Kodi Community Forum

I currently have XBMC (Gotham 13.2) running on various systems: linux, win7 and even Android on my Samsung S2 phone (works, but phone not really powerful enough :-( ). All of these run off a NAS database.

I am now looking into setting up a Raspberry Pi as an XBMC/Kodi box. So my basic question is: aside from the board, what else would XBMC/Kodi need for this? Obviously a case, and then what?

I am guessing this question has been asked and answered here -somewhere - before. So, please forgive for the repeat, and add link to it. That would be great.

TIA

ken

Assuming you have wired ethernet where the Pi is, then just an sdcard and a power supply are the only essential things.
(case is nice to have, but not essential - you could make something out of cardboard easily enough).

You may well already have a suitable sdcard and power supply (e.g. a mobile phone charger), although be aware that performance does vary with sdcard,
and many mobile phone chargers don't supply a stable enough voltage

This sdcard and this power supply are recommended.

If your TV supports CEC, then you won't need a remote control.
If you have an Android or iPhone, then these can control kodi.
Otherwise a USB or GPIO based remote control is needed.

If you want quality and superior design I thoroughly recommend:

Flirc IR USB Dongle. (superior IR sensitivity and range)
Flirc RPi case.

https://flirc.tv/

Don't bother with heatsinks. Waste of money and too much risk. Use the Flirc case if worried about heat.

The PIBOW range are also pretty nice: (I have a PIBOW Coupe)
http://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-cases

Proper ~5v/2.0+ Amp power supply for overclocking, very important. (My iPad 1 charger works well)
http://thepihut.com/collections/raspberr...r-supplies

Get the 512k RPi, either B (2 USB) or B+ (4 USB).
Any modern microSDHC card will work too. I use a cheap 2014 released - 16GB Sandisk.
My NOOBS card seems slower for some reason.

A nice remote such as the Xbox 360 Media Remote works well with the Flirc, but you can map any IR remote to Flirc really for XBMC operation.
Smartphone operation of XBMC everyday is a PIA, plus battery on my iPhone discharges, used only as a backup.
Get a separate remote for Lounge Lizard convenience.

A powered USB Hub is required if running External HDD's that do not have their own power supply.

Dual band WIFI USB dongles work best for speed and interference issues. Ethernet preferred tho.
https://www.modmypi.com/tenda-w522u-5ghz-wifi-dongle

Numerous cheap Bluetooth USB dongles work. Get one with a Cambridge Chipset.

Overclocking is a must for good XBMC performance, the RPi is stable when overclocked as well, no overheat issues.

I run Openelec - Kodi RC3 on my fully tweaked RPI B+.

Works well.

I just want to emphasize the importance of a proper power supply cable!
Dedicated tablet/phone chargers with MicroUSB connection and a cable fixed to the charger usually have enough copper in the wires to not drop excessive voltage. But a charger with a USB connector where you plug in a USB<->MicroUSB cable can play tricks on you!
The charger can be capable enough, say 2A or so output, but then the cable you use may be one of these cheapies, which use hair thin copper wires inside and drop upwards of a half volt from the power supply to the Pi making the Pi input too low!
It may be enough for the main circuitry but fails for the Ethernet driver chips (which are 5V)...

I assume the PS linked to above is OK.

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(2014-12-15, 20:02)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]Overclocking is a must for good XBMC performance, the RPi is stable when overclocked as well, no overheat issues.

I do not overclock my Pi-B (original 256 MB RAM) and XBMC still works. It runs on RASPBMC.
I have no comparison method though, what should I look out for to see overclocking in action?

And how much overclocking is recommended for XBMC?

Large media library (4000+ video) + Live TV client (TvHeadend) + Ethernet + NFS and SMB.
Properly sorted Media library with Metadata stored with the corresponding media files in their own separate directories externally. This is a must on the RPi with a large library otherwise library navigation will be slow.
An external media manager does all my Metadata scraping (MediaElch).
GUI nice and speedy in Kodi.

RPi B+

gpu_mem=224
arm_freq=1100
core_freq=550
sdram_freq=600
over_voltage=6
over_voltage_sdram=4
force_turbo=1

I see 65 degrees max temp and been stable now for 6 months.

This is my /boot/config.txt:
What is recommended I do to enhance my Pi-B (256 MB RAM)?
I basically only run XBMC on it.

This thread is in danger of being hijacked, a more appropriate thread is the one here for these config.txt settings:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=199272

Thanks for the link (7 page thread)!
However, I think that a summary may be appropriate here since people seem to go for overclocking and some (including me) don't know too much about that topic for basic setup of the Pi...

There are numerous guides on the Net already so I will not repeat them but a good up to date overview of overclocking for a Newbie would be found here:

One point to take onboard when overclocking is if you start seeing a Square box with rainbow colours on the XBMC GUI then your power supply is inadequate.

http://www.htpcbeginner.com/about-overcl...pberry-pi/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=..._at_all.3F

There is then a more detailed Openelec guide here:

http://htpcbuild.com/htpc-software/raspb...rclocking/

(2014-12-15, 20:10)Bosse_B Wrote: [ -> ]I do not overclock my Pi-B (original 256 MB RAM) and XBMC still works. It runs on RASPBMC.
I have no comparison method though, what should I look out for to see overclocking in action?

And how much overclocking is recommended for XBMC?

Why not just use the preset Overclock profiles in the Raspbmc Settings addon? It really is that easy...

This is also very usefull:

Maximizing Performance on the RPi