XBMC

Axe_meister

Just ordered a Raspberry Pi B+ to use as an XBMC hub so I don't have to have my PC on all the time

it will also connect to my TV via a AV amp (Yamaha that supports CEC so I don't have to have another remote)

All my movies are stored on a NAS.

In the mean time I've been playing with XMBC on my PC.

The one thing I don't like is that it displays all of the movies as lists, I'd much prefer a tile based interface displaying the coverart

Anybody know of any skins that do this that will be Pi friendly?

holnrew

Can you use Plex?

Flink_Poyd

Should just be able to change it from the main menu page by clicking left and bring the view option up

vasselmeyer

Do you mean like the image below? Just took this of my TV. I'm runnning Kodi (latest incarnation of the recently renamed XBMC) on a Pi. This is how I set it up using the default skin to view movies.

joneve

holnrew said:

Can you use Plex?

This. If you can, then I would HIGHLY recommend it. 

I'm pretty sure it should work. 

Axe_meister

@vasselmeyer

Yep exactly how I want it. Found the option.

As much as I like plex it maybe a little too resource hungry for the Pi also the clients are not free unlike xmbc

joneve

@vasselmeyer That is well legit! 

I may need this set up when I move house! 

vasselmeyer

As a site-wide media serving solution, Plex is great, but if you have a dedicated NAS and only really need to play in one place on your system, a Rasberry Pi with XBMC/Kodi is brilliant.

Axe_meister

Using my PC at the moment as the kodi server, so far I've managed to get 5 different devices playing 5 different movies working, for web based access I'll caryy on using the twonky server that comes with the NAS

Will be interesting so see if I can get my Yamaha AV remote to control Kodi as well as the AV amp is CEC complient.

vasselmeyer

I've got a Samsung TV going through a Sony AV amp which Kodi is plugged into. The TV remote controls the Pi. However, I use an Android app called Yatse as the remote as it gives you access to all the contextual menus and allows you to tun subtitles on and off which the TV remote doesn't. You can even get a kind of "casting" plugin for Yatse which means you can browse your NAS from your phone, tap on a movie and then Android will then fire up Kodi and start the movie automatically.

Emp_Fab

Que ?  How does the TV remote control the Pi ?  I had to buy a USB / IR remote dongle thing.

...and where did you get Kodi from ?  I'm running Raspbmc.  

Fuzzdog

Emp_Fab said:

...and where did you get Kodi from ?  I'm running Raspbmc.  

The latest version of RaspBMC has made the switch to Kodi, so just pop it on a card and enjoy!  http://www.raspbmc.com/download/

Which reminds me, I really should update to Kodi on my Pi - it just sits there screwed to the back of the TV providing sterling service and I just forget about maintaining it. )

EDIT - Or ignore the above and just run the updater in RaspBMC - it'll install Kodi for you.  Far more simple!

digitalscream

Not much to add here, except that I use OpenELEC rather than RaspBMC - it seems lighter and quicker. Also, try to use x264-encoded movies when you can (rather than Xvid or whatever), because the Pi can decode that with hardware rather than software.

vasselmeyer

@Emp_Fab The remote app will talk to the Kodi/RaspBMC over your network. In the Kodi/RaspBMC setup you just tell it what port to listen on (e.g., mine is running on 8095) and make sure the phone/tablet app is configured to use the same port.

The best Android remote is Yatse which is here and is worth paying for to get access to the plugin infrastructure and the official XBMC remote is here.

dafuzz

 

vasselmeyer said:

@Emp_Fab The remote app will talk to the Kodi/RaspBMC over your network. In the Kodi/RaspBMC setup you just tell it what port to listen on (e.g., mine is running on 8095) and make sure the phone/tablet app is configured to use the same port.

The best Android remote is Yatse which is here and is worth paying for to get access to the plugin infrastructure and the official XBMC remote is here.

I use Yatse too but worth mentioning it's a pita to keep unlocking my phone when I want to pause a vid. It has a feature that will (supposedly) auto-pause a vid when the phone rings, but annoyingly it only seems to work when I get a call I don't want to answer...

vasselmeyer

@dafuzz You're right about that. The Android apps for iPlayer and Netflix do that, allowing you to pause/play from a lockscreen, but Yatse doesn't. It would be nice to see.

dafuzz

vasselmeyer said:

@dafuzz You're right about that. The Android apps for iPlayer and Netflix do that, allowing you to pause/play from a lockscreen, but Yatse doesn't. It would be nice to see.

Now you say that I have a vague memory of it working from the lockscreen... Can't remember if the feature was removed or it didn't work properly or something else... The option is still there on the app anyway

Emp_Fab

@vasselmeyer  I have the XBMC remote app on my phone and it works, but, as has been mentioned, it's a PITA having to unlock the thing etc.  You specifically mentioned your TV remote controls the Pi.  Mine does too, now that I've bought a USB IR receiver etc, but you didn't mention that you had done the same, so I was wondering how your TV remote controlled the Pi.

Re KODI, It's all going to change soon as I believe it's all being replaced with OSMC which is just out of alpha I think.

Axe_meister

If you have a CEC compliant AV amp or TV you can use your TV/AV remote which sends the IR codes down HDMI.

The latest release of KODI on Pi supports it out of the box. So no need for USB IR recievers

vasselmeyer

@Emp_Fab if your TV (and AV receiver if you're linked through it) supports CEC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#CEC) then the remote controls are supposed to be able to send universal commands through to equipment connected through HDMI. In practice it can be a little flaky (especially if you have different vendors on your setup), but the arrow keys, mute button, back button and OK button on my Samsung TV remote allow me to navigate XBMC/Kodi menus.

digitalscream

For what it's worth, there's a Chrome plugin for remote control of XBMC-based systems. We tend to just have the Chromebook open somewhere near the sofa and use that as a remote when our phones are busy.