[Tinko]

Hi there

very first time I'm in this forum and I hope my questions is not too bland. I'm an absolute noob when it comes to xbmc kodi openelec and stuff like that. My journey is a little bit different... I'm coming from my first Raspberry Pi2 experience using Rasbian and FHEM for home automatisation. I don't know why but somehow I got hooked on this little box and I just want to get more and more.

Anywho... I was thinking... what else can i do with an Raspberry Pi. The obvious answer is a media center. I have all my DVDs copied to a hard drive which is basically just laying around because I'm to lazy to hook it up.

So this is my plan: hope you can give me some tips where I should start.

1. get a NAS - The idea is to get a Synology two drive storage to hold the content. Any advice which one would be recommended. Do I need a play version or a "j" or the normal models?
   
2. get a RPI - Which one is preferred RPI2 or RPI3?
   
3. Install xbmc distro - What would be recommended for a noob? Kodi or OpenElec (thoose are my results of my research so far)
   
4. have fun watching - I don't need nothing fancy just plain watching
   

Since I would to start now to get a NAS I would really appreciate a recommendation. Do I need the "play" since it handles transcoding for the RPi or is that not necessary?

Thanks
Tinko

[DarrenHill]

The first time user (wiki) notes may help to kick things off.

Personally I'd say a Pi3 with either LibreElec or OSMC and just hook your hard drive up to it initially. Personally I use LibreElec, it's a bit more streamlined but also a bit more cut down and focused on our media playing.

But try them both (and OpenElec and Xbian too) and see which works for you. It's just burning an image onto your uSD card in each case.

[Tinko]

Thanks for the tip

I'm thinking osmc or openelec for the beginning.
I'm still a little bit worried about the hardware of the Pi3 and the installation process. It seems like I can't find a how-to for the installation on the pi3.

Does someone has experience or a good how-to handy?

[MikeB2013]

Installation on a Pi3 is the same as a Pi2. The main difference is Pi3 has built-in WIFI (2.4 GHz)

Try this for a how to http://www.wirelesshack.org/how-to-insta...del-2.html

or even better http://www.wirelesshack.org/how-to-insta...-pi-3.html

The screen shots are a little out of date, but the process is the same. Ignore the stuff about SuperRepo.

Mike

[Tinko]

I really like the fact to boot into Kodi without login and I don't really need access to the linux underneath or configuration of the RPI hardware. BTW I used this german comparison between Kodi (XBMC), openElec and OSMC (Raspbmc). I was worried because of of what I read here

It looks like Noobs doesn't include OpenElec yet. At least that was the fact at the time. Any news if I could go with Noobs or just do it the way described in your link? Thanks by the way.

[speedwell68]

I really like the fact to boot into Kodi without login and I don't really need access to the linux underneath or configuration of the RPI hardware. BTW I used this german comparison between Kodi (XBMC), openElec and OSMC (Raspbmc). I was worried because of of what I read here

It looks like Noobs doesn't include OpenElec yet. At least that was the fact at the time. Any news if I could go with Noobs or just do it the way described in your link? Thanks by the way.

I wouldn't bother with OpenELEC or OSMC, I'd just go for LibreELEC instead.

[Tinko]

Hi guys

Just got my new RPI3 today and installed Plex Server just for the hell of it. I get only a few files to stream. Haven't really figured out why since I only get a spinning wheel but no message. But I guess its a transcoding issue, since that was sort of expected. Anywho this is not the Plex-Forum...

My question is, if I were to install kodi now... wouldn't I run into the same transcoding or rather decoding issues? Do I need to convert all my videos before I can watch them with kodi/xxxELEC on a RPI3?

Thanks

[Milhouse]

Kodi on RPi (1, 2 or 3) will play (decode) pretty much anything you throw at it. Pi2 and Pi3 will also have a stab at software-decoding MPEG2 video but you're better off buying the MPEG2 license for £2.40 to enable hardware decoding (not having this license might be why your you're having problems). The VC-1 license (£1.20) is also recommended if you're planning on playing back Blu-ray titles. You can purchase the MPEG2 and VC-1 licences from the Raspberry Pi Store: http://www.raspberrypi.com/license-keys/

I wouldn't use a Pi3 for transcoding, and it really shouldn't be necessary anyway as the Pi should be able to decode most files.

[Tinko]

Cool thanks. That helped a lot. Will come back as soon as I get it up and running with Kodi or rather libreELEC as I have decided to first give it a shot.

Now it's becoming a bit philosophic and probably not new
I did some research for openELEC and libreELEC. Please correct me if I got it wrong. LibreELEC is basically a fork of openELEC not that long ago. So both are probably still very similar. While openELEC was basically managed by one single project lead, libreELEC has established a committee for managing and decision making.

While more detailed information for the reasons get a little bit fuzzy on the web since there are always different sides of one story... I have the general believe that the crowed has a higher intelligence and is more sustainable then one single human being. But I'm impressed by what that guy was able to drive and manage. Call it silly but I honestly believe that systems (let it be Software, complex products, art, social rules, law, politics, economy, religion and so on) are becoming so complex that no single human brain can keep the overview even on a very high level already today or in the near future.

Take most big construction project in Germany (airports, train station, subway) as an example. For last 10 years not one of the big project have been even close to finish in time, quality or budget. I'm talking about not even taking one of the three bars. And that with probably using all the best practice of project management you can get.

So from a philosophic point of view I want to believe that crowd intelligence works. (And I know that history in Germany has thought us differently). Otherwise I don't see how complexity can be managed in the future.

[noggin]

LibreElec and OpenElec are very similar at the moment - though the different styles of development may mean they move further apart in the future.

I personally have switched to LibreElec as I think I'm going to prefer their approach.

Pi 3 plays pretty much anything you throw at it apart from UHD and HEVC stuff (though it will have a stab at 720p and low bitrate 1080p HEVC) For Blu-ray quality stuff and SD/HD TV it's a great solution - and it even does lossless decode of HD Audio, and PCM multichannel output for FLAC and AAC stuff.

[Tinko]

So I just installed libreELEC and I'm pretty impressed. I basically plays everything even without additional codec licenses in my library. Additionally I'm impressed by the addons for video streaming which are already build in.

Great performance and UI. And the installation was extremely easy. Everything just worked out of the box.

I was doing some research and there is a big fuzz about the Phoenix addon on the web. Have not installed it yet. Sounds to good to be legal. My question is where does the media come from? Is it p2p like torrents or just streams?

Any other addons you would recommend?

[UsefulG]

@Tinko that add-on is on the Banned add-ons (wiki) list so you won't get help or recommendations for it.

To answer the original question I have a RPI3 and synology NAS and it works brilliantly but I would recommend getting the codecs from Raspberry Pi store for smoother playback. Also check out the RPi wiki entries to overclock your Pi for even more performance.

[Tinko]

@UsefulG Understood

But are there any other (not banned) addons you would recommend? The questions wasn't focussed on that kind on addons I mentioned earlier.

I will look into the codecs as a next step.

I just came up with another question. How do people normally shut down their RPI with Kodi and how do they boot it again later?

Bye

[UsefulG]

I use the Youtube add-on, USTV vod and Amazon prime video add ons which use either freely available content or leverage my subscriptions. I can recommend all three as very good, other than that it is local content from the NAS.

I leave my Pi on 24/7 it draws so little power and I want it to be instant on that I leave it running.

[Tinko]

Codecs are installed. Wasn't that hard... for those who are reading this later: you basically have to go the raspberry codec license online shop mentioned above.. Buy the two licenses buy entering your RPI's unique serial number which you can get via ssh command and wait until you receive the license codes for the codecs. These codes need to be added to a specific file on your RPI's SD card. You can achieve that by putting the sd card into a pc/Mac or again via shh command on the RPI.

I will try the Amazon plugin. Thanks for the tip.

My be I will leave my RPI on as well. Will see