile and ever-popular Raspberry Pi.

Only 10 years ago, a large proportion of the population was satisfied with the possibilities of video players and analog satellite receivers. Now this primitive world of the past seems so far away. In our time, virtually all audio and video recordings are produced and distributed digitally. A single user interface can bundle several reception channels (e.g., digital video streams and Internet media libraries, as well as files residing on the local NAS devices). A variety of devices, including laptops, desktop PCs, and smartphones, interact with the media center in the living room through a local WiFi network. In addition to managing your movies, a smart mobile device also offers plugins for music files or a personal photo collection.

Do-it-yourself home theater PCs (HTPCs) were already on the rise at the start of the new millennium. Initially, these early HTPC systems were still desktop computers, with fancy new cases to make them more living-room-friendly. The energy costs and the purchase price of the hardware were correspondingly high. But the Community quickly had some new ideas. The XBMC media center software was originally developed for XBox consoles. Over the years, XBMC has been ported to a variety of platforms and operating systems. Hardware, software, and Internet bandwidth have evolved considerably over the last decade. Now, as in the past, you can spend thousands of dollars on a state-of-the-art system to play video streams and multimedia files, but if you are really looking to save money and space, one new platform outshines all others: XBMC with Raspberry Pi.

Keep in mind that a US$ 35 embedded PC can't hope to achieve the same performance as a US$ 600 DIY HTPC or even a US$ 300 netbook system, but for many applications, this extra power isn't necessary. On a Raspberry Pi system, a video can easily take one to two seconds to launch after you select it, but it will then play smoothly with HD quality. In many multimedia applications, the GPU compensates for the shortcomings of the 700MHz CPU. The footprint, which is about the size of a packet of cigarettes, is pleasingly small, and the power consumption, which is down in low single-digit wattage figures, is gratifying. However, some applications offer no alternative to more expensive solutions: If you want to plug in an external Blu-ray drive, you will only be able to play discs without copy protection, and Raspberry Pi is a bit underqualified to support live TV applications in which both the back end and the front end run on the same device.

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • XBMC 11.0 Available

    The XBMC team announces the release of a new and improved XBMC 11.0 (Eden) for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and iOS, as well as XBMCbuntu Final, built on the LXDE desktop.

  • Impressive: The new XBMC Media Center

    Version 9.04 of the multi-platform XBMC Media Center is released. Codenamed Babylon, the software comes with massive and in part, impressive changes.

  • Free Media Centers

    Free and commercial media center programs promise streaming HD videos, television, music, picture galleries, and a few extra tricks for Linux PCs and the Raspberry Pi – all from the comfort of your living room.

  • New Boxee Beta Brings Streaming Movie Library to Your Desktop

    Home Theater PC program adds steaming movie library from YouTube, Hulu.

  • Raspberry Pi

    The sudden popularity of miniboard systems like Raspberry Pi have brought back the pioneering spirit of Linux’s early days. Suddenly, “do it yourself” in the open source community is back.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News