Raspberry Pi - $35 Linux computer

[Timber]

Just wanted to post in the thread that finally a week or so ago I took delivery of a Rasperry Pi Model B with a 16GB class 4 SDHC card.

Installed Rasplex 0.4 RC3 on it, which took no time at all and have been seriously impressed with it. Works out of the box with remotes (via CEC) on both TV's and play all my Plex content just fine (max being about 18,000kbps bitrate 1080p AVCHD files), although I had to play around with the settings to stop some juddering etc I was seeing. Even with that it's not quite perfect in that if I leave the Rasperry Pi on the home screen the memory leak issues causes the machine to reboot on the next content played.

However I am just amazed by this little box and along with a recent Chromecast (even with mostly iOS devices) purchase, gives me all the streaming capabilities I need for now.

Really looking forward to the RC4 release of Rasplex.

 

[Quinnaay]

IMO Openelec is a better experience but both are pretty good.

 

[SKILL]

So is anyone using their Raspberry Pi for non-media duties? planning to set mine up for some lighter 'server' duties, primarily due to low power usage, and wondering what the best distro was to use, last I looked there was an official debian/raspbian and an arch linux image as well?

 

[Timber]

I've gone with Rasplex simply becuase that's all I just want to be able to stream my Plex media. I've had XBMC on an HTPC and ATV2 but prefer the Plex Home Theatre UI. My understanding is that Rasplex is based on a OpenElec + PHT client.

That said the issues mentioned above are more significant that I thought, in that if I leave the Rasperry Pi on 24/7 and then play something it appears to be crashing (blank screen then reboot) 100% now. I thought this was the 'memory leak' issue mentioned on the Plex forums and tried leaving the Pi on a pre-play screen to avoid it downloading anything. However this doesn't seem to make a difference.

I know there are major improvements for the next release; RC4 including a USB installer so might just see if there's anything obvious going on but then wait for the new release.

 

[A.N.Other]

So is anyone using their Raspberry Pi for non-media duties? planning to set mine up for some lighter 'server' duties, primarily due to low power usage, and wondering what the best distro was to use, last I looked there was an official debian/raspbian and an arch linux image as well?

Well the arch would be the most lightweight for the server if you were running it headless. Don't like raspian myself - too much educational stuff there by default for non-classroom users. Installed pibang on mine recently. Very slick and lightening fast to load into the GUI. There's quite a lot of distros now with pi ports so don't just choose from the those in noobs.

 

[Yaka]

So is anyone using their Raspberry Pi for non-media duties? planning to set mine up for some lighter 'server' duties, primarily due to low power usage, and wondering what the best distro was to use, last I looked there was an official debian/raspbian and an arch linux image as well?

trying to set one of my rpis's up as an action cam on bike, hoping it turns out ok once i finish sealing the case up

 

[SKILL]

Well the arch would be the most lightweight for the server if you were running it headless. Don't like raspian myself - too much educational stuff there by default for non-classroom users. Installed pibang on mine recently. Very slick and lightening fast to load into the GUI. There's quite a lot of distros now with pi ports so don't just choose from the those in noobs.

Yeah, was thinking Arch, it will be headless, just wondering if anyone had any specific experience. Anyway, just installed Arch and booted it up, it even starts ssh by default so no need to plug in a monitor to even get started, now to set it up properly

trying to set one of my rpis's up as an action cam on bike, hoping it turns out ok once i finish sealing the case up

Interesting, guessing that's using the official camera, what case are you using and are we talking pushbike or motorbike? What are you using for the battery?

 

[Yaka]

Interesting, guessing that's using the official camera, what case are you using and are we talking pushbike or motorbike? What are you using for the battery?

yep its for my motor bike, im using elsons design case ,
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Raspberry-Pi-Case.jpg
http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/medium_blacklens.jpg

No hotlinked images, if you want to post them then please rehost them on your own webspace. Thank you.

yep using orignal pi camera and using the magnetic lens i use on my phone. for testing im gonna use a battery pack if it works then try and hard wire it to my my bike

 

[Mercurial]

I've gone with Rasplex simply becuase that's all I just want to be able to stream my Plex media. I've had XBMC on an HTPC and ATV2 but prefer the Plex Home Theatre UI. My understanding is that Rasplex is based on a OpenElec + PHT client.

That said the issues mentioned above are more significant that I thought, in that if I leave the Rasperry Pi on 24/7 and then play something it appears to be crashing (blank screen then reboot) 100% now. I thought this was the 'memory leak' issue mentioned on the Plex forums and tried leaving the Pi on a pre-play screen to avoid it downloading anything. However this doesn't seem to make a difference.

I know there are major improvements for the next release; RC4 including a USB installer so might just see if there's anything obvious going on but then wait for the new release.

I too had problems with Rasplex. In the end I gave up.

I am now using RaspBMC with the Plexbmc plugin. Combined with Amber skin, it looks exactly like the Plex UI and has been faultless.

However, I tend not to leave it on 24/7 as it is powered by the TV, so don't know how it will behave if I were to do so.

 

[slothmeister]

Can anyone help with a retarted noob!!

Im trying to setup a samba share on my pi that i'm running raspbmc on.

I had it working and was able to see the shares on my mac and open all my folders on the drive, but if i tried to send a file to it i would recieve a error message: unable to copy ... to .... as you don't have permission to read them

So i opened up the samba config file to see what might be up, i was logged in as a guest as initially with a username and password it wouldn't let me access the drive.

This was the config file:

[global]
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    #usershare allow guests = yes
    #security=share
    security=user
    follow symlinks = yes
    wide links = no
    unix extensions = no
    lock directory = /var/cache/samba
;[pi]
;    browsable = yes
;    read only = no
;    #guest ok = yes
;    valid users = pi
;    path = /home/pi
;    #force user = pi (no longer needed)
;[devices]
;    browsable = yes
;    read only = no
;    #guest ok = yes
;    valid users = pi
;    path = /media
;    force user = root

OB[Media Share]
     browsable = yes
     path = /media/TV And Music
     guest ok = no

So i thought ok, ill just change the bottom guest ok to yes and that would be it.... saved the config file but it wouldn't let me see the drives, so i changed it back to no, and saved and restarted but im still not able to see the drive. If i try to connect to the drive i get the message: There was a problem connecting to 192.168.1.2 There are no shares available or you are not allowed to access them on the server

Now please bare in mind that I am a complete novice when it comes to this, most of the work has been done by my mate who has one, but im slowly trying to work out what he's done, so you may have to explain it in layman terms.

Thanks.

 

[Timber]

Noticed yesterday that Rasplex 0.4.0-rc4 was released on 25th (link).

About 24 hours of use and it's coped fine playing a 14,000+ kbps BluRay rip under Direct Play with only 2/3 noticeable stutters. Something it could never do for me under the previous release. Also having left the Pi running overnight it's yet to crash and it's being used to play back a number of TV shows.

So all in all super impressed with this new release.

 

[bledd]

Openelec is by far the best xbmc variant in my limited testing. The latest versions are super slick. Menus are nice and fast

 

[Gangster]

Hi all

Looking at getting a model b version of this for use with XBMC and 1080p playback.

I've seen some videos of it running find but am still quite doubtful. In the past I've tried £150 pc's with dual core, 3gb ram and still struggle with 1080p content... so a little device like this at ~£30 is quite a difference!

Scanning through some posts here they appear to be fine, just wondering if anyone can reassure me lol?

Also any best all in one place to get the Pi (or would it be a competitor?)?

 

[Yaka]

it works, so many peeps wouldnt be using it with xbmc if it didnt.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

So I bought an RPi the day they were released and just realised that I left it at my brothers around that time and never actually did anything with it.

How has the software etc matured on them for them to be run as a media centre (using XBMC I assume?)

I've got a D-Link NAS on my home network, would the RPi be suitable for playing video and music from the NAS through my TV?

 

[Timber]

Scanning through some posts here they appear to be fine, just wondering if anyone can reassure me lol?

In summary, yes the Raspberry Pi is fine for 1080p content.

I only recently bought one a few weeks ago and have been running Rasplex on it (which is a port of Openelec & Plex Home Theatre client). The newly released version is easy playing 1080p BR rips via Direct Play. As per above very impressed. Obviously not as snappy or as powerful as an HTPC but if all you're looking to do is stream media the Pi cuts it. If you want to do more (I.e. watch live and record Freeview HD via TV tuners or play BRs directly) then the Pi won't replace a dedicated PC.

I understand Openelec/RaspBMC will play files with a bitrate up to 30mbps just fine.

There can be negatives to the Pi like you potentially have to buy extras (SD card, WiFi dongle, case, USB stick or power supply) and research if anything needs support but they are such versatile boxes that this can be fun to play around with distros etc. I had my box up and running with Rasplex in minutes.

For me its helped consign the HTPC to become a media server, and the Apple TV to be sold on. Awesome little box.

 

[BuZ]

I need one of these.

I could install Linux onto it and try building my own OS from scratch (or get started from the pure basics).

 

[elrasho]

I've lost permissions to write to my USB drive when using Transmission. I select a torrent and it starts to finds peers but then says 'permission denied to write to KINGTON..' I've tried downloading torrents to the SD card the OS is on but I still get a permission denied error?

 

[elrasho]

These are the file permissions



Does that look right?

 

[Frozennova]

Who is the owner of the directory you are trying to write to and what user is transmission running as? Try giving read/write permissions to group and public