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Book Description

Turn your Raspberry Pi into a full-blown media center using Raspbmc. This guide has all the plain language instructions you need to control your TV with a smartphone and create your own media library. No special skills required.

  • Discover how you can stream video, music, and photos straight to your TV
  • Play existing content from your computer or USB drive
  • Watch and record TV via satellite, cable, or terrestrial
  • Build your very own library that automatically includes detailed information and cover material

In Detail

Low-cost and high-performing, with a massively diverse range of uses and applications, the Raspberry Pi is set to revolutionize the way we think about computing and programming. Using it as a Media Center allows everyone to have a low-cost device that is always on, attached to their TV.

Imagine controlling your TV with your smartphone, dynamically streaming content that you have on various devices across your home, as and when you want. Raspberry Pi Media Center will show you how to configure the complete experience using readily available and accessible tools, so that you too will soon be enjoying your media from the comfort of your own sofa.

With this practical guide, you’ll discover how you can transform your Raspberry Pi into a powerful media center. Using Raspbmc (based on the XBMC distribution), you'll be shown how you can deploy and configure your own media center, including coverage of all the essentials from controlling your device with a TV remote or smartphone, to the creation and customization of your very own media library (including the conversion of any existing collection). You'll even be able to stream multimedia from your devices or directly from the Internet!

Table of Contents

  1. Raspberry Pi Media Center
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Raspberry Pi Media Center
    3. Credits
    4. About the Author
    5. About the Reviewers
    6. www.PacktPub.com
      1. Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
        1. Why Subscribe?
        2. Free Access for Packt account holders
    7. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Errata
        2. Piracy
        3. Questions
    8. 1. Getting Started
      1. Why use a Raspberry Pi?
      2. Equipment needed
      3. What is Raspbmc?
      4. What can Raspbmc do?
      5. Installing Raspbmc
        1. Windows
        2. Mac OS X / Linux
        3. Advanced Installation
      6. Booting up the Raspberry Pi
      7. Summary
    9. 2. Using Raspbmc
      1. Controlling Raspbmc
        1. Control via Consumer Electronic Control (CEC)
        2. Control via iOS and Android or any web browser
        3. Controlling via keyboard and mouse
        4. Alternative remotes
      2. Navigating Raspbmc
      3. Changing settings
        1. Changing XBMC Settings
        2. Changing Raspbmc Settings
          1. Adding additional codecs to Raspbmc
      4. Installing add-ons
        1. Installing add-ons via XBMC's standard repositories
        2. Installing add-ons manually
      5. Summary
    10. 3. Managing Content
      1. Supported backends
        1. Overview
          1. USB drives
      2. Sources
        1. Adding sources in XBMC
        2. Managing sources via the context menu
        3. Deleting a source
        4. Pin locking a source
        5. Playing/viewing a file
      3. Summary
    11. 4. Streaming from a Computer
      1. Remote streaming
        1. Remote streaming versus local playback
        2. Requirements for remote streaming
        3. Configuring network shares
          1. Configuring network shares on Windows
          2. Configuring on Linux
            1. Installing NFS
              1. Installation of NFS on Ubuntu/Debian/Linux Mint
              2. Installation on CentOS/Fedora/Redhat
              3. Installation on Arch Linux
            2. Distribution independent configuration
          3. Configuring on Mac OS X
      2. Adding these shares in Raspbmc
      3. Summary
    12. 5. Setting up the Library Mode
      1. Installing MySQL
        1. Installing on Linux
        2. Installing on Mac OS X
        3. Installing on Windows
      2. Configuring MySQL
      3. Adding our SQL database to XBMC
        1. Setting up the Library mode
        2. Setting up the Library mode on a second system
      4. Summary
    13. 6. Using PVR with Raspbmc
      1. What is PVR?
      2. Raspbmc's role in PVR
        1. Standalone backend versus built-in backend
      3. Setting up PVR
        1. An external backend
        2. Setting up TVHeadend in Raspbmc
        3. Connecting to our backend in XBMC
      4. Summary
    14. 7. Converting Media
      1. Reasons for converting
        1. Codec breakdown
      2. Converting media using Handbrake
      3. Ripping DVDs and Blu-ray Discs
      4. Summary
    15. A. Useful Raspbmc Commands
      1. Unix/Linux command cheat sheet
    16. B. Useful MySQL Commands
    17. C. Supported Peripherals
      1. Supported remote controls
      2. Supported Wi-Fi adapters
      3. Supported TV tuners
      4. Supported SD cards
      5. Supported power supplies
    18. Index
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