Hardware<\/h3>\n
Turning a Raspberry Pi into a media device does not require much, although connecting devices such as a remote control and external drive greatly improve the experience.<\/p>\n
Below is all the hardware you’ll need to set up a Raspberry Pi media PC:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Raspberry Pi 3 Model B – R629<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Raspberry Pi power supply – R114<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Raspberry Pi 3 case – R130<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- SD card 8GB or bigger – R99<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Remote Control\/Smartphone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The basic hardware required for this setup is priced at R972, not including an external hard drive or remote control.<\/p>\n
![\"Pi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Pi-hardware.jpg\")
<\/a>Raspberry Pi 3 Model B hardware, including a 1TB external hard drive.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the best Pi model for building a media PC, as it is more powerful than previous versions and includes built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.<\/p>\n
The Pi 3 Model B is powered by a 5V microUSB\u00a0power supply and features a quad-core 1.2GHz ARM processor and 1GB of LPDDR2 SDRAM.<\/p>\n
The device has four USB 2.0 ports and boots off an SD card.<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t recommended using an SD card smaller than 8GB, as the operating system with add-ons and media can take up a lot\u00a0of space.<\/p>\n
A number of remote controls are compatible with OSMC, but you can use your smartphone instead with the\u00a0Kore app<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
You will also need to connect a display and a keyboard to the device in order to perform the initial setup.<\/p>\n
Purchasing a heat sink for the Pi will allow you to overclock the device and increase performance, though the OSMC install runs perfectly without extra cooling.<\/p>\n
Connecting an external hard drive to the Raspberry Pi will allow you to play your saved media\u00a0through OSMC without an Internet connection.<\/p>\n
![\"Pi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Pi-Board-640x427.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Pi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Pi-External-640x427.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOSMC<\/h3>\n
OSMC is a free Linux distribution which allows a number of devices to run the free media centre software\u00a0Kodi.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
Basic steps for installing OSMC on the Raspberry Pi 3 are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Copy a fresh install of NOOBS to an SD card.<\/li>\n
- Insert SD card with NOOBS installed into a Raspberry Pi and boot.<\/li>\n
- Connect to the Internet.<\/li>\n
- Select OSMC from the list of available operating systems.<\/li>\n
- Reboot the Pi after the software is installed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n
Installing OSMC for the Pi 3 is relatively straightforward and first requires you to install\u00a0NOOBS<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for Raspberry Pi onto a formatted SD card.<\/p>\n
After inserting an SD card with NOOBS into the Pi and connecting the device to the Internet, you are greeted with a choice of operating systems to install.<\/p>\n
Selecting OSMC will download the OS\u00a0and install the software on your device.<\/p>\n
OSMC’s initial setup is straightforward and presents the user with a clean interface, which separates media into categories.<\/p>\n
By navigating to settings, you can set up the device for remote control over HTTP and local network – allowing you to use your smartphone as a remote control for your Pi media centre.<\/p>\n
All that’s left to do now is connect your Raspberry Pi to your TV via the Pi’s HDMI port.<\/p>\n
At this stage you can connect an external storage device to the Raspberry Pi and play saved media, but the true power of Kodi lies within its many add-ons.<\/p>\n
![\"Kodi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kodi-Main-640x390.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Kodi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kodi-trailer-2-640x427.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Kore](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kore-App-1-640x427.jpg\")
<\/a>Installing the Kore App on your smartphone allows you to use it as a remote control for Kodi.<\/p><\/div>\n
Features<\/h3>\n
There are many add-ons and extensions available for Kodi, from live weather updates to music and video streaming.<\/p>\n
Many add-ons are created by third-party developers and Kodi is not responsible for the content or regulation of these.<\/p>\n
Navigating to “Add-ons” under one of the main categories will allow you to browse official and unofficial add-ons for Kodi, or you can manually install add-ons from a repository if you search for specific add-ons online.<\/p>\n
I installed YouTube and Twitch add-ons in addition to the NASA add-on, which allows you to view live streams from the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
Installing an add-on which allowed me to access my Google Play Music account proved more challenging. After finding an experimental add-on<\/a><\/strong> for the service, though, I was able to access\u00a0my account and Play Music library.<\/p>\n
![\"Play](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Play-Music-3-640x427.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Kodi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kodi-Play-Music-2-640x427.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAdd-on support<\/h3>\n
There are thousands of add-ons for Kodi which provide a variety of features, although not all are\u00a0compatible with the Raspberry Pi.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, I could not find a\u00a0way to install Netflix on my Raspberry Pi.<\/p>\n
However, it is still possible to stream Netflix from another device to your Raspberry Pi using network media player\u00a0add-ons.<\/p>\n
Kodi is a powerful open-source platform with a lot of support from add-on developers, allowing you to choose from a vast amount of extensions and set up your device’s features according to your preferences.<\/p>\n
![\"YouTube](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/YouTube-Kodi.jpg\")
<\/a>The YouTube add-on allows you to browse your subscribed channels.<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"Kodi](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kodi-Overwatch.jpg\")
<\/a>The Twitch add-on features account integration and various stream quality options.<\/p><\/div>\n
Now read:\u00a07 ways to reuse your old laptop<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Raspberry Pi can be turned into a cheap and powerful home theatre solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":196328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,15],"tags":[35,40918,40920,8043],"class_list":["post-196326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","category-hardware","tag-headline","tag-kodi","tag-media-pc","tag-raspberry-pi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197281,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196326\/revisions\/197281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- \n
- Raspberry Pi power supply – R114<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n