media experience MqiH 8 Easy Steps to Build Raspberry Pi Media Machine 1. Set Up Your Raspberry Pi In der Jo the get best experience from your Rospberry Pi 3; you will need to get some peripherals on top of the actual board itself. Place your Raspberry Pi in a case such as the Flirc case, to protect it and make it look stylish. Plug a HDMI cable and an Ethernet cable into the RPi. | would also recommend using the Flirc USB IR receiver that allows you to use any remote with the RPi. Then, insert o MicroSD card into you laptop or computer's card reader and proceed to the next siep to install an operating system. aun me &§& A N A N A N oO © © SOS2. Install OSMC Both OpenELEC and OSMC are good operating system choices for you, but | would recommend opting for OSMC as itis easier to set up and configure if, for example, you want fo overclock it later on First, download the OSMC installer at osmc.tv/download. Launch the OSMC installer application and select the language and Raspberry Pi 3 device in the weleame screen. Then, click the next bution and select the latest OSMC version. Next, select where you would like to install OSMC. Usually, you should install it on MicroSD card. 9 Now, select the device path where you would like to install OSMC. Click nex! and ecept the licence agreement a When the download process has completed, confirm vo installation by selecting "Yes" when prompted. v— After installation is completed, you are ready to insert the ‘MicroSD card onto RPi, plug in a micro USB to USB power cable, and boot it up. 3. Configure Kodi When you boot up the Rospberry Pi for the first time, the OSMC will install files before launching the Kodi Entertainment Center. In the "Welcome" screen, select your locale. Next, you will need to agree with the license agreement. Let's now configure Kodi settings. Set time zone If the time zone is not showing correctly, go to Settings’ > "Appearance" > "International" and select your region and time zone country. Configure weather settings Next, let’s configure weather settings for your location. Go to "Settings' > "Weather’. Select "Service for Weather Information" > "Get More..." > "Yahoo! Weather" > "Install". 7 Enable AirPla\ After installation is completed, go back to Y "Settings’ > 'Weather’ > "Service for weather Airplay allows you to ploy music or information’ and select "Yahoo! Weather’. video from your iPhone, iPad, and . other iOS devices. Next, in the General tab, select "Settings", choose the ‘Location 1" and enter the name of Go jo "Settings" > "Services" > scroll the nearest town. Press “OK” once you have to AirPlay and enable the “Allow located your city. Kodi to receive AirPlay content”.4. Add Content In order to set up your media library, you will need to add sources fo video, music, and photo menus. Go to videos in the home menu and select “Files”. Select “Add Videos” and “Browse” in the add video source. Browse to the folder where your media files are stored (e.g. USB hard drive or NAS server). Rename the media source, if needed, and select “OK”. In the set content window, you can set the type of media. Kodi will scrape the movie, TV show, or music information after you have set up the media content. If your movies are in separate folders, enable ‘Movies are in seperate folders thet metch the move tile’. Confirm (@p.] "Yest in the Change content question. Now, go back to main menu where you will find a new *Movies' menu with your recently added movies. = If you wish to check for new see media files on Kodi sicrup, ‘ — go to "System" > "Setfings’ > — "Video" > "Library" and enable x od “Update library on startup". You can also select "Hide progress of library updetes* if you do not wish to see the progress indicator everytime the library gets updated. . 5. Get Some Add-Ons In order to get the most out of your RPi, there gre many add-ons that will odd more functionality to the Kodi. You can install official add-ons, such as YouTube, by following these steps: Go to "Settings" > "Add-ons" > "Get Add-ons" > "Kodi Add-on repository’ > "Video Add- ons" > "YouTube". Click on the add-on nome and select install to download it. Next, go back to the videos menu, and you will find the new YouTube add- ‘on under the Video Add-ons folder.6. Install Video Codecs In order to decode and play MPEG-2 and VC1 video files using hardware acceleration, you will need to purchase codec licenses from the Raspberry Pi foundation. You will receive the license key through your email within 72 hours. Install the codecs by following these steps: @ Purchase MPEG-2 and VC1 = codec license keys. @ In OSMC, go to "My OSMC" > "Pi ~ Config" > "GPU Mem & Codec’. fava @ Enter the license key to MPEG2/WVC1 ~ licence under the Codec status. mn i @ Reboot the system 7. Boost Speed with Overclocking fa M fies Resp Py orca (default Raspberry Pi by overclocking it. After Go to "My OSMC" > "Overclock". HE Gurbo) 9 Change "Normal" to "Turbo" Example: booting up time (before and after overclocking) ® set “init_turbo" to 20 seconds.8. Customize Home Screen ‘Are you watching YouTube videos or Go to "Settings' > "Appearance" > playing Spofify all the time? Why not "Skin — Settings’ > "Customize set your favorite add-ons and folders Home Menu’. into the main menu for quicker access and better user experience? Select an existing menu ies tt as "Movies", select "Add”. First, let's add the YouTube add-on as "Choose Shortcut" > "Favourite" > a favourite. Go to "Videos" > "Video "YouTube". Add-ons" and press the C-key to show the context menu. Select “Add to You can change the order with up /_ favourites”. down arrows next to menu items. Ke) escreits Co) aecitstt e) eitrett Co) stet CHa Co) TTA Build Your Own Machine All in all, the Raspberry Pi 3 is now ready to replace your home theater PC, but still require some tweaking before you can realize its full potential as an enterlainment center front-end. {hope you have found this simple guide useful in setting up your own Raspberry Pi Media Machine. If you need even more performance for your media center needs, or the possibility of upgrading your HTPC, for example, into a media server or steam Ty aming machine, have a look ot these reference ITPCs | have built myself ot eee mymediaexperience.com/hipe-builds/.