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)

Booting up the Raspberry Pi


Now that we have imaged the card, we need to prepare Pi for its first boot:

  1. Insert the freshly imaged SD card into the Raspberry Pi.

  2. Attach a network cable or your USB wireless dongle to the Raspberry Pi's Ethernet port and the Ethernet port of a switch or router (note that this is not necessary if you have used the Standalone Image option).

  3. Attach the power supply and connect either the composite or HDMI video connection so we can view the installation's progress on a display.

  4. The connection to the Raspberry Pi should now look similar to the following screenshot:

  5. With everything connected, plug in the charger. You may need to change the input on your display device if this does not automatically change for you.

  6. Unless you installed using the Standalone Image option, Raspbmc will now connect to the update server and install. This usually takes around 20-30 minutes on a home broadband connection, as Raspbmc must download the latest version onto your device. This process is entirely automatic, so feel free to take a break and come back later.

  7. When you return, you'll hopefully be greeted by XBMC, the software at the heart of your new media center-to-be. Congratulations, you have successfully installed Raspbmc!

    Note

    For a few seconds, you may see a rainbow colored screen. This is to be expected and will disappear a few moments later.