[NoDVD]

Hi fellows,

a friend of me needs a media player to rip all his DVD movies to a HDD.
As I couldn't find any approprirate Media Player which supports H.264, a remote control (he diesn't care if it's IR or by smartphone) I wonder if KODI on a RPi2 would be a suiteable solution for him.

How do you guys add content to the library?
Might I be able to create a Sambashare where I could upload it by wifi?
Or is there a script available that would scan any new connected USB stick and move the files to the HDD? (As easy as possible is neccessary - I don't wanna have thousands of phonecalls!)

After copying new content to the HDD might be a manual scan neccessary to update the lib or is this automated?

As he's using Windows Phone I wonder if the remote apps are up to date?
I'd clearly prefer Android...but for any case he's happy with Windows Phone...

As I'm unexperienced with KODI those questions might sound stupid.

[DarrenHill]

Moved to the OS independent section.

Yes a Pi 2 works fine with Kodi (OpenElec or OSMC) and there are a few winphone apps for Kodi remote control (media centre remote, Kodi assist) plus for Android you have Kore out Yatse plus others.

Files can be transferred by SMB or the built in file manager.

[NoDVD]

Thanks for your answer. Do I have to trigger a file-rescan manually after moving new files to my RPi?

As far as I remember on RPi B there was a spacial codec to be purchased separately to enable hardwareacceleration. Will this be neccessary to enable FullHD video playback on an RPi2?

[DarrenHill]

Yes you would need to rescan, but it doesn't take long.

For mpeg-2 and vc-1 hardware decoding you need to buy licences from the Pi Store. Whether you need them or not depends on what you're playing and how is encoded. That said both are cheap anyway.

[NoDVD]

Well, as my friend's going to rip all of his DVD movies, I suggest him to use Handbrake to encode either H.264 (or maybe H.265). So there shouldn't be any licencing issues. But even those licences are quite cheap

I just spoke to him and he'd prefer to be independent from his router (he often turns it off to save energy) - so he'd need a dedicated remote control for his Pi.
What's the cheapest/easiest way for this? (i.E. Wii controller or any bluetooth gamepad?)

Or might it be possible to attach an bluetooth dongle and still controll it with Windows Phone without the need of an router?

[DarrenHill]

Simplest way is still WiFi. With a dongle you can make the Pi a hotspot (at least under OpenElec). Then just connect to it as before. Or yes you can use either a Bluetooth dongle or a GPIO or USB remote. I don't think the phone remotes work by Bluetooth though (only WiFi), but you can get dedicated hardware which may.

[Prof Yaffle]

Pis have CEC installed, do they not? In which case, if it's connected to a suitable TV, the TV remote will automatically control Kodi when that's the selected source. No 'phones, Bluetooth, WiFi or IR adapters required.

[DarrenHill]

Yes they do - overlooked that with the original question about remotes.

Ironic as that's how I run my Pi at home

[NoDVD]

Hmmm....sounds like a great idea!
How can I quick-check if CEC will work on that TV?

(it's some strange kind of Toshiba LCD TV...where I couldn't find a manual or datasheet online - and it's USB ports only play pictures and MP3, therefore we need the RPi as media player)

[DarrenHill]

That's a bit beyond the scope of this forum.

As you can't find a manual I'd try a more general search or a more specific Toshiba forum.

[Prof Yaffle]

Apparently, Toshiba calls it "Regza Link or CE-Link" (as per the wiki: CEC (wiki))

If you search for the model number and one of those stings - or stare endlessly at the remote to see if there's a suitable button - or search the TV's setup menus - you should find out if it's supported or not.

[NoDVD]

Thanks for this information.
As the Toshiba support answered my email, it doesn't seem to support CEC (it's an Toshiba LV703 - sticker on it's back calls it 32LV703G.... that's why I couldn't find any information). Even on the manual (got an direct link from Toshiba) there's nothing about Regza, CE-Link or CEC.

So what might be the cheapest way to connect a dedicated remote control?
May nradom IR remote controls be supported by KODI if I find an appoprirate receiver and connect it to one of the GPIOs?

//Edit: May I shutdown the Pi using an IR control? Or do I have to run my own script using a hardware button to shut it down?

[dandnsmith]

So what might be the cheapest way to connect a dedicated remote control?
May nradom IR remote controls be supported by KODI if I find an appoprirate receiver and connect it to one of the GPIOs?

//Edit: May I shutdown the Pi using an IR control? Or do I have to run my own script using a hardware button to shut it down?

You can use a lot of remotes with a suitable opto-diode plugged into GPIO - but you'd have to work out how to configure for that particluar remote. Have a look for 'remote' and 'LIRC' in the wiki.
One of the remote keys can be used for power-off (but remember that you cannot really turn the Pi off, only stop everything running, and it needs power to be cycled off and then off to boot it again)

[NoDVD]

So far I got a TSOP4838 working on OpenElec.
USB drive is plag'n'play and always on poweron a filescan is performed.

I started to configure the ir remote.
But that's where some trouble starts:

Code:

OpenELEC:~ # irw
69 0 KEY_LEFT devinput
69 1 KEY_LEFT devinput
69 0 KEY_LEFT_UP devinput
192 0 KEY_CHANNELUP devinput
192 1 KEY_CHANNELUP devinput
192 0 KEY_CHANNELUP_UP devinput
6a 0 KEY_RIGHT devinput
6a 1 KEY_RIGHT devinput
6a 0 KEY_RIGHT_UP devinput
193 0 KEY_CHANNELDOWN devinput
193 1 KEY_CHANNELDOWN devinput
193 0 KEY_CHANNELDOWN_UP devinput
160 0 KEY_OK devinput
160 1 KEY_OK devinput
160 0 KEY_OK_UP devinput
ae 0 KEY_EXIT devinput
ae 1 KEY_EXIT devinput
ae 0 KEY_EXIT_UP devinput

Using 'irw' I can see that input works proper.
But I can't use the on-screen-menu proper.
Once I'm in a submenu KEY_DOWN highlights the last entry in a short list, on a long file list it's more like a 'screen down' selection (no idea how to describe it...). So it's not like 'one item down' as I exspected it to work.

Any idea on this?