OpenElec or Raspbmc
#1
I have just ordered a Raspberry Pi model B 512Mb RAM. I would like to get the RaspPi running XBMC as a player for my music library. Almost all the music is 16 bit 44.1kHz flac files but I have a few MP3 albums. Once set up and working I would want it to run it without keyboard, mouse, or monitor most of the time, and I would want to remote control XBMC from an Android tablet or iPad2. I would want to be able to shutdown the RaspPi from the remote controller. The music would be stored on a portable usb drive attached to the RaspPi. I do not have an HDMI enabled amp/receiver so I was considering a cheap PCM2704 based USB DAC as a starting point.

Now to my questions.

Can anyone say whether my wishes will be reasonably straightforward to implement or are there potential problems?

Which will be the better way to go OpenElec or Raspbmc?

Will I gain a speed advantage by using a class 10 SD card over say class 4 or 6, and what size card would be recommended?

Jeff
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#2
I personally prefer OE because I don't need any of the low level debian stuff you could make use of with RasbBMC, but if you like to tinker with linux stuff you might prefer the later. OE has a much lower footprint and is booting up a bit faster IMO (entire OS is only ~130 MB compared to over 2GB for RaspBMC IIRC). I can't tell which of the two will support the USB DAC out of the box - maybe both - maybe none. SD card size depends on your usecase (and the OS you prefer to run) - if you're not building up a huge library with tons of artwork in theory even a 512 MB card should do the job for OE although I recommend at least 4GB to have some spare space for whatever may come. Personally I'm using a 8 GB one because I'm using a video and music library on it, but it would also easily fit on a 4 GB one. And yes, class 10 is to be prefered if you care for startup time and faster library/file access. If you don't care and already have some class4 card lying around, use it and replace it with a class10 if you don't like the speed.

Please note that you can't fully power down the PI because it doesn't have the control logic for it. AFAIK you can go into some HDMI "hibernation" but the board is still powered (only HDMI is off which you won't use/need). You have to unplug it if you want the PI to be entirely powerless or you have to buy one of those things that hook up to the GPIO pins and cut the power for you.

edit: also note that the PI can't power a portable USB HDD (you'd need an active USB hub or externally powered drives) - USB sticks are no problem though and the USB DAC shouldn't be either. A good PSU is recommended though (stable voltages).
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#3
Thank you for your reply da-anda.

I note your comments about the "shutdown" power. What I want to do is put the RaspPi into a state with the remote controller where it is then safe to switch the power off at the wall socket/electricity supply. I suppose there will always be a risk if the monitor is not switched on (to check the state of the RaspPi) that the power supply could be switched off prematurely causing corruption to the SD card.

A self-powered USB drive is the answer then to store the music files.

Has anyone had any success with a USB DAC? There is always HiFiBerry DAC I suppose but that involves a bit of soldering I believe.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Jeff
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#4
If all you want is to stream music headless then xbmc is kind of overkill, you might want to look into mpd or something else
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#5
I will try mpd as an alternative, as I understand this does gapless playback which is important to me. I believe gapless playback is working in Gotham which was why I wanted to use XBMC on the RaspPi. I assume XBMC will also be more flexible in case I wish to use the video capabilities at some point. I also like the way XBMC looks on the remote controller with the album art, artist info etc.
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#6
I personally prefer Raspbmc.

I tried OE 4.0.1 and had many problems scanning my music files to a library. If you plan on using an Android app like Yatse, the library functionality is essential. To the best of my knowledge Raspbmc can also work with DACs but I haven't tried this myself.

Also, the Raspbmc community is great. Everybody on the forum is very helpful and responsive to problems.
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#7
I prefer openelec . Mainly because i use a gpio ir receiver and i like their keymap more. Also when i change the config file by hand i get an error starting up the raspbmc addon. And raspbmc takes a minute after boot for the gpio ir to start working when its instant on openelec. There both really about The same though. Openelec just feels a little quicker to me. Its so easy just to have 2 sd cards and see which one works better for you.
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#8
@jac55
OK, powerdown is no issue then. Tell XBMC to shutdown and it will do so gracefully and you're safe to pull the plug. Even a hot unplug isn't much of an issue anymore, while it's OFC not recommended, I didn't have any data corruption so far when it happened.
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#9
Quote:Even a hot unplug isn't much of an issue anymore, while it's OFC not recommended, I didn't have any data corruption so far when it happened.

Careful, it is still a problem. I have tested this since many use f2fs (specially on Raspbmc), and corruption (most common is empty system- and settings files) is very common on f2fs.
I could also reproduce this on ext4, but it took some attempts though, but this on several distros (including OE).

Personally I prefer ext4 since it is not as prone to behave like this, but I could still reproduce it on ext4.

Edit: It is still not confirmed f2fs is worse in this area, but reading all threads where this happens to users it looks like this is the case. And my own tests, though very few, seems to somewhat confirm it though.
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#10
After being active in the raspbmc forums for a few months I've actually just gone back from f2fs to ext4 for peace of mind Smile

Although my main install hasn't suffered from any major corruption issues, (except syslog of all things did break on me and I couldn't be bothered figuring out why) on test installs I was easily able to cause file system corruption by pulling the plug on f2fs, and guisettings.xml was frequently corrupted when doing so.

The only reason to use f2fs is speed (and perhaps SD media lifetime) but when I backed up my .xbmc folder, reinstalled with ext4 and restored it, it actually runs quite a bit faster! It's probably not that ext4 is faster as such, (it should be slower) but probably just the old file system had got fairly fragmented...

But in that case it shows that a fragmented f2fs file system can be slower than a non-fragmented ext4 - and which one is better at avoiding fragmentation in the first place ? If ext4 is, then f2fs's performance lead may only be temporary, until sufficient fragmentation occurs...

I still get the feeling that f2fs is too immature and not used widely enough for it to have received a solid pounding under adverse conditions from many users, and that using it on a device like a Pi (with known hardware instabilities in the form of voltage sensitivity, SD card connection finger problems, and the fact that everyone overclocks them yet expects them to be stable) is maybe not the best idea... Wink
Kodi 18.3 - Mid 2007 Mac Mini, 4GB, 2TB HD, Windows 7 SP1
Kodi 18.3 - Vero4k, Raspberry Pi 2. OSMC.
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#11
I wanted to provide some follow up on this thread. My USB DAC/headphone amp finally arrived and works well. It is like this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PCM2704-USB-DA...0435976234

It is recognised as an audio output option in OpenELEC (v 4.0.5) straightaway. It can be used as a headphone amp/DAC or passthrough the digital signal via s/pdif (both optical and coaxial connections are provided).

As I have seen comments that the USB ports on the Pi can be a bit flaky I was wondering if there is an alternative HDMI DAC with video passthrough. That would seem to be the ideal solution for anyone who does not have a HDMI enabled receiver and just wants to use the audio into a standard stereo amp.

Unfortunately there does not seem to be much (if any) such HDMI DACs with video passthrough available. Does anyone know of such a thing for small cost, (If it is high cost you may as well get a HDMI receiver).
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#12
(2014-06-28, 11:42)jac55 Wrote: Unfortunately there does not seem to be much (if any) such HDMI DACs with video passthrough available. Does anyone know of such a thing for small cost, (If it is high cost you may as well get a HDMI receiver).

I believe something like this would work.
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#13
(2014-06-04, 00:36)da-anda Wrote: @jac55
OK, powerdown is no issue then. Tell XBMC to shutdown and it will do so gracefully and you're safe to pull the plug. Even a hot unplug isn't much of an issue anymore, while it's OFC not recommended, I didn't have any data corruption so far when it happened.

Why even shut it off? When the device is pulling less than an amp from the wall outlet, there's hardly anything to be gained with shutting it off.
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#14
(2014-06-28, 11:42)jac55 Wrote: My USB DAC/headphone amp finally arrived and works well. It is like this one...

I spoke too soon before I had done enough testing. I get some audio glitches /stutters but I think it is because the processor is overworked. I removed the USB DAC, but even with analogue out directly from the Pi, I get audio glitches. If I view "System Info" screen I note that CPU usage is about 30% to 65% when playing back music. If I just move the mouse around the screen CPU usage jumps up to 100%. Same thing when I switch on my android tablet as a remote. In short any navigating around the library while music is playing can cause glitches in the audio stream. I suppose there is the option to overclock. Is there any other way to reduce CPU usage?

I decided to access the music using a WD NAS (MyBookLive) via SMB. Would changing to NFS free up some CPU time, or would a powered USB drive be better?

(2014-06-28, 12:37)popcornmix Wrote:
(2014-06-28, 11:42)jac55 Wrote: Unfortunately there does not seem to be much (if any) such HDMI DACs with video passthrough available. Does anyone know of such a thing for small cost, (If it is high cost you may as well get a HDMI receiver).

I believe something like this would work.

Thanks for finding pointing out that HDMI gadget. As and when I get the Pi working as I want I may find it useful.

(2014-06-28, 16:37)smitbret Wrote:
(2014-06-04, 00:36)da-anda Wrote: @jac55
OK, powerdown is no issue then. Tell XBMC to shutdown and it will do so gracefully and you're safe to pull the plug. Even a hot unplug isn't much of an issue anymore, while it's OFC not recommended, I didn't have any data corruption so far when it happened.

Why even shut it off? When the device is pulling less than an amp from the wall outlet, there's hardly anything to be gained with shutting it off.

You are right, but it's an age thing, and belt and braces on safety issues. I have just become so used to having things switched off at the wall socket when not in use.
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OpenElec or Raspbmc0