In any case, I promised an update on my RPi project and here it is.
RPi #1 (openelec)
RPi #1 is my media entertainment center and its core program is XBMC. My preferred OS is the openelec Rbej custom build. It is based on the development build of openelec and official XBMC source. If you're interested to use this OS, please go to this forum thread.
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| This is the boot screen |
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| Summary Information |
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| Hardware Information (Note I overclocked the CPU from 700MHz to 800MHz) |
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| Storage Information (Note I'm using an 8GB Class 10 SD card for RPi#1) |
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| TV Shows section showing the most recent shows added |
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| TV library title screen |
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| Movie library title screen |
I've settled to use Rbej's custom build as this is the most stable and fastest XMBC for RPi. He has removed some bugs and added enhancements over the official Openelec development build. There are two builds currently, one is XBMC Frodo 12.2 and the other is XBMC Gotham 13 alpha builds. I'm using the Frodo build. Updating is very easy, it's the same as using official openelec, just drag and drop the update files into the "Update" shared folder and reboot.
So far the Trakt add on is working on this build. You can see my watched shows on my twitter account. Everytime I finished watching a show that's in my XBMC library, Trakt will tweet it ^_^.
This is now my primary media center as it uses very little power, about 4 Watts only.
RPi#2 (TBOX)
RPi#2 is my torrent box. It is headless and I only can access it via SSH. It is running Raspbian OS. During installation, I had to put the setup files in a flash drive and connect the RPi to a TV out and a USB keyboard. Once the OS is setup, the rest can be done via SSH.
My preferred torrent application is rTorrent, because it supports RSS torrent feeds which I need to automatically download new TV shows. There is a much simpler torrent application if you don't need an RSS feed, the alternative app is Transmission.
Going back to rTorrent, rTorrent is only a terminal-based application. It needs a web/http server and php server combination in order to have a web-based interface. The web interface is called ruTorrent.
The setting up of rtorrent, web server, php server, rutorrent took me about 1-2 weeks. Once it was done, everything went smoothly.
There's one more application I installed in order for me to view the web interface remotely and that is the Hamachi VPN linux client. Once it's installed and running, I only need to access TBOX's Hamachi IP address and I can view the web interface. It's very slow but at least I can see what's going on.
There are some drawbacks in using this setup over using the more common uTorrent in Windows. One is I noticed that the torrent download speed is slower, this can be compensated by starting 3-5 torrents at the same time. Second is rTorrent has no queueing like in uTorrent where you can set a maximum number of concurrent downloads (e.g. 3 torrents at a time only), once rTorrent picks up a torrent from the RSS feed, it will download them all at the same time. Luckily I don't get torrent feeds more than 5 at once. Third is when a torrent contains files with non-english characters (i.e. Chinese & Japanese) the rtorrent app seems to crash and if there are special characters (colon, etc) the files are mangled into random 8.3 filenames instead of just replacing them with white space as in the case in uTorrent.
RPi#2 Summary
Since my initial setup, I have never updated the programs and it is very stable as long as I avoid running torrents with special characters. I'm quite satisfied that I don't need to leave a PC running all day just to download torrents and I have always something new to watch after I go home from work.
Future plans
I probably will get another RPi or two. I might setup a second media center and another RPi for development since my current 2 RPis are already dedicated to their current functions.
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| ruTorrent web interface |
Since my initial setup, I have never updated the programs and it is very stable as long as I avoid running torrents with special characters. I'm quite satisfied that I don't need to leave a PC running all day just to download torrents and I have always something new to watch after I go home from work.
Future plans
I probably will get another RPi or two. I might setup a second media center and another RPi for development since my current 2 RPis are already dedicated to their current functions.
Ei, thanks for the great info and updates.
ReplyDeleteSounds complicated to setup...
I'm not sure, if there's a difference between a desktop version or one that's design for RPi of Transmission, but I've seen other people use their Transmission for broadcatching downloads or I could be wrong. I think, you can configure your Transmission's web interface and access via network or is it a different torrent-client I saw wayback then... Anyways, your all good with rTorrent/ruTorrent so there's no more need for other client.
Base from the screenshot, I see a Shingeki no Kyojin on the list. I also watch that anime :D BTW, have you seen Space Brothers Live-Action Movie?
Nice Setup you got there!
The openelec is easy to setup, the easiest method is to 'burn' an .img file into an sdcard and you're good to go.
DeleteUsing Raspbian tho is no different than using a Linux PC and installing apps in tarballs. Some administrator skills are needed to integrate the apps to work as one but luckily someone had already done it and documented it on the web, you just need to look for it and follow their guides.
Re Transmission, I did setup and had a working Transmission app in my TBOX, it's still installed there but inactive. However I ran into a show stopper and one is the inability to receive RSS feed. It does have a watch folder support but I never found a working web GUI for RPi that will integrate into that.
Re Space Brothers movie, not yet. :)
DeleteI see. I guess, Transmission for (Linux) desktop is somewhat a different package from the RPi version. Maybe when you get your hands with another RPi's you can play and tinker around... If ever you decided to give it another chance... give Transmission + Flexget a try...
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using RPi co'z running a 4watt device is definitely something to consider. I just wish that there's a File "Download" Manager for RPi out there that will support files that's hosted in some online file sharing website with the ability to use broadcatching so, RSS can be use. However, if you encounter a site that uses CAPTCHA you definitely have to type those letter words.
It's also nice to have RPi for a pocket size media center. BTW, have your tried streaming movies from an external source (ExtHDD, PC)?
Thanks!
Yes I remember now, Flexget is the one where I got into a show stopper. I think it's doable but for me it's more complicated than ruTorrent.
DeleteGoogling just now I found out pyLoad might be the one you need for the download manager.
Yes I've tried using usb sources like flash drive and usb hdd. Flash drive is ok to use directly in RPi but it's not plug an play, it should be plugged prior to powering up. As for USB HDD, it must be plugged to a powered USB hub due to the limited power supply of RPi. As for PC (over the network), this is my current setup as I've consolidated all my media files into one file server (hostname: CORE) which can be accessed by many media players in our house.
I'll give pyLoad a try sometime. Currently using JDownloader as my download manager.
ReplyDeleteMan, sounds like you got a "Command Center" setup like out there (makes me wanna peek at your place... heheh). Only it needs is a voice activated and hand gesture controls and your all set to go for a Sci-fi,Tech Movies. :D