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[waverz]

I am a long time user of XBMC and recently picked up a Raspberry Pi. 
Anyone else here like to dabble with this kind of stuff?

[FrostyFreeze]

Absolutely! There's a thread on RasPi around here somewhere from last year. I have a WDTV Live Plus and 1tb HDD with all my movies on it. If I didnt already have that, I'd totally use RasPi to play movies at home or in the backyard.

Another cool use for it would be to install it in your car to play movies and music. You could even hide a wifi antenna in your car somewhere and "borrow" hotel/Starbucks/library wifi. Or maybe thats just me.

[waverz]

Mines probably going to get mounted directly to my projector somehow which will make it a pretty nifty little all-in-one unit.

[Towndrunk]

I have one, and ended up not using it.  Now it just sits in a box on my desk.  I wanted it to play off of my NAS just like my HTPC in my living room.  Due to codec restrictions it would not play my movies. . . they are all in ISO format.  I wasn't about to convert all of my movies just so I could use the Pi.

I have thought about busting it out to see what it can do again, but just haven't had the time. I have messed with the Android and IOS installs that they have out now, and those are pretty cool.

If you do get it working, maybe you can give us an idea as to what you did.  I bought both of the codecs that were available at the time too. . . no luck with the .iso files though.

[FrostyFreeze]

no luck with the .iso files though.

Have you tried VLC? If you dont know, it's a video/audio file player that plays EVERYTHING including ISO's. It's 100% free and available for like 6-7 different operating systems. Should be one that works on RasPi too?

[Towndrunk]

I use VLC all the time, and I know that it will play .iso files.  The only thing is that VLC will not allow the chapter skipping/selection.  If you skip to the next chapter, it will just start the movie over.  I really don't know if you could install it on RasPi either. . . I never tried.

I tried ripping a movie as .iso, and in the original Video_TS format. . . neither would play.  It would play regular mpg files that we had, but nothing else.  Maybe I will dig it out tonight and load it up again.  I know there has been an upgrade to XBMC, just not sure if that translated over to RasPi or not.

[FrostyFreeze]

I use VLC all the time, and I know that it will play .iso files.  The only thing is that VLC will not allow the chapter skipping/selection.  If you skip to the next chapter, it will just start the movie over. 

I had that problem for awhile too. You have to customize the controls in the bottom toolbar. I forget where now, but there's a settings screen where you can add/remove control buttons and whatnot. Anywho, the default FFWD/REW buttons make the movie start over from the beginning (or skip to the next file in your current playlist). You have to add the OTHER set of FFWD/REW buttons and those will allow you to skip chapters.

I stumbled on that by mistake when I was checking out all the different  available buttons. Let me know if that works for you.

All that being said: I'm not 100% sure VLC will work on RasPi but it's worth a shot.

UNSOLICITED SIDENOTE: I stuck to ISO's only for a long time until tronn4 finally talked me on to the torrent train. Now I only use mp4/mkv/avi/mov/etc files and I havent looked back since.

[Towndrunk]

I thought about that option as well.  I had a few movies that I "acquired" and they were in the .avi format.  I just didn't feel as though they were of the same quality as the iso/video_ts format.  Granted, the .avi format does take up a lot less space though.  I'm not to worried about it right now since they are all being stored on my 24TB NAS, and size isn't a huge issue.  It will be at some point though. 

I think I need to explore other options, even if it is just to test and see what the quality is of each format.  I tried transcoding once, but it takes FOREVER and the quality/size wasn't worth it to me.

You have me interested in the Pi though, to see if there were any changes made to the more recent versions.  I tried it about 6-7 moths ago, and it didn't work out to well.  I even tried the G-Box Midnight so that I could have XBMC on other televisions with access to my NAS.  It played the files, but choked as well.  There are some new Quad Core versions that are out now that I'm thinking of checking out.

[FrostyFreeze]

The only file type my WDTV Live Plus has had trouble with so far is FLV files. Everything else I've thrown at it, including ISO's, works like a charm. It even plays 1080p movies with ease that my PCs have trouble with.

I bought the greyish colored previous model with the rounded-front face because it still has component outs that my projector needs, but it has an HDMI out too. Found it used on eBay with all acessories & remote included for $30-something pre-loaded with some after-market homebrew OS upgrade ("WDLXTV"), so I dont know what it will or wont play with the stock OS. But it looks really easy to load the new OS or revert back to the old one if you want. It also has 2 USB ports to add external HDDs and a ethernet port so you can play content from any shared files on your HDD. My model doesnt have built-in wifi, but it lets you add a USB wifi dongle for that.

tronn4 has the latest all-black sharp-edges model that DOES have built-in wifi but doesnt play ISO's, but also doesnt have the OS "upgrade" either so maybe thats why? I love my WDTV but I actually prefer the GUI of tronn's.

[Towndrunk]

I am trying out a few mp4 and mkv files right now.  Not that I'll convert all that I have, but at least I will know what the quality/size is.

I looked at the WDTV devices as well, but I sort of want to stay with XBMC.  I really like the setup, and I love the Ipad remote for it.  It makes things easy.  Once I get back outside with my BYT, the Cinema Experience Add-On works great for unattended play.  Just set it up, pick the movies, and done.

[Towndrunk]

I'm to impulsive. . . talking to you just sparked my curiosity, and of course I found the new Quad Core version of the Android device.  Hopefully it meets my needs.

I think I'll still mess with the Pi tonight though and see how far it has come along.

[MikeMiesen]

Take a look at converting your ISO's with www.MakeMKV.com. Gives you the flexibility of selecting just what you want in the finished file. A typical DVD takes about 15 minutes...

[Towndrunk]

Take a look at converting your ISO's with www.MakeMKV.com. Gives you the flexibility of selecting just what you want in the finished file. A typical DVD takes about 15 minutes...

Is that 15 minutes from an ISO only?  What about if I am ripping them from DVD?  The reason I ask is that I'm using DVD Fab right now to test one, and it is taking almost an hour to convert to MKV.  I'll give it a try though.  I will look at that software too.  Do you know if it will convert any ISO file?  Even Blu-Ray?

I just did the math. . . to convert my collection at 15 minutes an ISO, I would be working on it for 350 hours. . . not an option.

[FrostyFreeze]

Just for fun (and to complete the Circle of Life), here's our Raspberry Pi thread from last year: http://backyardtheater.com/forums/index.php/topic,7427.0.html

[Towndrunk]

Just for fun (and to complete the Circle of Life), here's our Raspberry Pi thread from last year: http://backyardtheater.com/forums/index.php/topic,7427.0.html

I remember reading that thread.  No one reported anything so I ended up getting one.  It didn't work for what I wanted at the time.  I work with a few guys and we all run XBMC on a HTPC.  We have all been taking turns buying small devices to see if they will work with XBMC and stream movies in the .iso format that we have.

I bought the Pi, another bought the G-Box Midnight, one even bought a broke Galaxy Note 2 and plugged it in via HDMI. . . that one actually worked.  That is why I think that the TBS® 8240 will work since it has very similar specs as the Note 2.

I'm not sure if people are still using the Pi or not either.  I tried selling mine on ebay after I found that it didn't work for what I wanted, and there were no takers.