If you do not change this, your movies will stutter. So we found the advanced menu and changed settings so that Pi 2 automatically adjusts the frequency according to the content. In fact, almost every movie runs at 24 Hz - and in Europe 50 Hz is the TV standard. It is very unfortunate as most of the movies or videos you watch are not 60 Hz. For some reason Kodi defaults to 60 Hz output and is not automatically changing the refresh rate depending on the refresh rate of the video. One of the first things we did was to ensure that video playback was set up correctly. After this, the Pi jumped straight to the Kodi interface that you might have seen before - or as you can see below.īy now you can proceed to setting up network paths for your collections of movies, music and photos, and even connect a network tuner if you have one. Since Pi 2 is brand new not every option was available so we chose to install the version called OpenElec. From here you can select one of the Linux packages that are designed to work specifically with the Kodi software. Our SD card came with a clever little operating system selector that automatically popped up the first time we started up the Pi. Kodi is available as a free version running Linux, and because a large community has craved a no-nonsense media center, there are also several specialized variants of Kodi out there - most are plug-and-play. There are many different options and for this test we have focused on the one them called " Kodi", also known as " XMBC" until recently. Set upAs the Pi comes without system storage it obviously also comes with an operating system pre-installed. If you do not shut it down in orderly manner you might corrupt the operating system at some point as it might be in the process of writing critical data to the SD card when power is lost. The Pi is a PC so it needs to go through a power down process, like any PC. Pi has no power button to shut it down (like typical PCs), but because of the very low power consumption you might just want to keep it turned on always.Ī warning about using energy saving power strips or turning off the main power don’t. Idle or playing movies, even 1:1 Blu-ray rips, power consumption stays below 2.5 W, which is far less than most other media streamer boxes. Power consumptionThe Pi is a PC, but a very small one, so power consumption is incredible low. The Pi was also connected to a wired 1 Gbit/s network (Pi only supports 100 Mbit/s). The bit rates for the content ranged from a few Mbit/s to +50 Mbit/s.įor the test we used a Pioneer LX5090 connected to the Pi via HDMI. So we have full control over files and formats. We examined media files stored in 1:1 from Blu-ray and DVD, and the same files compressed and stored in for example MP4 format. Everything was shared via the NFS protocol. Test toolsWe tested the Pi 2 with a Synology 4-bay NAS where we stored media content, including movies, music and video clips. Another possibility is to connect a physical power button because the Pi has none. Furthermore, there is a mini SD port on the back side and various pins to connect almost anything you can dream of, including home-built accessories or maybe an HD audio board. On one of the sides we found a a LAN port and four USB ports and on the other side we found an audio output port, an HDMI port and a mini-USB port for the power supply. Besides that the Pi was naked - no cabinet. Our starter kit came with a power supply, SD card for storage, and a USB device for receiving IR signals from a remote control, called Flirc. It is up to you to put it in a cabinet, and connect a power supply and all the other units that you need for it to serve your purpose. The Pi is actually just a very compact motherboard with a processor on top and lots of ports that point in every direction. The default configuration of the Pi 2 is very raw. For the same reason, a media streamer is not the only thing it can do but just what we have decided to focus on. You need to buy:įirst impressionsRaspberry Pi is DIY - do-it-yourself - that has countless applications.
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