Raspberry Pi HTPC question

[turb0]

Looking to add a little HTPC for the living room. I've been reading a lot about the product and everything that it can do but I'm unsure of one factor.

If I implement one of these, can I use one of the USB ports to add a external hard drive and run my movies from there or are they specific to running from something off the network like a media pc or NAS?

Another idea I had was to use a USB hub and dump a few 32gb flash drives to create a few different shares that I can just read from.

Thoughts?

 

[Peteman100]

You can use either local media on USB-connected harddrives or network storage. Both will work.

 

[turb0]

Awesome! Thanks!

 

[teh_chem]

One thing to keep in mind with the RaspberryPi is that its USB and ethernet share the bus--reason I mention it is in case you were thinking of doing lots of network transfers from some other computer across the network to a USB hard drive on the Pi, speeds will be very slow, around 8MB/s, because the bus will be bogged down by both ethernet and USB usage.

Of course, playback from a USB device by the Pi is no problem. Streaming a movie from the internet isn't a problem. Streaming a movie from your home network isn't a problem. Just network transfers to a USB drive as if it were acting like a NAS would be slower than ideal.

 

[Droogie128]

Also, remember to get a hub with its own power source.

 

[darkdub]

Just wanted to add a couple tidbits...

Assuming your TV has a free USB port, you can typically power the Pi from your TV's USB, causing the Pi to boot and shutdown with the TV power (not that it's a graceful shutdown, but a few hundred cycles in and things are still OK).

Also, if you haven't experienced it, I highly recommend trying Plex. There's a Raspberry Pi version called rasplex that works extraordinarily well.

 

[dar124]

I currently use my laptop and connect to my living room TV via HDMI to watch movies, etc from a share on my Windows Home Server 2011 machine. I also carry the laptop upstairs to the bedroom to do the same.

This isnt a big deal to do, but is a bit of a hassle to plug in the HDMI cable, connect the laptop, then disconnect it all when I'm done watching the move. And this isnt really the "right way" to do it. So I'm in the process of setting up a HTPC for the living room, but am considering the Raspberry Pi for our bedroom TV. But I'm wondering how to "control" it. Is it as simple as remoting to the Pi from a laptop, navigating to a video file and playing it??

 

[teh_chem]

I currently use my laptop and connect to my living room TV via HDMI to watch movies, etc from a share on my Windows Home Server 2011 machine. I also carry the laptop upstairs to the bedroom to do the same.

This isnt a big deal to do, but is a bit of a hassle to plug in the HDMI cable, connect the laptop, then disconnect it all when I'm done watching the move. And this isnt really the "right way" to do it. So I'm in the process of setting up a HTPC for the living room, but am considering the Raspberry Pi for our bedroom TV. But I'm wondering how to "control" it. Is it as simple as remoting to the Pi from a laptop, navigating to a video file and playing it??

If you're not controlling the RPi directly with a mouse/keyboard/input device, you can control it via ssh (assuming you know the general linux commands needed to exercise your task). I don't know of any fancy GUI remote tool--doesn't mean it doesn't exist, I just don't know of one.

 

[450]

This makes more sense: http://www.amazon.com/Streaming-Media-Player-Wi-Fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

An RPi is $30-40 minimum. Then add a case for $5, and a power supply for another $5 and you are at $50. Then you still have the remote situation to deal with, and the lack of wifi.

The WD has Wifi out of the box and a remote. It is $60 used.

 

[teh_chem]

This makes more sense: http://www.amazon.com/Streaming-Media-Player-Wi-Fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

An RPi is $30-40 minimum. Then add a case for $5, and a power supply for another $5 and you are at $50. Then you still have the remote situation to deal with, and the lack of wifi.

The WD has Wifi out of the box and a remote. It is $60 used.

Good point.

A ROKU box is also probably a good option. Lots of apps for streaming from the net, plus it has a Plex app for playing your local videos from a plex server. Also, some ROKU boxes have SD/USB slots for playing (compatible) video.

 

[Jagger100]

This makes more sense: http://www.amazon.com/Streaming-Media-Player-Wi-Fi-1080p/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

An RPi is $30-40 minimum. Then add a case for $5, and a power supply for another $5 and you are at $50. Then you still have the remote situation to deal with, and the lack of wifi.

The WD has Wifi out of the box and a remote. It is $60 used.

Add $10 for wifi and $15 for a hub to power the wifi and hard drive. A remote/wireless keyboard between $10 - $20 if you're lucky. You're upto $90+.

The raspberry pi is for making a htpc in a cave with a box of scraps. Don't think of it as a low cost Roku. Although it could be thought of as a low cost xbmc machine. Don't get it for a cheap video player unless you specifically want xbmc. Otherwise its a hobbiest thing.

 

[teh_chem]

Add $10 for wifi and $15 for a hub to power the wifi and hard drive. A remote/wireless keyboard between $10 - $20 if you're lucky. You're upto $90+.

The raspberry pi is for making a htpc in a cave with a box of scraps. Don't think of it as a low cost Roku. Although it could be thought of as a low cost xbmc machine. Don't get it for a cheap video player unless you specifically want xbmc. Otherwise its a hobbiest thing.

I would also second this.

RPi is a nice hardware platform for tinkering. It also happens to have decent userbase support and a functional GUI out of the box but I don't think I'd really want to use mine as a HTPC.

 

[turb0]

Well damn it to hell! I don't know if I want to do the RPi anymore or just get a plug and play Roku3?!?!

Main reason of course is ease of use for the wife and kids; so maybe I should start with a Roku3 and build a RPi setup down the road......

 

[Schro]

Good point.

A ROKU box is also probably a good option. Lots of apps for streaming from the net, plus it has a Plex app for playing your local videos from a plex server. Also, some ROKU boxes have SD/USB slots for playing (compatible) video.

I've had a Roku3 for almost 2 weeks. I'm fairly pleased with how it operates, but the Plex app is not without its bugs. For example, if you play back an mkv with 5.1 or higher DTS audio, it'll reboot the whole thing. For real time transcodes, I'm having performance issues, but I suspect that might be due to ZFS, Folding and Plex not playing well together due to ZFS hogging RAM (on Folding Rig 1 per my signature).

Well damn it to hell! I don't know if I want to do the RPi anymore or just get a plug and play Roku3?!?!

Main reason of course is ease of use for the wife and kids; so maybe I should start with a Roku3 and build a RPi setup down the road......

The WAF (wife acceptance factor) will likely be high with the Roku3. The interface is very intuitive and easy to use. For Amazon streaming, it is far better than the Panasonic Bluray player that I have, and there's a few other apps that have proven useful. However, once Ceton gets their Echo firmware sorted out, I'll probably go back to that as my daily driver for the main TV...

 

[locoguano]

If size isn't a big concern you can do what I did... I bought a used office pc on eBay for $80. Its 3 or 4 years old, but its got plenty of power to play 1080p vids. Minimum you need a core2duo 2.4 ghz. Mine is 3.0, 4 gig ram, 250gb hd. I bought a second one and put it in another room as a server. The server has a few 2 TB hard drives to store all of my movies, episodes, etc. That one is a large tower... The livingroom one is a smaller form factor (didn't go with the smallest because I wanted room for a PCIe vid card.

On the software side my livingroom pc runs xbmc for media and addons and wmc from live tv (don't want to fight with xbmc for live stuff). My server in the bedroom stores files and serves a few sources using PlayOn (HBOgo, ESPN, etc.).

Used PCs are definitely worth a look. You don't need cutting edge to play media.

 

[Nethel]

I'm throwing in another vote for a Roku in your situation. I was very happy with mine, but got the tinkering itch and moved to an raspberry. I'm now on a full blown HTPC because the experience with RPi was, while somewhat rewarding, ultimately frustrating.

Even my roommate, who is somewhat technically inclined, figured out ways to crash it. I set my parents up with Rokus, and suggest them for all of those who know nothing about Linux. You will be SSHing in to fix things on a semi-regular basis with the RPi.

 

[The Lurker]

Well damn it to hell! I don't know if I want to do the RPi anymore or just get a plug and play Roku3?!?!

Main reason of course is ease of use for the wife and kids; so maybe I should start with a Roku3 and build a RPi setup down the road......

Hey when you are done deciding what to use I got a wheel I need re-invented.

 

[darkdub]

Just wanted to add a couple tidbits...

Assuming your TV has a free USB port, you can typically power the Pi from your TV's USB, causing the Pi to boot and shutdown with the TV power (not that it's a graceful shutdown, but a few hundred cycles in and things are still OK).

Also, if you haven't experienced it, I highly recommend trying Plex. There's a Raspberry Pi version called rasplex that works extraordinarily well.

Based on posts in this thread, a couple additional pieces of info:

• If you plan to use Plex, the Roku is the best non-PC solution I've seen. I love the build-it-yourself feeling of the Pi, but some channels (CBS, NBC, etc. etc.) do not work with RasPlex on the Pi, and the devs have not focused on it as of yet. This is not a problem with the Roku.
• If you have a micro-usb charging cable laying around from an old phone / headset device, that will more than likely work just fine for powering the Pi, so total cost is about $40 including case.

Overall, for a somewhat technical user with an in-home file server with something like sickbeard / couch potato set up, a Pi will work great. For a more seamless overall experience, my vote goes to the Roku.