Downsides using RP3 as Media Center?
#16
(2016-10-24, 19:21)handbone Wrote:
(2016-10-22, 19:34)zerocool_ie Wrote: I also plan to setup a dual-boot system (LibreELEC & Retropie) to allow me to play retro games

Take a look at this. http://www.matthuisman.nz/2015/11/recalb...mages.html

I used the images there to get the dual boot of recalbox and kodi. both can be updated separately as well. Was a very easy setup.

As for RPI3 as a media center, pretty much what zerocool said. I'm running on a RPI2, and have no issues. Even with a 1080p x264 video thats 16gb in size. Just use ethernet, and adjust the video cache for Kodi, and you'll be golden. As for retrogames, RPI3 should be very good for all consoles up to the n64.

thanks handbone, I actually did the setup earlier today! Smile
(kinda forced into it as I fried a MicroSD card trying to put a tab of tape on it to make it easier to remove.... Sad )

I went with this guy:
http://www.multibootpi.com/builds/retrop...dual-boot/
Hassle-free setup and he has tutorial videos on his later images.

Xbox360 wireless controllers worked out-of-the-box - happy days!
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#17
(2016-10-24, 19:14)crutzulee Wrote: It's a shame because some really smart people have made this an inexpesive alternative..

You'd have the same problem if you were to use an HTPC that runs Linux. It's not a hardware issue, it's software.

And changing the volume labels in Windows takes only a few seconds and will solve the problem - no need for new hardware (which isn't the problem, anyway).
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#18
I love my raspberry pi as my media center but it has been a long process to get it right.

Mainly i got crashes due to power supply issues. You might need to buy one or two before finding the right one.
The same goes for the powered USB hub etc. and all the cheap chinese shite Big Grin that goes with it.
I have attached to my USB hub a 1Tb hard drive, a wifi dongle, 2 DVB dongles, and a dvd player, i am also powering 50 led to run hyperion.
It now works very well but it has been quite challenging to set up. I think it's worthwhile but if you do not have the time to tinker i would go for a vendor solution

i have now the girlfriend label of approval Angel
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#19
(2016-10-24, 21:44)Milhouse Wrote:
(2016-10-24, 19:14)crutzulee Wrote: It's a shame because some really smart people have made this an inexpesive alternative..

You'd have the same problem if you were to use an HTPC that runs Linux. It's not a hardware issue, it's software.

And changing the volume labels in Windows takes only a few seconds and will solve the problem - no need for new hardware (which isn't the problem, anyway).

First off Milhouse, thank you so much for all your work making this humble kit so much more than it has any right to be.

I'm sure that you are so busy working on such high level stuff that I wouldn't normally ask what I'm sure is such a low level issue...but here goes..How can you change the volume labels in just a few seconds in Windows?

I have searched everywhere and come up with multiple posts showing how to "rename" the drive and can do this by right clicking the drive in windows as well as by a "rename label command" in command line. The problem is that this seems to be only a "superficial" change and the drive still presents in both windows and linux as MYBOOK and thus continuing to have issues on the pi
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#20
Is this relevant: http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/ans...px?ID=3826 ? Edit: Probably not. Seems to be about changing the label that's displayed on the case.
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#21
(2016-10-25, 02:36)crutzulee Wrote:
(2016-10-24, 21:44)Milhouse Wrote:
(2016-10-24, 19:14)crutzulee Wrote: It's a shame because some really smart people have made this an inexpesive alternative..

You'd have the same problem if you were to use an HTPC that runs Linux. It's not a hardware issue, it's software.

And changing the volume labels in Windows takes only a few seconds and will solve the problem - no need for new hardware (which isn't the problem, anyway).

First off Milhouse, thank you so much for all your work making this humble kit so much more than it has any right to be.

I'm sure that you are so busy working on such high level stuff that I wouldn't normally ask what I'm sure is such a low level issue...but here goes..How can you change the volume labels in just a few seconds in Windows?

I have searched everywhere and come up with multiple posts showing how to "rename" the drive and can do this by right clicking the drive in windows as well as by a "rename label command" in command line. The problem is that this seems to be only a "superficial" change and the drive still presents in both windows and linux as MYBOOK and thus continuing to have issues on the pi

http://bfy.tw/8Mgz
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#22
(2016-10-24, 20:32)zerocool_ie Wrote:
(2016-10-24, 19:21)handbone Wrote:
(2016-10-22, 19:34)zerocool_ie Wrote: I also plan to setup a dual-boot system (LibreELEC & Retropie) to allow me to play retro games

Take a look at this. http://www.matthuisman.nz/2015/11/recalb...mages.html

I used the images there to get the dual boot of recalbox and kodi. both can be updated separately as well. Was a very easy setup.

As for RPI3 as a media center, pretty much what zerocool said. I'm running on a RPI2, and have no issues. Even with a 1080p x264 video thats 16gb in size. Just use ethernet, and adjust the video cache for Kodi, and you'll be golden. As for retrogames, RPI3 should be very good for all consoles up to the n64.

thanks handbone, I actually did the setup earlier today! Smile
(kinda forced into it as I fried a MicroSD card trying to put a tab of tape on it to make it easier to remove.... Sad )

I went with this guy:
http://www.multibootpi.com/builds/retrop...dual-boot/
Hassle-free setup and he has tutorial videos on his later images.

Xbox360 wireless controllers worked out-of-the-box - happy days!

Cool. I may have a look at that. recalbox is sometimes a bit behind (since they build off of retropie)
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#23
(2016-10-25, 10:51)speedwell68 Wrote:
(2016-10-25, 02:36)crutzulee Wrote:
(2016-10-24, 21:44)Milhouse Wrote: You'd have the same problem if you were to use an HTPC that runs Linux. It's not a hardware issue, it's software.

And changing the volume labels in Windows takes only a few seconds and will solve the problem - no need for new hardware (which isn't the problem, anyway).

First off Milhouse, thank you so much for all your work making this humble kit so much more than it has any right to be.

I'm sure that you are so busy working on such high level stuff that I wouldn't normally ask what I'm sure is such a low level issue...but here goes..How can you change the volume labels in just a few seconds in Windows?

I have searched everywhere and come up with multiple posts showing how to "rename" the drive and can do this by right clicking the drive in windows as well as by a "rename label command" in command line. The problem is that this seems to be only a "superficial" change and the drive still presents in both windows and linux as MYBOOK and thus continuing to have issues on the pi

http://bfy.tw/8Mgz

I guess I can't really fault you for being such a douchebag as I myself have, in the past, done a similiar thing to others.

Of course, I bothered to actually read their posts and confirmed their lack of effort before acting childishly.

In this case, I thought I had asked my question quite respectfully after mentioning that my own research (which went beyond the simple and unhelpful google search you pointed to) did not yield the answer which I thought would be simple yet elusive to me.

It seems there is in fact an issue with these drives. Regardless of what you change the volume label to, they seem to be recognized as a MYBOOK. When you use them in windows, there are workarounds which allow you to access them at the same time as in this link...

http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/ans...=6571#win8

Unfortunately, I have not come up with a similar solution under my OPENELEC setup on the rpi3..

I didn't want to hijack this thread, but given the popularity of these drives, I think it is quite germane to the discussion at hand - namely the suitability of the RPI3 as media centre..
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#24
Once you have done that in windows, the change should carry over to linux.
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#25
My biggest complaint with the RPi3 as a Media Center is the sound output. My processor doesn't have HDMI inputs so I ended up adding a HiFiBerry and was happier.It's not perfect due to lipsynch.

I currently have 2 RPis II, 3 RPis III and one Odroid C2. The Odroid was about the same price as an RPi and if I bought another device tomorrow, the Odroid would be my 1st choice.
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#26
(2016-10-26, 13:43)hollywoodpete Wrote: My biggest complaint with the RPi3 as a Media Center is the sound output. My processor doesn't have HDMI inputs so I ended up adding a HiFiBerry and was happier.It's not perfect due to lipsynch.

I currently have 2 RPis II, 3 RPis III and one Odroid C2. The Odroid was about the same price as an RPi and if I bought another device tomorrow, the Odroid would be my 1st choice.

You may want to adjust the audio delay. I use the Hifiberry (RPI2) to passthrough audio, I had to fiddle around with with that to get perfect sync between audio and video
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#27
I have a RPi 3 B, with a HiFiBerry Digi+, everything works fine, including 1080p content, and I'm on WIFI. Media library is on a NAS, mounted via NFS.

I haven't experienced much issue with passthrough out-of-sync audio, if there is a delay, it's negligible. I must admit I had much more out-of-sync audio playback with the Windows Kodi install I had previously on my PC (i7), even with the exact same TV+Audio decoder as now connected to the RPi.

Summary: I am very happy with LibreElec + RPi 3. I use Aeon Nox 5 Silvo as skin, loving it.

Tip: do not use Airplay. I've noticed that after playing music from my iPhone via Airplay on Kodi, it screws up everything I want to do after that, like the whole system goes weird, videos take forever to load (audio plays, video stalls) buffering becomes a usual thing. Now I'm not sure whether that is a RPi issue, or a Kodi issue. So just disable Airplay, and don't use it Smile
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#28
(2016-10-26, 13:43)hollywoodpete Wrote: My biggest complaint with the RPi3 as a Media Center is the sound output. My processor doesn't have HDMI inputs so I ended up adding a HiFiBerry and was happier.It's not perfect due to lipsynch.

I have perfect lipsynch using a HDMI Audio Extracter (my Amp only has Optical/Toslink input) ... no drivers required, no issues encountered .. $20 (at the time)
Smile
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2168326
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Downsides using RP3 as Media Center?0