The Raspberry Pi is a surprisingly capable little computer. In the past, we've shown you how to make a Raspberry Pi home theater with Rasbmc How to make your Raspberry Pi a home theater How to make your Raspberry Pi a home theater Four weeks after, and I've been messing around with my Raspberry Pi in a variety of ways, from using it for web browsing and standard daily computing tasks to playing around with the various configurations that are... Read More Since we published that guide, an easier to use and better performing operating system has been released. Today I'm going to show you how with RasPlex; It's the easiest way to start using your Raspberry Pi as a capable media center.
RasPlex brings the popular Plex media center software to the Raspberry Pi. Plex started out as a fork of XBMC, the media center software used in Rasbmc, but has developed dramatically since then. While XBMC is one app, Plex is two:client and the server .
With RasPlex, the Pi will only run the client application; You will have to install the server on another computer. By splitting the functionality of XBMC into two separate apps, the Plex client app can be really lightweight. The server app does all of the processor-intensive work on a more powerful computer, which sends an optimized version to your living room (or mobile device, you're not limited to a single client).
This solves some of the problems with the Rasbmc configuration. The Raspberry Pi Home Theater System:What It Can and Can't Do. The Raspberry Pi Home Theater System:What It Can and Can't Do. If you have been following our recent articles on Raspberry Pi, I will know that it can be configured as a media streaming client with a dedicated XBMC and you should also take into account... Read More You don't need to worry about using USB sticks to add movies to your media center. They stream directly from your computer.
I got everything I needed, with the exception of the remote and another computer, in this kit from Amazon.
Plex automatically scans your media files and uses an online database to match each one to a specific movie or TV episode. If your files are poorly organized, Plex will find no matches, or worse, it will find mismatches. To make it easier, you should arrange your media files in a structure that Plex can understand.
At its most basic, you need two folders:one for movies and one for TV shows. In the movies folder, each movie can have its own subfolder, although it doesn't have to. In the TV shows folder, each series needs its own subfolder.
There are a couple of standard naming conventions that Plex can handle. Anything that is a space, period, underscore, or hyphen will work. For example, The movie , The movie , The movie and The Movie Plex understands that they all mean the same thing.
TV shows also need the episode information. It is usually written as something like El.Show.1 × 01 or The_Show_S01E01 . For Plex, both files would be the first episode of the first season of The Show.
Any extra information in the file or folder name doesn't matter, as long as the titles and episode numbers are clear - this is one of the great strengths of Plex, that you don't need to rename everything to an obscure format. and rigid..
Plex has improved a lot since we introduced it in the past. It's easier to install and available on more platforms than ever. You can even install the server app on a NAS device (if you go this route, make sure it's an x86-based NAS, as cheaper ARM platform devices can't transcode media).
On the computer you are going to use as a server, visit the Plex download page and under Plex Media Server select Computer . The website should automatically detect your operating system, but if it doesn't, click the correct tab and click Download .
The server runs in the system tray on Windows and in the menu bar on OS X. It uses a local web application for the front end. To access the web application, open your browser and go to http://localhost:32400/web or click the icon in the system tray (or menu bar) and choose Media Manager> .
To add media to the server, click + icon. Select the media type, name the collection, and point it to the correct folder. Once you click Add library Plex will scan the folder, download all the metadata and share it through the server.
With the server configured, it's time to configure the RasPlex client. Connect your MicroSD card to your computer and download the correct RasPlex installer for your operating system.
On Windows, right-click the downloaded file and click Run as administrator . On Mac, run the installer and, when prompted, enter your password in Terminal and press Return.
In the RasPlex installer, select the latest version of RasPlex available, your MicroSD card, and then click Download . When the download is complete, click Write SD card . This will install RasPlex on the SD card.
Overclocking is a way to get more power out of a computer by making the CPU cycle faster. It's something players have been doing for years. Overclocking For Gamers:Everything You Need To Know Overclocking For Gamers:Everything You Need To Know. Here's everything a gamer needs to know about overclocking, and how to do it. Read More Is your Raspberry Pi squeezing by overclocking not enough juice? Power Up Your Raspberry Pi With Overclocking If there's any hardware released in 2012 you're likely to fall in love with, it's the Raspberry Pi, a UK-designed and built mini-computer that has been distributed all over the... Read more.
RasPlex is designed to run on an overclocked Raspberry Pi, so it's really easy to configure this option. With the MicroSD card still connected to your computer, navigate to it using Windows Explorer or Finder.
Open the config.txt file in a text editor. Under Overclock mode settings You will see the recommended overclock settings. Below them is where you change the settings. I set mine to High .
Change the arm_freq , core_freq , sdram_freq and surge to match the recommended values you want.
Eject the MicroSD card and insert it into the Raspberry Pi.
All the hard work is already done. Connect the Raspberry Pi to a TV with the HDMI cable. Also plug in the USB wireless adapter, or if you don't have one, an Ethernet cable, as well as the USB keyboard and, if you have one, the USB receiver for remote control.
Connect the Raspberry Pi to power to boot it up. RasPlex will take you through a setup process. Use the keyboard to navigate, select your WiFi network, and enter your password when prompted. You must set pre-cache to yes .
Once you're done with the setup, RasPlex will automatically connect to the Plex server and start caching all media information. It will run slow while doing this, but once it's done, everything will speed up.
Using a keyboard to control a media center is not practical. The best options are to set up a remote or just use your smartphone.
James has suggested powering your media center with a remote control. Superpower Your Media Center With These 9 Hacks. Superpower Your Media Center With These 9 Hacks. The media center is the ultimate living room experience; a PC to play it all, a PC to search and download, and a PC to bring the whole family together and unite them in front of... Read More RasPlex comes with built-in support for LIRC, so there are thousands of remotes that will work with a suitable USB receiver. I have something similar to this Windows Media Center remote that works great. However, I rarely use it, instead I use the Plex app on my iPhone or iPad.
The Plex app is available for iOS, Android, and even Windows Phone. It's both a Plex client (so you can stream movies to your phone if you want) and a remote for other client plexuses. Tap on the Choose player button - it's the rectangle with the WiFi symbol in one corner - and select the player you want to control; in my case it is plexhometheatre in rasplex . If you had Plex running on any other device, it would also appear on this list.
Once you're connected, if you select a movie or TV show in the Plex app on your mobile, it will play on your Raspberry Pi. You can also pause, fast-forward, rewind, or change what you're watching from within the app.
Now everything should be configured and running smoothly. You have a working Raspberry Pi media center. The first thing you should do is copy all your DVDs. Rip your DVDs and Blu-Rays with absolute ease with MakeMKV [cross-platform] Rip your DVDs and Blu-Rays with absolute ease with MakeMKV [cross-platform] If you have marked all your DVDs and Blu-Rays, you can create an amazing media center. Of course, the main hurdle to ripping is the disk's copy protection. Enter our hero:MakeMKV. Read More
Next, you should think about adding a case that will look good on your TV and even add some extra functionality. I have my eye on one like this.
Finally, sign up for a Plex Pass. For five bucks a month, you get a bunch of great extra features, like the ability to save media to your smartphone to watch on the go, extra movie info like trailers and interviews, and support for multiple users. Read about all the premium features of a Plex Pass Upgrading the best media center, With a Plex Pass [Giveaway] Upgrading the best media center, With a Plex Pass [Giveaway] Love Plex? You'll love a Plex Pass even more. With new and exclusive features only for Plex Pass holders, it's the best way to support the development of the best media center app. Read more.
Are you using a Raspberry Pi as a media center? How do you find it? Let me know in the comments.
