<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div>I run RasBMC on Raspberry Pi as a media center and can assure you raspberry pi has no problem playing 1080p videos, 96% of the area of the main chip is used for video encoding/decoding and I successfully played files encoded as mp4, avi, and mkv -- I've even played the videos over the network using NFS. Sometimes it takes a couple of seconds to load the video, but otherwise playback is perfect.<br>
</div><div>(Several people working on raspberry pi project mentioned that the chip
was originally designed for stand-alone media players, and the remaining
vacant 4% of the die area was used for a general-purpose cpu).<br><br></div><div>Raspbmc setup is pretty easy, just dd an image to SD card and connect raspberry pi to your tv -- <a href="http://www.raspbmc.com/download/">http://www.raspbmc.com/download/</a>. I suggest using standalone image, as network updates could be annoying.<br>
</div><div><br></div>Several issues I've noticed with raspberry pi as a media center player:<br><br> * if you are playing a video over samba it may cause some issues as samba protocol is rather CPU-intensive (thanks Microsoft!).<br>
<br> * No youtube videos, and this seems the biggest downside <br><br></div> * All proprietary formats such as WMV aren't playable.<br></div><br> * Obviously, no netflix.<br><br></div>By the way Beagle Bone Black, though superior to Raspberry Pi in almost every other respect, has video decoder chip that not nearly as powerful and can only play 720p video at best.<br>
<br><br></div>Alex.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 2:36 PM, teddy <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:teddymills-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org" target="_blank">teddymills-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<span style="font-family:monospace">It is a linux distro so it is
relevant.</span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace"><a href="http://openelec.tv/" target="_blank">http://openelec.tv/</a></span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHDddt4LhEk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHDddt4LhEk</a></span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">Unless you like to fuss with
Raspberry I do not see the need for a Raspberry or a Beagle.</span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">I think these small units have
trouble with 1080p playback.</span><br style="font-family:monospace">
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<span style="font-family:monospace">I just used a normal PC. </span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">Dual Core with a decent DVI
video card (6770) and a 2TB WD Green</span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">Get a projector and setup your
sound and your good to go.</span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">I prefer OpenELEC since it is
very easy to install and setup. </span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">It can be running in 5 minutes
and most addons work. </span><br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">In XBMC or MythTV that may not
be the case.</span><br>
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A remote will be best, as a keyboard is clumsy.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br style="font-family:monospace">
<span style="font-family:monospace">Teddy</span><br style="font-family:monospace">
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