Raspberry Pi

02 Sep 2012 · #gear · #rpi · #techtalk

I got my Raspberry Pi (photos) about a month ago and got time to set it up a couple of weeks back. At the moment, it is running Raspbmc RC4 which is a distribution of XBMC tailored just for this device.

The Pi has been playing most of my video & audio collection without issues over LAN. Video is smooth with hardly any stuttering or frame-drops. Audio over HDMI works just fine playing full DTS or surround sound via my Sony. Raspmbc also supports HDMI-CEC pretty well so I can control it using my TV’s remote control.

Here’s what doesn’t work at the moment:

• Fast forward & rewind for videos doesn’t work. I’ve to either jump or direct seek, which work without issues.
• Haven’t found a way to activate the XBMC Context Menu using the TV remote
• Music & TV show libraries show up empty on the Android phone remote.
• There’s a noticeable delay (about 2-3 seconds) switching between normal interface & full screen video playback.

If you notice, these are all XBMC issues. The Pi itself is great and for the price, it is a noiseless, heatless computing powerhouse!

More photos on G+

Update (02/09/2012) The delay switching from normal UI to full screen video playback went away by disabling the Adjust display refresh rate to match video option in XBMC’s Video Playback settings screen. And using the following custom remote mapping file, I can now access the Context Menu by pressing the TV remote’s yellow color key labelled “C”:

<!-- /home/pi/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps/remote.xml -->
<!-- Configuration file for driving CEClib remote  -->
<keymap>
  <global>
    <remote>
      <green>Info</green>
      <yellow>ContextMenu</yellow>
      <blue>XBMC.ActivateWindow(Favourites)</blue>
    </remote>
  </global>
  <FullscreenVideo>
    <remote>
      <select>OSD</select>
      <green>Info</green>
      <yellow>CodecInfo</yellow>
      <blue>NextSubtitle</blue>
    </remote>
  </FullscreenVideo>
</keymap>