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Raspberry Pi Media Center
Raspberry Pi Media Center
108 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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March 19, 2013
It is said that a wise Imperial College professor of computer science was once asked whether he was overawed by some of his very gifted young students. His reply was along the lines that youth, genius and energy can by well matched by experience and cunning. I take this to mean that in many scientific and engineering disciplines truly original discoveries are rare and that what appear to be novel research or software engineering techniques often turn out to be applications or “rediscoveries” of things that were known earlier.
This book is written by a young computer scientist studying at one of the other illustrious London University colleges - Kings College in this case. The “about the author” section states that he started using computers since the age of four and has over the course of his childhood and adolescence developed a “huge passion for them”. This book falls into the category of presenting and organising much complex material (both procedures and background information) .. so that our Imperial College Professor's "mystique" will stay "unblemished".
The RaspberryPi is an interesting “little Linux” board that uses a Broadcom variant of ARM. This Broadcom processor is relatively well endowed with audio and video processing hardware, and it is no surprise that the champion and developer of the RaspberryPi work for Broadcom. What an excellent way to recruit a team of enthusiastic and free application developers and testers for your brand new processor design. Also think of the “marketing kudos” earned by basking in the warm glow of “encouraging young computer scientists in schools” by making a very cheap yet powerful computing device available for use by students and teachers.
The only problem with acquiring mastery of the RaspberryPi is the steep learning curve involved in mastering Linux and the various application frameworks and tools that are available for it. One way of making progress and obtaining some satisfaction by running “entertaining” applications is to follow the tried and trusted “cookbook” approach. This particular book provides fairly detailed instructions about setting up a RaspberryPi as a media center.
In essence the book is a “vade mecum” for Raspbmc, a Linux distribution that has been built specifically for running the XBMC open source media center. This distribution can be expanded by installing various Debian (another Linux distribution) packages., if you want your RaspberryPi media center to do “other things”. Not being a “Media Center” expert I found some of the sections such as those describing how to control a Raspbmc installation connected to an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) - which will enable the Raspbmc setup to be controlled e.g. by an XBox controller or a suitable TV remote controller and installing and setting up the BBC iPolayer very useful. The section on content management and configuring Raspbmc to play content from e.g. AFP (Apple Filing Protocol - which is used for sharing content over a network from Mac OSX systems) and AirPlay, as well as the section on remote streaming (streaming (sending) media from a computer to the Raspbmc) meant that I now had no excuse for exploring this “brave new multimedia world”. The only problem with acquiring lots of media content is how to organise it.
Almost in the “Aladdinian” sense of “your wish is my command” there is a chapter covering setting up the database management system, MySQL, on a server machine (MacOSX, Windows or Linux) and getting XBMC (which, you will remember) is running on the RaspberryPi to use that database instead of its own internal SQLite-based implementation. Finally, as if anticipating the wishes of the “media addicted” there are two chapters covering the use of PVR (Personal Video Recording) using the Raspbmc, and conversion of various media types to formats that can be played in the Raspbmc.
In summary, I found this a slim but very useful volume, packed with information that I would have had to spend quite a few hours pulling together from the web. In addition the book did strike a good balance between the needs of relative novices and experts. If you are a schoolteacher and want to introduce the RaspberryPi to students who are not “particularly enamoured of programming” and are more artistically inclined then this is a “particular effective 'hearts and minds' Trojan horse [ in a good sense I hasten to add ]. If you are a really inspiring teacher you can use some of the procedures covered in this book to introduce a whole variety of interesting concepts such as distributed file systems (NFS in this case), relational databases (MySQL and SQLite), data compression and decompression, multi-tasking operating systems, and even TCP/IP. If you are thinking about giving someone a RaspberryPi as a present and they are not “electronics or programming” enthusiasts then you might do worse than bundling your gift with a copy of this useful 'little volume'.
As you might gather I like this book and feel that it fills an important niche in the RaspberryPi “ecosystem”
This book is written by a young computer scientist studying at one of the other illustrious London University colleges - Kings College in this case. The “about the author” section states that he started using computers since the age of four and has over the course of his childhood and adolescence developed a “huge passion for them”. This book falls into the category of presenting and organising much complex material (both procedures and background information) .. so that our Imperial College Professor's "mystique" will stay "unblemished".
The RaspberryPi is an interesting “little Linux” board that uses a Broadcom variant of ARM. This Broadcom processor is relatively well endowed with audio and video processing hardware, and it is no surprise that the champion and developer of the RaspberryPi work for Broadcom. What an excellent way to recruit a team of enthusiastic and free application developers and testers for your brand new processor design. Also think of the “marketing kudos” earned by basking in the warm glow of “encouraging young computer scientists in schools” by making a very cheap yet powerful computing device available for use by students and teachers.
The only problem with acquiring mastery of the RaspberryPi is the steep learning curve involved in mastering Linux and the various application frameworks and tools that are available for it. One way of making progress and obtaining some satisfaction by running “entertaining” applications is to follow the tried and trusted “cookbook” approach. This particular book provides fairly detailed instructions about setting up a RaspberryPi as a media center.
In essence the book is a “vade mecum” for Raspbmc, a Linux distribution that has been built specifically for running the XBMC open source media center. This distribution can be expanded by installing various Debian (another Linux distribution) packages., if you want your RaspberryPi media center to do “other things”. Not being a “Media Center” expert I found some of the sections such as those describing how to control a Raspbmc installation connected to an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) - which will enable the Raspbmc setup to be controlled e.g. by an XBox controller or a suitable TV remote controller and installing and setting up the BBC iPolayer very useful. The section on content management and configuring Raspbmc to play content from e.g. AFP (Apple Filing Protocol - which is used for sharing content over a network from Mac OSX systems) and AirPlay, as well as the section on remote streaming (streaming (sending) media from a computer to the Raspbmc) meant that I now had no excuse for exploring this “brave new multimedia world”. The only problem with acquiring lots of media content is how to organise it.
Almost in the “Aladdinian” sense of “your wish is my command” there is a chapter covering setting up the database management system, MySQL, on a server machine (MacOSX, Windows or Linux) and getting XBMC (which, you will remember) is running on the RaspberryPi to use that database instead of its own internal SQLite-based implementation. Finally, as if anticipating the wishes of the “media addicted” there are two chapters covering the use of PVR (Personal Video Recording) using the Raspbmc, and conversion of various media types to formats that can be played in the Raspbmc.
In summary, I found this a slim but very useful volume, packed with information that I would have had to spend quite a few hours pulling together from the web. In addition the book did strike a good balance between the needs of relative novices and experts. If you are a schoolteacher and want to introduce the RaspberryPi to students who are not “particularly enamoured of programming” and are more artistically inclined then this is a “particular effective 'hearts and minds' Trojan horse [ in a good sense I hasten to add ]. If you are a really inspiring teacher you can use some of the procedures covered in this book to introduce a whole variety of interesting concepts such as distributed file systems (NFS in this case), relational databases (MySQL and SQLite), data compression and decompression, multi-tasking operating systems, and even TCP/IP. If you are thinking about giving someone a RaspberryPi as a present and they are not “electronics or programming” enthusiasts then you might do worse than bundling your gift with a copy of this useful 'little volume'.
As you might gather I like this book and feel that it fills an important niche in the RaspberryPi “ecosystem”
March 30, 2013
Raspberry Pi Media Center. How should I describe it? In short - this book is too short. It feels a bit thin, a bit rushed to be finished. The info is exact, but at places not quite enough.
To be honest, I expected something different. It is just wrong on some levels and here is how it all intersects.
Generally all software starts living in the same manner: Install; Boot; Dive in. This scheme is omnipresent. There are certain specifics of course: installation media, execution space, configurations, execution process, etc. but the structure stands and Raspbmc is no exception from this common factual rule set. Sometimes details might be tricky, but it is not a common situation where you get stuck and without any support. In that sense Raspbmc is a little dream - it is very self-sustained and even ... OK, I'll say it - self-conscious at some level. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.
After the first two chapters I was kind of outraged - many facts were introduced and still somehow I didn't know anything about Raspbmc. I mean that I was doing the prescriptions automatically and the required understanding came from the experience, instead of being somehow suggested by the book. Just after I put the SD card with the newly installed image and ran Raspberry Pi, I realized how autonomous and durable this system is. It downloaded its components and tried to install itself. There was some error with mounting the partitions, so the install program suggested me to reboot the Raspy. I did and the installation went quickly and without any other hassle. Nothing in the first chapter gave me even the slightest idea for that power.
I think here is the place to share my expectations. The rest of the book is rundown of the functions and the abilities of Raspbms. Actually of XBMC. Yes, this is an XBMC media center system tailored for Raspberry Pi. But is it the best in this niche? We don't know. At least the book doesn't say so. It doesn't mention openelec (which boots significantly faster). This is another implementation of XBMC that has Raspberry Pi dedicated version. It doesn't mention RasPlex - a Raspberry Pi oriented installment of the Plex Media Server. May be there are even more that I haven't heard of. The book's title doesn't suggest that it is bound to a specific system. So I expected variants. I expected comparisons. May be even some benchmarks and reported experimentation. Instead there is a quick glimpse over the common functionality that is seen anyway when looking around the interface. Left alone with the system for a day and most of the shown prescriptions will reveal themselves to any user. Raspbms is that easy.
In fact the book is even dedicated to the wrong system, because the Raspbmc itself is only very briefly mentioned in the second chapter (when the plugin for managing its settings is presented) and in the fifth chapter (when setting up the MySQL database for library mode). Of course dropping to the raw console of the underlying operating system is not related to any media center functions, but it might be sometimes necessary for managing networking or some other configurations on a bit lower level. For instance I tried to switch from wired connection to WiFi in the Raspbmc settings but without success. When switched network interfaces and restarted the network manually in the console, it went fine.
It would also be nice to see in this book a bit of "outside of the box" action, like how Raspbmc can be set up for being able to read PDFs or eBooks in general, or (the feature I missed the most) how a web-browsing can be made available through setting up Firefox, Opera, etc. I know how to do it because I've read some forums, but it have to be here.
The book seems to be aimed at complete beginners, which by definition doesn't imply any expertise. Despite that the author's expertise is clearly evident throughout the book. And that is to a point where he says too little where he thinks the details are obvious. As an example you can see the section Setting up the Library mode on a second system at the end of the fifth chapter - tiny and ambiguous info.
May be the most useful thing in the book are the three appendices with well collected references to hardware, database and operating system commands.
In conclusion I can only say that the common Raspberry Pi user is by default technically literate. And this have to be taken in consideration even in a book for media centers.
To be honest, I expected something different. It is just wrong on some levels and here is how it all intersects.
Generally all software starts living in the same manner: Install; Boot; Dive in. This scheme is omnipresent. There are certain specifics of course: installation media, execution space, configurations, execution process, etc. but the structure stands and Raspbmc is no exception from this common factual rule set. Sometimes details might be tricky, but it is not a common situation where you get stuck and without any support. In that sense Raspbmc is a little dream - it is very self-sustained and even ... OK, I'll say it - self-conscious at some level. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.
After the first two chapters I was kind of outraged - many facts were introduced and still somehow I didn't know anything about Raspbmc. I mean that I was doing the prescriptions automatically and the required understanding came from the experience, instead of being somehow suggested by the book. Just after I put the SD card with the newly installed image and ran Raspberry Pi, I realized how autonomous and durable this system is. It downloaded its components and tried to install itself. There was some error with mounting the partitions, so the install program suggested me to reboot the Raspy. I did and the installation went quickly and without any other hassle. Nothing in the first chapter gave me even the slightest idea for that power.
I think here is the place to share my expectations. The rest of the book is rundown of the functions and the abilities of Raspbms. Actually of XBMC. Yes, this is an XBMC media center system tailored for Raspberry Pi. But is it the best in this niche? We don't know. At least the book doesn't say so. It doesn't mention openelec (which boots significantly faster). This is another implementation of XBMC that has Raspberry Pi dedicated version. It doesn't mention RasPlex - a Raspberry Pi oriented installment of the Plex Media Server. May be there are even more that I haven't heard of. The book's title doesn't suggest that it is bound to a specific system. So I expected variants. I expected comparisons. May be even some benchmarks and reported experimentation. Instead there is a quick glimpse over the common functionality that is seen anyway when looking around the interface. Left alone with the system for a day and most of the shown prescriptions will reveal themselves to any user. Raspbms is that easy.
In fact the book is even dedicated to the wrong system, because the Raspbmc itself is only very briefly mentioned in the second chapter (when the plugin for managing its settings is presented) and in the fifth chapter (when setting up the MySQL database for library mode). Of course dropping to the raw console of the underlying operating system is not related to any media center functions, but it might be sometimes necessary for managing networking or some other configurations on a bit lower level. For instance I tried to switch from wired connection to WiFi in the Raspbmc settings but without success. When switched network interfaces and restarted the network manually in the console, it went fine.
It would also be nice to see in this book a bit of "outside of the box" action, like how Raspbmc can be set up for being able to read PDFs or eBooks in general, or (the feature I missed the most) how a web-browsing can be made available through setting up Firefox, Opera, etc. I know how to do it because I've read some forums, but it have to be here.
The book seems to be aimed at complete beginners, which by definition doesn't imply any expertise. Despite that the author's expertise is clearly evident throughout the book. And that is to a point where he says too little where he thinks the details are obvious. As an example you can see the section Setting up the Library mode on a second system at the end of the fifth chapter - tiny and ambiguous info.
May be the most useful thing in the book are the three appendices with well collected references to hardware, database and operating system commands.
In conclusion I can only say that the common Raspberry Pi user is by default technically literate. And this have to be taken in consideration even in a book for media centers.
May 6, 2013
Raspberry Pi Media center is a very detailed step-by-step guide to turn your Raspberry Pi board into a Media Center (using Raspbmc).
Why not, then 5 stars? If all you want is a media center working this is your book, but when you finish implementing all the steps you'll have (probably) a working media center, but not any knowledge about the Raspberry Pi itself more than writing the memory card to get it working as a media center. To get the fifth star, for me, it should cover not just the "HOWs" but some of the "WHYs" you do what you do to get the project running; to be an introduction to some, if not all, the possibilities of the Raspberry Pi which is meant as a learning device.
Why not, then 5 stars? If all you want is a media center working this is your book, but when you finish implementing all the steps you'll have (probably) a working media center, but not any knowledge about the Raspberry Pi itself more than writing the memory card to get it working as a media center. To get the fifth star, for me, it should cover not just the "HOWs" but some of the "WHYs" you do what you do to get the project running; to be an introduction to some, if not all, the possibilities of the Raspberry Pi which is meant as a learning device.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews