40$ Raspberry Pi - Could this be the latest HTPC?

[koushikp]

Element14 is asking for sales tax no.. during registration... there is also an option (If you don't have sales tax reg no .. click on Shopping.kitsnspares.com ) But I could not find Raspberry Pi on this. Can anyone provide me with thelink.
I have placed an order with RS online but their price seem to be higher than Element14... 3450 vs 2750 Rs INR...

I had spoken to kitsnspares people yesterday, it will take some time to appear in their website. anyway don't bother, its out of stock...all sold in less than 24 hours from element 14 singapore stock

 

[rahulsnh]

Have you considered cubieboard?

 

[koushikp]

Element14 is asking for sales tax no.. during registration... there is also an option (If you don't have sales tax reg no .. click on Shopping.kitsnspares.com ) But I could not find Raspberry Pi on this. Can anyone provide me with thelink.
I have placed an order with RS online but their price seem to be higher than Element14... 3450 vs 2750 Rs INR...

try now it is there, you can order, they will ship when it is available, probably after 4-6 weeks..

search with part number 2191863 and select element 14 part number from the drop down beside it.

cheers!

 

[koushikp]

Have you considered cubieboard?

no i hadn't, just checked it out, looks very interesting, i dont know about the Mali's capability in decoding h.264 video though, will find out more..thanks!

 

[yahoo0212]

Cubieboard looks stronger on specs and an additional SATA port... but as koushik questioned... What about Mali s capability on decoding h.264 videos.. Anyone using this board , can give review about its +ves nd -ves. Where do we order this from. No link on official website too

 

[rahulsnh]

Googling for answers led me here:

1. [email protected] - says SoC is quite capable of handling full 1080P playback of h.264
2. wiki - says ARMCortexA8@1GHz CPU, with Mali 400MP GPU and CedarX VPU able to decode 2160p quadHD video

You can queue up at cubieboard and they will contact when next batch is ready. At least I hope so!

I've not been able to spot any person who has experimented on it. For now, I've ordered RPi and queued up for cubieboard. I'll keep this thread posted.

 

[yahoo0212]

Cancelled order on RS and ordered from element14 .. paid by netbanking..and it also works out cheaper than RS . Element 14 says the lead time for this product is about 4 weeks. so should be getting it by Nov end .

 

[manniraj]

Ok here is the link with the finishing version of a USB DAC + Pi in a small case. Looks great and I think as per the postings we can use the ODAC + Pi and the MPD server on the Pi and use MPD clients (desktop and mobile) to control it.

Thanks

 

[sachu888]

I have also booked Pi and should be getting it in 1st week of December.

Regards,
Sachin

 

[koushikp]

Wow! Received a call from element 14 today that they are releasing my rpi today, should reach me by monday...its gonna be a long two days

That would be less than two weeks waiting time...none too shabby

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rahulsnh]

Congrats
What was the date of your order?
Mine reads Receipt: #ele7909 October 19, 2012

 

[koushikp]

Congrats
What was the date of your order?
Mine reads Receipt: #ele7909 October 19, 2012

my order is dated 16th October...they did some goof up and didn't ship on Friday, they have shipped it today...should reach me in a day or two i suppose

 

[rahulsnh]

I called them. Apparently it ships from Delhi. The lady asked me to drop an email to efyblr_at_efyindia.com for status. No reply insofar

 

[koushikp]

Ok my pi arrived tuesday but finally had enough time in the weekend to tinker with it and try different distros...and yes the all important task of getting an usb dac to work with it...

1st...this is not suitable for a music focussed hub at least through xbmc...i tried everything...including installing pulseaudio, while the dac gets recognized...sound output is very very low, after countless hours of tinkering to get the sound our through the dac...so anyone looking to use it as a all in one solution for videos and music can forget it...also with pulse audio the system became very unstable..hanging as soon as I tried to play any lossless file..

As far as video playback was concerned...i finally settled on raspbmc after trying xbian..where on both separate occasions I was getting stuttering playback for some reason...

Playback quality was decent..it was close to any cheap realtek based media player...sound output through hdmi was decent and clear when I output it to the tv...

As far as general menu navigation is concerned it was hit and go at times, slowing down or hanging...despite employing raspbmc profile based overclocking..it the fast preset it overclocks the cpu to 840 and the gpu to around 300 (forgot the exact number)...one thing that may have caused this was the choice of my sd card...i had a class 4 card lying around and used it...whereas raspbmc recommends class 10...i may try it if I keep the pi

Now the most important thing...the importance of a decent power supply...it is the single most important thing if you want to own this..and you absolutely need a powered usb hub...the existing ports will not be suitable for more than one device...when I tried the usb dac for the first time, my wireless keyboard started malfunctioning...i did some research on the web and it seems the official chargers from apple or samsung will be most suitable, while the pi did function with the 700mah samsung charger, it performed better with my ipad charger which was 2amp...my red gear 3rd party ipad charger was also decent..

so to conclude...yes it is the cheapest way to get xbmc on to the tv to watch movies and tv shows...but a strict no go for music...i will decide in a day or two whether i will keep this or not...as i want a both video+audio solution for ease operation for my wife...so may go for a barebone cheap HTPC instead...found some good choices in newegg...and these will attract zero duty for importing...at least thats what borderlinx shows..so watch the for sale section... a brand new RPi with a clear case may come up at an yummy price soon from me...

Edit: forgot to mention that HDMI sound quality is decent in loudness, and thus remains an option for people using a HDMI capable receiver with a decent inbuilt DAC...I will try it in my HT setup soon and give a feedback

 

[manniraj]

Ok my pi arrived tuesday but finally had enough time in the weekend to tinker with it and try different distros...and yes the all important task of getting an usb dac to work with it...

Thanks Koushik for the update. So the Pi is ruled out for the music-pc option. Yes I went thru the forum where some people have succeeded in getting the USB DAC option listed as the sound output device for XBMC but still unstable. I think it is still early phase and evolving and I think we need to wait till a stabilized version of the distro is available for both video/audio. This I think will take time as the primary purpose of Pi is for a different reasoning of cheap pc for even students and not primarily the purpose that we are trying to achieve (htpc/music-pc).
I think the other board "Cubieboard" might be better at music-pc application at around $50 as it runs the normal versions of Linux. It also have got a sata port which Pi is lacking.

Thanks

 

[s_sachin]

Koushik, thanks for the update. Did you try foobar and USB to dac?

 

[manniraj]

Koushik, thanks for the update. Did you try foobar and USB to dac?

I don't think Foobar has a Linux version, only windows version as per their official site. The one which has been tried/tested for Pi on a USB DAC is the Debian with PA (Pulse Audio) player but I think I have seen somewhere on the net that somebody has been successful with this combination on MPD.

Thanks

 

[koushikp]

Koushik, thanks for the update. Did you try foobar and USB to dac?

I haven't sachin...my objective of getting the RPi was solely to use XBMC..and use it as a TV show+music hub along with the android and iphone remotes...I am sure, if somebody runs raspbian with a native music player, they may have better luck with using an USB DAC...not sure though if Foobar can be run in Debian...

although it makes me very sceptical because of the lower power output of the USB port is so low, and with lets say a hdd connected and another RF receiver connected, one may still find it difficult to find enough power to give enough juice to the DAC...

On the other hand, I found the HDMI sound both in loudness was quite acceptable, and if one is using a decent AVR with a decent in built DAC, one would still be able to use the Pi and XBMC for playing music, I have a stereo setup where I was planning to use the RPi, so this cannot be an option for me...

 

[grubyhalo]

I haven't sachin...my objective of getting the RPi was solely to use XBMC..and use it as a TV show+music hub along with the android and iphone remotes...I am sure, if somebody runs raspbian with a native music player, they may have better luck with using an USB DAC...not sure though if Foobar can be run in Debian...

although it makes me very sceptical because of the lower power output of the USB port is so low, and with lets say a hdd connected and another RF receiver connected, one may still find it difficult to find enough power to give enough juice to the DAC...

On the other hand, I found the HDMI sound both in loudness was quite acceptable, and if one is using a decent AVR with a decent in built DAC, one would still be able to use the Pi and XBMC for playing music, I have a stereo setup where I was planning to use the RPi, so this cannot be an option for me...

Do you plan to try the RaspBMC on the box? I'm curious to see if that works without any issues out of the box...

 

[manniraj]

Do you plan to try the RaspBMC on the box? I'm curious to see if that works without any issues out of the box...

As per this site it indeed works even for a 1080p movie playback over the hdmi. I think there is nothing called out of the box here as you need to get the Pi board and get the power supply and also an SD card (with raspbmc pre-installed or you can download from the site and write on a SD card preferably a class 10).

Thanks