4 ms·

Raspberry PI has pretty much what you're looking for. I one set up exactly for this purpose.

jsmeaton 11y ago
I've been thinking about a raspberry pi for this purpose but I'd prefer something already packaged up (even if it was a pi underneath).
- Washuu 11y ago
  Once the case, wireless adapter, and a few other items are added in to make the Raspberry Pi 2 function as a nice HTPC it comes out to about $100. The same cost for much less hardware.
  - codfrantic 11y ago
    I only used a Pi (1B) (20$) 4GB SD Card (5$?) case (6$) and hdmi cable (0.5$) My TV has HDMI CEC built in which means my tv remote works with the OSMC / Kodi / etc install. This gets me to a total of 31.5$ for my full HD supporting mediacenter :) (the case is even optional since it sits on the back of my TV, out of sight)
- datashaman 11y ago
  http://www.xbian.org/ http://www.xbian.org/ XBian is a small, fast and lightweight media center distribution for the Raspberry Pi, CuBox-i, Hummingboard and many more devices to come. It is based on a minimal Debian and therefore offers much of the same freedom as Debian offers. Very simple to install and get running.
- morganvachon 11y ago
  If I'm not mistaken, one or more of the previous generation Roku devices uses the same SoC as the Raspberry Pi. We have a Roku 1 and a Roku 3, and they are both great for the price. The $50 Roku 1 is attached to an old but "too good to throw away" Sony Trinitron CRT, and the Roku 3 is on our bedroom TV, a 27" Vizio LCD. They both stream via WiFi with no issues (480p on the 1, 1080p on the 3). I did have a couple of RasPis running OSMC before we went with the Roku devices, and apart from issues with the initial setup, the Pis worked great. The Roku does offer a greater selection of services so there's a lot more 3rd party streaming content available there, and the official Plex app on Roku makes it easier to stream from our media server than the Pi, but if you know what you're doing you can enable uPnP on OSMC and local streaming mostly works fine. You can also run emulators on the Pi on top of OSMC, which is great for nostalgic gaming. The Roku 3 has a limited selection of games and a Wiimote-like remote, but no support for emulation that I'm aware of.
avinassh 11y ago
Raspberry Pi is not really good as a media player. It struggles for high quality high bit rate 1080p videos and it is limited with USB 2 and does not have gigabit ethernet.
- skMed 11y ago
  I use an older Pi with Raspbmc (osmc) and I can stream 1080P movies just fine. The key is to 1.) Avoid streaming off a slow disk e.g. NAS, 2.) Ensure you have the necessary bandwidth to stream (no slow wifi), and 3.) Pass DTS audio to your receiver for decoding so your PI isn't doing double duty for audio/video.
  - papaf 11y ago
    It is also worth looking at NFS if you use a NAS. I have been able to stream movies over terrible Wifi by switching from Samba to NFS. This wasn't with a Pi though.
  - _lce0 11y ago
    Initially, I tried this setup.. disk [usb]-> router <-[wifi]-> raspB+ <- tv but it wasn't good for streaming videos over the network. The router was the problem. so when we upgraded to rasp2, I tried this setup.. disk [usb]-> raspB+ <-[eth]-> router <-[wifi]-> rasp2 ..and it's been working like that, flawless, for almost a year so far. The raspB+ shares the media collection over upnp, so we can consume it from pretty much everywhere on the house, and the rasp2 consumes using upnp so when can control it remotely. With a combination of these apps, you can do pretty much everything remotely from your phone.. - upnp: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.droidupnp https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.droidupnp - torrents: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.sugr.gearshift https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.sugr.gearshi... - run stuff: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.littlebytesofpi.pylauncher https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.littlebyteso... Now I just need a good radio support .. any ideas?
- theshrike79 11y ago
  It streams 1080p h264 just fine, haven't had a single issue yet. The only movie so far I've had problems with was a raw Blu-Ray rip of Pixar's Up that I streamed from my NAS. It has some crazy high bitrates and just refused to play smoothly even with all caches turned up to 11. But that's the only one from hundreds of movies I've tested.
hendry 11y ago
Currently the Broadcom GL driver and Webkit2 do not play well together. http://dabase.com/blog/Webkit_on_Rpi2/ http://dabase.com/blog/Webkit_on_Rpi2/ I got burnt by this.

I've been thinking about a raspberry pi for this purpose but I'd prefer something already packaged up (even if it was a pi underneath).

Washuu 11y ago
Once the case, wireless adapter, and a few other items are added in to make the Raspberry Pi 2 function as a nice HTPC it comes out to about $100. The same cost for much less hardware.
- codfrantic 11y ago
  I only used a Pi (1B) (20$) 4GB SD Card (5$?) case (6$) and hdmi cable (0.5$) My TV has HDMI CEC built in which means my tv remote works with the OSMC / Kodi / etc install. This gets me to a total of 31.5$ for my full HD supporting mediacenter :) (the case is even optional since it sits on the back of my TV, out of sight)
datashaman 11y ago
http://www.xbian.org/ http://www.xbian.org/ XBian is a small, fast and lightweight media center distribution for the Raspberry Pi, CuBox-i, Hummingboard and many more devices to come. It is based on a minimal Debian and therefore offers much of the same freedom as Debian offers. Very simple to install and get running.
morganvachon 11y ago
If I'm not mistaken, one or more of the previous generation Roku devices uses the same SoC as the Raspberry Pi. We have a Roku 1 and a Roku 3, and they are both great for the price. The $50 Roku 1 is attached to an old but "too good to throw away" Sony Trinitron CRT, and the Roku 3 is on our bedroom TV, a 27" Vizio LCD. They both stream via WiFi with no issues (480p on the 1, 1080p on the 3). I did have a couple of RasPis running OSMC before we went with the Roku devices, and apart from issues with the initial setup, the Pis worked great. The Roku does offer a greater selection of services so there's a lot more 3rd party streaming content available there, and the official Plex app on Roku makes it easier to stream from our media server than the Pi, but if you know what you're doing you can enable uPnP on OSMC and local streaming mostly works fine. You can also run emulators on the Pi on top of OSMC, which is great for nostalgic gaming. The Roku 3 has a limited selection of games and a Wiimote-like remote, but no support for emulation that I'm aware of.

avinassh 11y ago

Raspberry Pi is not really good as a media player. It struggles for high quality high bit rate 1080p videos and it is limited with USB 2 and does not have gigabit ethernet.

skMed 11y ago
I use an older Pi with Raspbmc (osmc) and I can stream 1080P movies just fine. The key is to 1.) Avoid streaming off a slow disk e.g. NAS, 2.) Ensure you have the necessary bandwidth to stream (no slow wifi), and 3.) Pass DTS audio to your receiver for decoding so your PI isn't doing double duty for audio/video.
- papaf 11y ago
  It is also worth looking at NFS if you use a NAS. I have been able to stream movies over terrible Wifi by switching from Samba to NFS. This wasn't with a Pi though.
- _lce0 11y ago
  Initially, I tried this setup.. disk [usb]-> router <-[wifi]-> raspB+ <- tv but it wasn't good for streaming videos over the network. The router was the problem. so when we upgraded to rasp2, I tried this setup.. disk [usb]-> raspB+ <-[eth]-> router <-[wifi]-> rasp2 ..and it's been working like that, flawless, for almost a year so far. The raspB+ shares the media collection over upnp, so we can consume it from pretty much everywhere on the house, and the rasp2 consumes using upnp so when can control it remotely. With a combination of these apps, you can do pretty much everything remotely from your phone.. - upnp: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.droidupnp https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.droidupnp - torrents: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.sugr.gearshift https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=org.sugr.gearshi... - run stuff: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.littlebytesofpi.pylauncher https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.littlebyteso... Now I just need a good radio support .. any ideas?
theshrike79 11y ago
It streams 1080p h264 just fine, haven't had a single issue yet. The only movie so far I've had problems with was a raw Blu-Ray rip of Pixar's Up that I streamed from my NAS. It has some crazy high bitrates and just refused to play smoothly even with all caches turned up to 11. But that's the only one from hundreds of movies I've tested.

hendry 11y ago

Currently the Broadcom GL driver and Webkit2 do not play well together. http://dabase.com/blog/Webkit_on_Rpi2/ http://dabase.com/blog/Webkit_on_Rpi2/ I got burnt by this.