[jmhenry5150]

I have 6 TVs throughout my house that I would like to outfit with inexpensive XBMC boxes but I am worried about this Pi...here are my concerns...

1. None of them have a home theater receiver...they would all be hooked up straight to a TV with HDMI. Does this mean they would all have to downmix the DTS, DD, etc audio tracks to stereo? If so, with Openelec, and the current version of the Pi, how is performance? Choppy video? Or, with the Pi just play the multi channel audio and it be ok without the downmix?
   
2. If I have a movie with DTS-HD or TrueHD, how does the Pi handle this? Will it play it and downmix or will it just play it on the TVs?
   

I am ready to buy one as a prototype but I don't want to go through the hassle of returning it if the audio kills the project...

Thanks in advance!!!

[popcornmix]

You TV almost certainly doesn't support multichannel audio of passthrough (a few support AC3, but DTS or HD audio - no).

So, yes the Pi will decode and downmix to stereo. That shouldn't be a problem.
DTS will be fine and DTS-HD will just play the DTS core (all xbmc platforms do this when HD audio passthrough is not available).

TrueHD is a bit trickier, but as it's an optional part of Blu-Ray standard, any Blu-Rays must include an AC3 alternative, so it will just play this.
If it's a re-encoded Blu-Ray, it will typically have just DTS or AC3 audio.

Recent builds actually can often play True-HD with overclock.

You do want a good (wired) network connection if you want to play high bitrate 1080p (applies to any platform). NFS is recommended over SMB.
If you are using wireless you are probably limited to 720p in which case cpu performance is not an issue.

Buy a prototype and have a play. Report here if you have trouble with any files.

[amberkalvin]

IMO I have a raspberry pi and messed around with it for a little bit but wasn't super impressed with the playback (not choppy or anything just takes a second to load a video). Or how the raspberry pi will shut off if you plug something in and it'll have to reboot.

I want to keep the Pi to mess around with or use somewhere where I have limited resources (maybe a kitchen monitor or something) but what i have tried most recently and absolutely love is the Amazon fire tv!

I'm not sure on the DTS downmix and what not but I know that it is blazing fast and plays everything I've thrown at it so far. Also, it comes with a remote that works awesome (bluetooth so no need for line of sight)

[jmhenry5150]

Yeah I built a Chromebox - which I LOVE! But the cost of $200 each for the rest of my house just isn't in the budget...

6 TVs!!!

A sub $100 box is what I am looking for...

So, is the consensus is that the Rpi is a good for what I want to do?

Everything will be wired Ethernet, connecting to a windows home server for files.

I'm just worried that the downmixing will be a problem...

[goujam]

IMO I have a raspberry pi and messed around with it for a little bit but wasn't super impressed with the playback (not choppy or anything just takes a second to load a video). Or how the raspberry pi will shut off if you plug something in and it'll have to reboot.

I want to keep the Pi to mess around with or use somewhere where I have limited resources (maybe a kitchen monitor or something) but what i have tried most recently and absolutely love is the Amazon fire tv!

I'm not sure on the DTS downmix and what not but I know that it is blazing fast and plays everything I've thrown at it so far. Also, it comes with a remote that works awesome (bluetooth so no need for line of sight)

If your pi is rebooting when you plug something in it suggests your power supply isnt upto the job and you need to correct that then you may find your pi works better. Especially as it may allow a higher overclock!!

[amberkalvin]

If your pi is rebooting when you plug something in it suggests your power supply isnt upto the job and you need to correct that then you may find your pi works better. Especially as it may allow a higher overclock!!

Great! Thanks for that bit of info. That'll probably make me want to mess with it more! Although I am using a 2A power source, Figured that would be sufficient.

---

Yeah I built a Chromebox - which I LOVE! But the cost of $200 each for the rest of my house just isn't in the budget...

6 TVs!!!

A sub $100 box is what I am looking for...

So, is the consensus is that the Rpi is a good for what I want to do?

Everything will be wired Ethernet, connecting to a windows home server for files.

I'm just worried that the downmixing will be a problem...

Amazon Fire TV is $99 and comes with a Remote.

[trick420]

Yeah I built a Chromebox - which I LOVE! But the cost of $200 each for the rest of my house just isn't in the budget...

6 TVs!!!

A sub $100 box is what I am looking for...

So, is the consensus is that the Rpi is a good for what I want to do?

Everything will be wired Ethernet, connecting to a windows home server for files.

I'm just worried that the downmixing will be a problem...

I came from the RPi to the Chromebox. I used the Pi for a couple of years. I can tell you this: After owning a Chromebox, the Pi's probably gonna piss you off a bit... It works great and is cheap, but menus load at a snails pace compared to a Chromebox. Also, but the time you buy a Pi, power supply, case, SD card, remote, etc, you're going to be around $80 or more. If you have a $100 budget I would be looking at FireTVs.

Aside from the slow menus the Pi runs fine. Probably my second biggest gripe though is the form factor - it's designed to be a learning/development system, so all of the ports are scattered on the board on all sides. This makes for a really unwieldy/ugly look since you have cables going every which way out of the box. If you can hide the pi it's not a big deal, but it is not very elegant either way.

I would probably put pi's on any TV that was a low use TV, and go with something newer and faster for the higher use TVs.

One big plus for the pi in my opinion is its CEC support. That will eliminate the need to have a dedicated remote for any TV that supports CEC ( such as Samsung's Anynet).

I'm hanging onto my pi and use it as a travel system. Eventually when I get a second TV it will likely be dedicated to that.

Jeff

[jmhenry5150]

Thx guys...

Looking into the Amazon box now

[kamla]

wrong thread..
sorry

[goujam]

I agree menus are slow on the pi compared to new android boxes but the thing for me with the pi is the support of auto switching for 24p.

About the power supply just because it says its 2 amp it doesn't mean the voltage won't drop under load. I had a 2a supply that dropped to 4.6v when underload on my pi. I changed it and the new supply gave 5.1v under load which allowed me to over clock over 1ghz

[jammyb]

Or. Central server with Plex media server and nowTV boxes running Plex client? Cheaper at £10 per box!