Book Image

Raspberry Pi Media Center

By : Sam Nazarko
Book Image

Raspberry Pi Media Center

By: Sam Nazarko

Overview of this book

<p>Low-cost and high-performing, with a massively diverse range of uses and applications, the Raspberry Pi is set to revolutionize the way we think about computing and programming. Using it as a Media Center allows everyone to have a low-cost device that is always on, attached to their TV. <br /><br />Imagine controlling your TV with your smartphone, dynamically streaming content that you have on various devices across your home, as and when you want. Raspberry Pi Media Center will show you how to configure the complete experience using readily available and accessible tools, so that you too will soon be enjoying your media from the comfort of your own sofa. <br /><br />With this practical guide, you’ll discover how you can transform your Raspberry Pi into a powerful media center. Using Raspbmc (based on the XBMC distribution), you'll be shown how you can deploy and configure your own media center, including coverage of all the essentials from controlling your device with a TV remote or smartphone, to the creation and customization of your very own media library (including the conversion of any existing collection). You'll even be able to stream multimedia from your devices or directly from the Internet!</p>
Table of Contents (17 chapters)

What can Raspbmc do?


Raspbmc is a full-fledged media center and offers the following capabilities:

  • Hardware playback of HD (up to 1080p) content in formats H264, MPEG2, and VC1, and MPEG2 and VC1 codecs must be purchased separately

  • Playback of multiple music formats (MP3, AAC, FLAC, and more)

  • Streaming content from a computer over a variety of streaming protocols

  • Support for different looks via skins

  • Streaming content from attached hard drives via USB

  • AirPlay support (with compatible iOS devices)

  • Watch and record TV on your device

  • Raspbmc can be controlled via a USB remote, a CEC-compatible device, or via a smartphone

  • Using various plugins, you can use online video and music services such as YouTube, Spotify, and iPlayer

  • Ability to create a media library that automatically downloads TV shows, film information, and FanArt

  • Ability to share this media library across multiple devices, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX systems

  • Automatic updating means that Raspbmc is always running at optimum performance and has the latest version of XBMC

Note

Note that this is not a comprehensive list of all the features, and that more are added regularly with Raspbmc's auto-update system.