In a previous post I installed XBMC 13.1 Gotham on my RaspberryPi. The only thing I did was check that was installed and loaded correctly and then I exited. (Check out this post to install XBMC.)
To begin I loaded up XBMC from the terminal with:
| pi@raspberry ~ $ sudo xbmc -fs |
or if you have the newer version Kodi:
| pi@raspberry ~ $ sudo kodi |
and once it loaded it asked if I wanted to check for updated, I said ‘No’ and then I clicked ‘Yes’ to disable auto check for updates. This can always be toggled back on through the ‘addon settings’ tab. After that I waited for the system to finish updating all the apps that were pre-installed. The only reason I waited was since I was on WiFi it takes a little longer and ends up lagging a little since a lot of the resources were being used.
Once it was all done updating I went over and selected the Settings tab. Once opened on the left side on the bottom there is a Settings Level box, change that to Expert so that it shows all the settings.
Still in the Settings window I went into the System tab and then into Appearance sub-tab. I changed the following:
- Skin:
- Changed the startup window to the Videos window since that is what I will be using the most.
- Turned Navigation Sounds off since I felt that was unnecessary.
I hit the Backspace button on the keyboard to back out of the Appearance tab and selected Services. From there I navigated to:
- Webserver:
- I checked to allow control of XBMC via HTTP.
What this will do is enable you to use an app either on your android or apple device to control everything on XBMC instead of needing a keyboard! After this section I will go over setting them up.
I hit the Backspace button again then selected System sub-tab. From there I navigated to:
- Audio Output:
- I changed the number of channels to 5.1 since that is what i have set up in my apartment.
From there all the basic settings are set up. These might have to be adjusted to fit your needs but that is all you have to do in order to start enjoying Videos and Audio files on your RaspberryPi.
Check this link for a list of all the keyboard shortcuts for XBMC. I haven’t tested them all but the main ones work good.
To get the full experience of a home entertainment center it would be better to be able to control everything through something other than a keyboard. Luckily there are a few good apps for both Apple and Android devices to enable just that!
Click this link to see the app that I use on my iPod touch as well as iPad Mini. I have the free version.
Click this link to see the app that I have on my Android phone. This is also a free app.
Both of these apps get set up exactly the same way and fairly easy. Since we allowed control of XBMC via HTTP the only requirements are to have the RaspberryPi and the device connected to the same internet.
All that’s left is to plug in a USB Hard Drive or a Flash Drive and start enjoying all your movies or any videos! There are options to stream media from other computers connected to your network and they seem to have no issues running; since I am on WiFi I decided not to do that. If I end up doing that in the future I will come back and update this post.
Once thing I did notice was that when launching this from the terminal it is better to reboot the system rather than exit the application. For some reason it hangs up and you are left with a blank screen until you ssh into the system and reboot or shut it down. If you load it from EmulationStation, RetroPie or from startx then it will exit correctly.
Check out the other posts in this series:
Installing XBMC/Kodi on RaspberryPi
Basic XBMC/Kodi Settings
Adding a XBMC/Kodi tab in EmulationStation
