[hdmkv]

Not really... it's fairly straightforward:

1. Buy a kit like this. Essential parts are Pi2 board, power supply, and mSD card (8GB is enough).
   
2. Have a keyboard/mouse combo (like Logitech K400) and/or an IR receiver (like this or Flirc).
   
3. Download OpenELEC (here, scroll down) for disk image file.
   
4. Write image to mSD using Disk Imager (or similar) tool.
   
5. Put mSD card into Pi2, connect to your TV/projector, and power on.
   
6. Follow on-screen instructions for initial OpenELEC set-up.
   
7. In Kodi settings, toggle to 'Expert' mode to show all options. Under Videos > Playback, enable 'Adjust display refresh rate to match video', but leave 'Sync playback to display' disabled. Under Acceleration, enable 'Use Full HD HDMI modes for 3D'. Finally, to get 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA decoded and sent to your AVR as uncompressed PCM, under Audio output, disable 'Enable passthrough' option, and set 'Number of channels' to 5.1 or 7.1 (whatever you have).
   
8. (Recommended) To upgrade to the latest Kodi 16 build, get here. This is if you want 3D ISO (in addition to MVC MKV). Find your RPi2 on your PC's network, then copy over the .tar file to your Pi's 'Update' folder. After you reboot, the update will be applied,
   
9. All done; enjoy your Pi2 .
   

[efernandejr]

Not really... it's fairly straightforward:

1. Buy a kit like this. Essential parts are Pi2 board, power supply, and mSD card (8GB is enough).
   
2. Have a keyboard/mouse combo (like Logitech K400) and/or an IR receiver (like this or Flirc).
   
3. Download OpenELEC (here, scroll down) for disk image file.
   
4. Write image to mSD using Disk Imager (or similar) tool.
   
5. Put mSD card into Pi2, connect to your TV/projector, and power on.
   
6. Follow on-screen instructions for initial OpenELEC set-up.
   
7. In Kodi settings, toggle to 'Expert' mode to show all options. Under Videos > Playback, enable 'Adjust display refresh rate to match video', but leave 'Sync playback to display' disabled. Under Acceleration, enable 'Use Full HD HDMI modes for 3D'. Finally, to get 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA decoded and sent to your AVR as uncompressed PCM, under Audio output, disable 'Enable passthrough' option, and set 'Number of channels' to 5.1 or 7.1 (whatever you have).
   
8. (Recommended) To upgrade to the latest Kodi 16 build, get here. This is if you want 3D ISO (in addition to MVC MKV). Find your RPi2 on your PC's network, then copy over the .tar file to your Pi's 'Update' folder. After you reboot, the update will be applied,
   
9. All done; enjoy your Pi2 .
   

See, Cob2? Told you there was someone out there who knew way more than me!

[Kendos]

Not really... it's fairly straightforward:

1. Buy a kit like this. Essential parts are Pi2 board, power supply, and mSD card (8GB is enough).
   
2. Have a keyboard/mouse combo (like Logitech K400) and/or an IR receiver (like this or Flirc).
   
3. Download OpenELEC (here, scroll down) for disk image file.
   
4. Write image to mSD using Disk Imager (or similar) tool.
   
5. Put mSD card into Pi2, connect to your TV/projector, and power on.
   
6. Follow on-screen instructions for initial OpenELEC set-up.
   
7. In Kodi settings, toggle to 'Expert' mode to show all options. Under Videos > Playback, enable 'Adjust display refresh rate to match video', but leave 'Sync playback to display' disabled. Under Acceleration, enable 'Use Full HD HDMI modes for 3D'. Finally, to get 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA decoded and sent to your AVR as uncompressed PCM, under Audio output, disable 'Enable passthrough' option, and set 'Number of channels' to 5.1 or 7.1 (whatever you have).
   
8. (Recommended) To upgrade to the latest Kodi 16 build, get here. This is if you want 3D ISO (in addition to MVC MKV). Find your RPi2 on your PC's network, then copy over the .tar file to your Pi's 'Update' folder. After you reboot, the update will be applied,
   
9. All done; enjoy your Pi2 .
   

2. I would use an IR receiver (LIKE THIS) and a remote like the XBOX ONE MEDIA REMOTE. The remote is illuminated and has all keys you need.
8. I think mvc mkv is better at the moment because some ISOs can make problems.

@hdmkv: How about a changelog about the changes you made to the chart?

[joazito]

I have a RPi 2 with a TSOP Ir receiver like that, and I have to say that setting it up with OSMC was much simpler than OpenElec. The GUI has support for it.

[hdmkv]

@hdmkv: How about a changelog about the changes you made to the chart?

Too much work. The thread and posts are the changelog. The chart will reflect latest status of players.

[chadamir]

@hdmkv I saw in a post that you said you have a 5025ub. Are you able to get it to do 3d at 23.976 with the pi 2 or anything else? It always says 24 for me. A couple of times it actually did like 23.3 a few other refresh rates that were below 23.976. I don't have any stuttering or sync issues though. I bypassed the avr and that didn't change anything. Also says 24hz on my bluray player. It may be because I have a long hdmi cord. Right now I have pi to avr to darbee to wall hdmi and then wall to projector.

[hdmkv]

Yes. But, Epson 5025 can behave a bit funky sometimes. If you have a 23.976 file (make sure using MediaInfo on it) and it's showing 24.000 or another framerate, stop, then play again. Usually shows 23.976 next time. Or, test by connecting directly to PJ vs. via AVR.

It seems that some new/recent AVR's are screwing up EDID metadata when passing Pi2 (or whatever media player's) video to the display. One user with Pi2 is using Dr. HDMI to ensure proper framerates...

[chadamir]

Yes. But, Epson 5025 can behave a bit funky sometimes. If you have a 23.976 file (make sure using MediaInfo on it) and it's showing 24.000 or another framerate, stop, then play again. Usually shows 23.976 next time. Or, test by connecting directly to PJ vs. via AVR.

It seems that some new/recent AVR's are screwing up EDID metadata when passing Pi2 (or whatever media player's) video to the display. One user with Pi2 is using Dr. HDMI to ensure proper framerates...

Stopping and starting works for 2d. With 3d I've found that it doesn't. Sometimes I'll get that low frame rate or sometimes it will cause the signal to blackout. It's definitely 23.976. Bypassing the avr didn't work. I'll look into Dr. Hdmi, but that's expensive given the amount of 3d I actually watch.

[hdmkv]

Agree about expensive. My suspicion is that Epson 5025UB is indeed displaying in proper 23.976 as I don't see microstutters or frame skips.

[langostino]

There's no best, but here's what I'd consider between the two as far as PQ and 3D support...

RPi2
- Seamless playback of 3D via Kodi internal dvdplayer/videoplayer
- Excellent PQ, unmolested, output as is from videos
- Perfect framerates, especially the most important 23.976 (majority of movies & TV shows)
- 3D support for both ISO's and MVC MKV's
- Some artifacts exist (not all 3D ISO's): green pixellation and random stutters (latter seems like at points where bitrates peak in BD rips)
- The best support you could ask for

Update: The Pi2 green pixellation issue is being worked on.

HiMedia Q5
- Video playback (including 3D) via external player solution (not seamless w/Kodi, but not bad either)
- No wired SMB/NFS playback stutters
- Excellent PQ, leveraging Imprex Processing Engine (a Darbee Darblet-like video processor)
- 23.976 is only supported for 2D. 3D ISO's play at 24.000 (some microstutters are noticeable)
- Only 3D ISO's supported, not MVC MKV's
- Fairly good support (wish it was faster, with more frequent updates)

I understand Himedia Q5 doesn't play mvc files as mvc mts from a 3d camcorder. Is it true? Does Raspberry Pi can?

[hdmkv]

No, Q5 doesn't, but you can easily create an ISO out of your camcorder MVC MTS using tsMuxeR. Yes, Pi can play MVC MKV & MVC ISO.

[bore]

Can anyone can help me with my problem.I am looking for device that can give me dts and dd 5.1 via optical output.95% of the files will be mkv h.264 and h.265.Not interested in3D ISO.

3D files that i want to play look something like this:

Name:..............................3D.half.OU.BDRip.1080p.x264.DTS.mkv

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 11.6 GiB
Duration : 1h 41mn
Overall bit rate : 16.3 Mbps
Movie name : ..................................... 3D
Encoded date : UTC 2015-04-24 00:16:45
Writing application : mkvmerge v7.8.0 ('River Man') 64bit built on Mar 27 2015 16:31:37
Writing library : libebml v1.3.1 + libmatroska v1.4.2

DATE_ENCODED : 2015-04-23
DURATION : 01:40:55.007000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES : 1530
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 19856421
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP : mkvmerge v7.8.0 ('River Man') 64bit built on Mar 27 2015 16:31:37
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC : 2015-04-24 00:16:45
_STATISTICS_TAGS : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
MultiView_Count : 2
MultiView_Layout : Top-Bottom (left eye first)
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 41mn
Bit rate : 13.8 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.278
Stream size : 9.86 GiB (85%)
Title : BDRip
Writing library : x264 core 138 r2358 9e941d1
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=9 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=15.5 / qcomp=0.70 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=40000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / frame-packing=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:0.70
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
DURATION : 01:41:59.781000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES : 146728
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 10772074198
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP : mkvmerge v7.8.0 ('River Man') 64bit built on Mar 27 2015 16:31:37
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC : 2015-04-24 00:16:45
_STATISTICS_TAGS : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES



4k will be nice to have.My TV-Panasonic 49CX750.Is there a device that can play such files at the moment?

[movie78]

How much do yo want to spend?

[bore]

How much do yo want to spend?

Up to 150 euro.

[couto27]

How much do yo want to spend?

Up to 150 euro.

Nvidia shield...well worth the extra 50€.
3d will come on later date.