moved my htpc to raspberry pi... and back to "normal" pc

After using Raspberry Pi based HTPC with Raspbian for a while (see my previous posts) it was obvious that it hasn't made it for me. A few reasons:

• Trying to watch browser-based internet TV or just videos in the browser is too much hustle. It was much easier to connect my Mac and watch it.
• AirPlay is lagging on videos.
• Small one - for some reason it kept changing IP address on every reboot / power loss. There were more than a few. Btw, if you have your Raspberry Pi unstable, the first move definitely is to take a look at your PSU. It got much better for me when I changed PSU from a noname to iPhone charger. Google it before you buy.
• For me personally the combination with my receiver was not good: Pi supports HDMI starting version 2, but my receiver's "old" one from year 2008 and supports just 1.1 :D Sorry, no 5.1 sound with those beautiful Dolby Digitals, DTS's etc for me. I was thinking of buying external sound card, but, you know, why should I when I have some PC boards laying around the house having sound built-in with more "usual" connectors, like optical S/PDIF maybe?
• And, the most annoying one which was the final killer: user interface is too slow / lagging. I can't imagine why the distro can decode 1080p normally and can't do smooth user interface :| Especially, if you have a list of multimedia longer than one screen you wait for each next one, and next, and next...

I definitely could try to tune the thing or try other distros. Maybe I hoped that it will be more out-of-the-box initially. Maybe I'm not that much enthusiast or just too lazy :)

It definitely has the future, it just isn't here for me yet.

So, I'm back on my old good ASUS AT5IONT-I motherboard with pico-psu, 4GB of RAM, SSD for system disk. Good Ubuntu plus XBMC.

Some pics for the dessert.

Top view while still open

Open side view, wires

Top-front, open

Before attaching front grille

Assembled, with "monster" fan

Charger

Whole thing

Installed and running :)

moved my htpc to raspberry pi

Today I unwillingly decided to change my HTPC. It happened by the combination of two events.

First, I was thinking to add a Raspberry Pi to my multi-room audio system for some time already in order to stream saved music and internet radio and manage it by the mobile devices.

Second, I mixed up PSU's between above mentioned multi-room audio system and current HTPC after dusting them. Bad thing, multi-room has higher voltage (24V instead of 12-17V) than HTPC, so HTPC decided to get to be offended. I don't know what exactly broke, still need to find what got burned there. Good thing, I had urgent need for a new HTPC on my hands, thus motivation to act immediately.

NB It's a pity that you actually can't rely on all those different PSU and charger producers that plugs doesn't match...

So, XBMC on Raspberry Pi it is. Quickly googled and decided on Raspbmc. Very simple setup, just download it, dd it to flash card, plug it in and let it setup itself. After that you get your usual XBMC interface.

XBMC official iPhone app is even easier. And it's interface is better than XBMC's default one. Just easiness of the search function tells.

Btw, if you connect your Raspbmc to the network server for the media, be aware that XBMC may not be very efficient in the networking by default. My config stuttered HD videos by default via Samba and NFS. This helped my thinking, optimised it to flawless playback :) 

Now, some observations and, unfortunately, pitfalls, even thou hopefully short-term:

• Major one for me for now. If you take a look at the Raspberry Pi specs you will NOT notice that it supports HDMI revisions 1.3 and 1.4. My audio-video receiver (AVR) which I bought in 2008 supports 1.1 and back. Sorry guys, no backwards compatibility, it won't work, at least it doesn't for me. I noticed that HDMI is up to 2.0 now. So, now I'm thinking about changing the AVR, but those versions...
• Btw, talking HDMI revisions, my TV, bought the same year, is using HDMI revision 1.3. Conclusion: Philips was ahead of Marantz back in 2008 :D
• Annoyances. So, I can't put HDMI through AVR. It IS a pity because of the sound. Video I can put directly to TV. Of course, I could use just TV sound, but my Marantz's sound is sooooo much better. Fortunately, Raspberry Pi has a simple analog audio 3.5mm jack, so I can have a good sound. And you can switch on audio output to both HDMI and analog ports in XBMC. The annoyance: not all those digital wonders of nowadays like Dolby Digital or DTS, just a plain simple stereo. So, it works. The annoyance: I need one more analog audio output for the multi-room, which I haven't. And one more for the headphones... And I couldn't use my AVR for switching even if HDMI revisions were OK, because my AVR doesn't convert digital sound to analog (ask for this when buying an AVR).
• One of the best things happened. I'm going to save some electricity definitely: Raspberry Pi can't go much over 5W :) Previous HTPC's PSU was at 110W max and I'm quite sure it used 50W to max.
• There is no power-on button on Raspberry Pi :D You can switch it OFF from software. What about ON? WoL you say? WoL is much, much more sophisticated... And my children are so used to use a power button. For switching on, at least, because switching something off is what older people do, isn't it?

So, todo for me now is to:

• find a soundcard for my Raspberry Pi, that would solve my DD-and-DTS-like "problems", plus offload the processor of decoding those, I hope 
• buy 3.5mm audio jack splitter
• change my AVR
• invent a power button for Raspberry Pi or configure WoL (from iPhone app should it work)
• or all of those options...

Guys, if anybody wants to buy used medium-class AVR in a good condition, just let me know. It's a Marantz SR4001, just looked inside, there is minimal dust and capacitors look good.