Install OpenELEC on Raspberry Pi 2

Install OpenELEC on Raspberry Pi 2

The next Raspberry Pi 2 has finally arrived, with its small size and ultra-low power consumption. In combination with OpenELEC, it has become a good choice for domestic HD players and simple NAS. This article will briefly describe the tossing experience.

Install OpenELEC

There are many Linux distributions based on Kodi and suitable for Raspberry Pi. OpenELEC is chosen mainly because of the simple implementation I expected and its fast support for recently listed Raspberry Pi 2. You can also choose to install Kodi on your own after other Linux releases.

OpenELEC supports Raspberry Pi 2 from 5.0.1. The latest version is 5.0.6 and can be downloaded from its official website. For most users, download the img image file.

The installation process is very simple. Connect a card reader with at least 4 GB microSD card to your computer and useddWrite the image. This is also in line with the "Easy to use" feature promoted by OpenELEC. In actual operation, if you are too reluctant to tap the command line or worry about incorrect inputsdX, You can also usegnome-disk-utilityIn the graphic environment.

Then insert the microSD card back to Raspberry Pi 2 and start the system. At the first startup, it will automatically expand the partition to occupy the entire SD card.

Kodi Chinese interface

OpenELEC is equipped with the latest Kodi 14.X development version, default skin, English interface. If you connect to a TV through HDMI, you can directly use the TV remote control to operate without the mouse or keyboard.

If you want the Chinese interface, you must first adjust the system font to "Arial-based", and then switch the region and language to Chinese.

Some skin in the Kodi warehouse may change the font. It is best to pay attention when installing it. It will be dumb if it turns into square after skin replacement.

With Chinese, you can take a look at Kodi and get a general idea of the basic operations through the remote control.

Display output

I'm afraid it is because of VideoCore 4. Raspberry Pi 2 is one of the few Linux devices that directly support hdmi cec, but it depends on your TV manufacturer and your support for CEC, the default HDMI output mode may not be ideal. At this time, you need to adjust it.

Raspberry Pi 2 does not have a traditional BIOS, so some underlying configurations such as HDMI output areconfig.txtFile implementation. This operation can certainly be performed on a terminal via SSH remotely. However, here we will introduce a small plug-in that can be completed through a graphical remote control. This process is simplified.

OpenELEC RPi Config is a third-party Kodi extension for OpenELEC configuration under Raspberry Pi. It can be easily modified under Kodi after the corresponding repository is configured in the Kodi plug-in library.config.txtFile.

For the HDMI display output, you may need to adjust the content under the "Video" tab. Taking Sony BRAVIA HX750 as an example, it identified Raspberry Pi 2 as a video recorder, and its default Color Space had a significant visible Color difference, it becomes much clearer after being adjusted to "YCbCr Full. If your Raspberry Pi 2 does not work well after you connect to a large screen TV, use this tool to adjust it.

In addition, this plug-in also supports features such as overclock and input decoder license, which can be mined by itself.

In addition, if your TV supports 24-frame playback, you can also set it in the video to be 24 p globally. You can also set it to switch from 24 p only when you play back the video.

Audio Output

Raspberry Pi 2 does not have an optical fiber output interface, so if you want to export audio to an independent power amplifier, You need to configure a pass-through on the TV, I will not repeat it here (in fact, there is no independent power amplifier ......).

Speaking of passthrough, Kodi also supports decoding AC3/DTS and other audios through HDMI to the target device, greatly saving CPU resources. The audio encoding depends on the TV support. Taking Sony BRAVIA HX750 as an example, it supports AC3 decoding, so this option can be enabled in the "audio" configuration of Kodi. Note that this configuration is only visible in "advanced" mode. If it cannot be found, switch in the lower left corner.

Channels and content

After all, this product is not a box hated by the local communications administration. The support for online streaming media is barely available. If you are interested, you can enable the XBMC Chinese plug-in repository. The plug-ins for various resources have different availability and effects. Ask for them as needed.

In terms of Chinese subtitles, The OpenSubtitles.org plug-in the official Kodi repository can meet the vast majority of requirements. In the Kodi subtitle option, set the preferred language to Chinese (or the same interface language), and pause the video when playing the video. select subtitle download in the control bar below.

Kodi provides a content-based filter to obtain media information from the network based on the file name. It supports multiple sources. It's a pleasure to watch a large background poster matching the library.

Simple NAS

Building OpenELEC Based on the simplest principle still provides many file sharing solutions, which can be used as a simple NAS. You can enable the "share" feature in the settings and use the Samba and UPNP methods to support multiple file systems, including Ext4.

In addition to settings, it is necessary to say a few more on the selection of external USB devices. One major improvement of Raspberry Pi 2 is that it supports up to 1.2A USB power output when using 2A power input. However, even so, multiple USB mobile hard disks cannot work simultaneously.

Therefore, a more reasonable solution for simple NAS is to select a USB hub with independent power supply and connect the mobile hard disk to the hub first. But if you plan to also power Raspberry Pi 2 from the hub, You 'd better pay attention to the USB hub you selected. Some hubs have backflow in this connection mode, which may cause some risk of burning Raspberry Pi. This information can be learned from previous experiences. What do you feel after reading it? It is not expensive if most of the verified items are not available in China. So in the warranty period, separate the USB hub and Raspberry Pi 2 for power supply.

Since it is intended to connect multiple USB mobile hard drives for NAS, the performance of the USB hub is more important. Based on this consideration, I purchased a USB hub using the VI812 solution (although Raspberry Pi 2 only supports USB). It works well with Raspberry Pi 2, the transmission speed between multiple mobile hard disks is fast.

Horizontal comparison

Before Raspberry Pi 2, I used an RTD1186-based HD player. How can I compare Raspberry Pi 2 using OpenELEC with a dedicated HD player?

Advantages:

• Supports hdmi cec and can be directly operated using the TV remote control.
• Good support for open-source audio and video formats such as Vorbis, Thoera, and WebM/VP8
• Supports SSA Special subtitles for 3D videos
• Storage devices in Ext4 File Format
• No fan, low power consumption
• Remote Management through SSH

Let's talk about the disadvantages:

• High Output USB power is required to connect to the USB mobile hard drive, or you can purchase a USB hub separately.
• No native USB 3.0 support
• Optical fiber output is not supported.
• MPEG2 and VC1 decoder must be purchased separately (£ 1)

As for the comparison with the various popular Android boxes, I personally think it is not a type of product: the box is more oriented to online film and TV drama audiences, and it is different from the HD film lovers who are usually 10G +. It is not easy to say that it has never been used.

Recommended: Install XBMC in Ubuntu 14.04

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