Meet Slice: the Raspberry Pi-powered media player with. Download free software for the Raspberry Pi, including NOOBS, Raspbian, and third party operating system images. Beginners should start with NOOBS. Probably, the best use you could do with a Raspberry Pi would be turning it in a full-fledged media center. With some tuning, a Raspberry Pi can become indeed a. Making a media player from Raspberry Pi. Armed with the micro PC and couple of ours to kill, we assemble our very own Smart player for less than . It's the brainchild of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity devoted to promoting 'back- to- basics' computer science in schools – as opposed to simply teaching the kiddies how to use spreadsheets and design web pages on Windows PCs. What was needed, reckoned the Raspberry Pi gang, was an affordable computer that could encourage children to experiment with programming and electronics – the sort of thing that went on during the home computer boom of the 1. You could, of course, use an old PC to learn these skills, replacing any existing version of Windows with a copy of the Linux open- source operating system, for which many programming languages are available. Xbmc Raspberry Pi 3However, PCs are often bulky and power hungry; only laptops get close to the physical dimensions of those '8. Another PC disadvantage is the inability to interface with the outside world beyond immediate peripheral devices and a network, whereas many vintage home computers offered a machine- specific user port, allowing hookup of various electronic contraptions (of your own design, or someone else's). In the era of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, there was a cottage industry for these gizmos, ranging from joysticks to music synthesisers (well, it was the 8. This is the reason for the Raspberry Pi. It's affordable – typically . Composite video and analogue stereo audio are offered for older displays. Keyboards, mice and other peripherals connect via USB. There are only two ports, but multiple USB devices can be accommodated via a hub. It's very energy- efficient, and a battery could be used to power it as an alternative to a five- volt micro- USB plug. A key feature of the device is its programmable user port, known as GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output). Various devices can be attached to this collection of pins. If you want to put your Raspberry Pi in control, this is important, as your motors, switches, sensors and relays would be interfaced to the GPIO pins via the necessary circuitry. Some experimenters have built a Raspberry Pi at the heart of home automation systems, security alarms, retro arcade- style games consoles, ambient music generators and even automated home breweries. Finally, there's an SDHC card slot. This is typically used to accommodate the operating system (often Linux) and other software, rather like the hard drive of a conventional PC. The version I use is the 'Model B'. I'm looking for a good media player that can play MP3, WMA. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. What's a good media player for the Raspberry Pi? I'm looking to repurpose my pi as a media center, I used the OpenELEC OS for raspberry pi. Is OpenELEC still the best media center options for raspberry pi's or. A cheaper Model A only specifies one USB port, has half the current Model B's 5. MB memory and dispenses with Ethernet. In other respects, both models are identical. One of the reasons for its low cost and small size is that nearly all of the Raspberry Pi's functionality is built into a single BCM2. This device is made by Broadcom, one of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's supporters, and is based around a British- designed 7. MHz ARM RISC microprocessor, of the type that you'll find in many mobile phones and set- top boxes. Also in the chip is a graphics engine, which supports a number of resolutions, including 1. HDTV video streams in real- time. All of this makes the diminutive Raspberry Pi surprisingly powerful – certainly more so than the average turn- of- the- millennium PC or Mac. Player potential? Omxplayer is a video player specifically made for the Raspberry Pi's GPU. VLC media player as the. Pi, and you should be able to run Omxplayer without. So the Raspberry Pi, a device intended mainly as an educational tool, has the basic elements needed to be configured as a multimedia player. It just needs some software. Handily, the powerful, free and open- source Xbox Media Center (XBMC) had been ported to the Raspberry Pi by a clever King's College student called Sam Nazarko – proof, if any were needed, that the Raspberry Pi Foundation's goals are being realised. Named Rasp. BMC, it is built around the Raspbian Linux distribution. XBMC started life a few years ago on Microsoft's Xbox games console. Unlike its Xbox 3. Xbox software you chose to install – XBMC apart, the roster included vintage games emulators, operating systems like Linux and even older versions of Windows. You could install a larger hard drive (the one fitted by Microsoft was a mere 8. GB) to accommodate your various multimedia files. An alternative was to play content via disc or from networked storage courtesy of the Xbox's Ethernet port. Over time, XBMC acquired a beautifully slick user interface and the ability to cope with practically any multimedia format you could throw at it. The limited Xbox hardware could not, however, support hi- def video or other punishing formats. XBMC was ported to various computer platforms, including Windows, Linux and Mac. OS; versions are also available for i. OS and Android devices. XBMC also forms the basis of Boxee, which has been built into a handful of media playback devices. Developed by the non- profit XBMC Foundation, XBMC is more flexible than what you'll find built into most set- top boxes, Smart TVs, Blu- ray players and network streamers. And so it's a solid choice for the Raspberry Pi. Getting started. So, you want your own open- source media player? First of all, get hold of a Raspberry Pi. They're available from online retailers for as little as . Usually, only the bare board is supplied, so at the very least, you'll need a 5. V power supply terminated in a micro- USB plug. A simpler option is probably the . No case is included – but you can pick one up dirt cheap, or simply velcro it to the back of your telly, out of sight. You'll also need another SDHC card on which to install Rasp. BMC, together with network and HDMI cables. The next step is to get Rasp. BMC. Download the small file from http: //www. Mac. OS, Linux and Windows versions are available. You'll need at least a 2. GB SD card (an SDHC card of at least 4. GB capacity is recommended) and a card- reader attached to your computer. Running the program builds a bootable Linux image and transfers it to your SD card. In a change from the usual state of affairs, the PC process is slightly easier than the Mac one. The downloaded PC file takes the form of a compressed Zip archive. Double- click on this Zip file to reveal its contents and run the setup. You're then warned that any data on the device (your SD card) that you're writing the Rasp. BMC image to will be erased – if you're happy with that, click 'Accept'. The Rasp. BMC Installer then appears, and you're given a choice of location for the image. Select the SD card that's in your card- reader, and then accept the licence agreement. Click 'install', and Rasp. BMC Installer begins downloading files to your SD card. When the process is complete, a 'congratulations' message will be displayed. You can then make an optional donation to the author via Pay. Pal if you're feeling generous. The process for Mac (and Linux) users is a little different. You need to run a script (copy and paste it from http: //www. Now you can remove the card and plug it into your Raspberry Pi. Next, connect the device to your display/network and attach the power supply. If all is well, a scrolling display of Linux commands will appear (like one of those screens you see in the background of a sci- fi flick). When this boot sequence has completed, your monitor should go blue. Next, you should see the Rasp. BMC Updater's progress bar, which indicates that more files essential to the system's operation are being downloaded to your SD card. This operation can take some time, so grab a coffee while the various software modules automatically install after they've downloaded. As soon as this process is complete, your Raspberry Pi will reboot. During this process, the Rasp. BMC logo will appear onscreen. If the logo (or a blank screen) lingers for longer than 2. If so, temporarily disconnect the power supply to reboot. You might then see more messages and progress bars onscreen as the software attempts to grab more updates online and then set itself up for the first time. That logo will then reappear, followed by the Rasp. BMC configuration wizard. If you're using a TV that supports HDMI CEC you can use your TV handset to configure and drive Rasp. BMC. If your TV doesn't support CEC, you might need to use a keyboard and mouse to operate – any standard USB types should do, either plugged into a hub like the one supplied in the Maplin kit, or in one of the Pi's two USB ports next to the Ethernet socket. Note that your keyboard and mouse need to be connected before you boot the Raspberry Pi or they might not be recognised. Setting up. The Rasp. BMC wizard prompts you to select your language. After this, the main screen appears – a horizontal carousel containing entries for weather, pictures, videos, music, programs and system. It's all very intuitive, similar to the user interface of a conventional media player. Before exploring what's on offer, set up the unit to deliver the best results from your AV equipment. Select 'system', and from the menu that appears select the 'system' option. In the video output menu you can select the output resolution and refresh rate. If nothing's connected to the HDMI port, the analogue video output is automatically selected (you cannot have both active simultaneously). If, for some reason, you're feeding an old CRT telly with this composite video output, it had better be multi- standard since the Raspberry Pi's output is fixed to US/Japanese standard (i. NTSC and 6. 0Hz refresh). As a result, UK- standard 5. Hz material can look juddery. This isn't true of HDMI, which gives you the ability to automatically change the refresh rate to that of the video content being played (in the system/video menu, you'll find this option in the playback section). Next move on to 'audio output'. If your Raspberry Pi is connected directly to your TV, select HDMI audio output and 2. Disable the Dolby Digital and DTS boxes. If the device is connected with HDMI to your TV via an AV receiver or amplifier, more options are at your disposal. You can choose 5. Raspberry Pi Audio Player: 5 Steps (with Pictures)1. A Raspberry Pi (I used the model B because I had one lying around the house); 2. An enclosure (mine was 2. A power supply (I used a Mean. Well RS- 1. 5- 5 5. V 3. A power supply from amazon); 6. A power switch (My version has a reed sensor on top of the power led that toggles if I swipe a magnet on front of it); 7. Cables to wire all the devices to the rear panel (I added a HDMI cable to use this project as a media center); 8.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2017
Categories |