Hackable media box based on the Raspberry Pi compute module: Five Ninjas Slice My original idea was to review the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. But the thing about the Compute Module is that it’s not an end-user product: it was designed for manufacturers looking for an ARM-based platform on which they can build devices they can sell. FiveNinjas Slice Media Player FiveNinjas Slice Media Player Unlike …
Although not yet available, a Pi2 Compute Module should be a (relatively cheap, sub-£30) drop in replacement although you'll need to reconfigure Kodi and rescan your library, etc. - a minor inconvenience considering the significant performance boost from the quad-core ARMv7 SoC and extra memory.
For those who already have a Pi (mk1 or mk2), an alternative could be the Plusberry Pi case. It has most of the features listed except the LEDs, and is already funded via Indiegogo. Does have the IR for the remote control, but doesn't actually come with a control itself (although most generic ones should work, if your TV doesn't have CEC to do it via HDMI anyway).
They've been a bit delayed from their original shipment date, but are due to land at the end of the April according to the latest updates. Got mine on order, to replace the current Lego case that my kids made for my Pi1.
...always add on 4 months for delivery if at all.
Basically Kickstarter tends to show up those with great ideas and publicity skills but very little in the way of actual project management, customer service and delivery.
Take the ROCKI project, at least four updates a day during the funding stage then as soon as the funding finished ($250k) in November....silence. We finally started getting product in April. However, those that wanted the digital version are still waiting 18 months later. Support and customer service have been next to non-existent.
It's a USB->SATA bridge.
From the comments on the original announce of the compute module, http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-compute-module-new-product/
acb : So it won’t perform any better or be any more robust than plugging a USB-SATA dongle into an existing Pi? Isn’t there a way to bypass the USB layer altogether?
gert : The USB is the only high speed data interface which the BCM2835 has.
as it's just paying a hefty premium for a snazzy case and a remote, but if it raises the profile of the Pi as a media player, I'm all for it - get enough of these into peoples' houses, maybe the on-demand suppliers will start to take note (I'd love to be able to have iPlayer, Netflix, and what-have-you as workable add-ons for Kodi xbmc).
Kodi already has a working iPlayer add-on. Runs fine on my overclocked Pi1.
At least it's working at the moment, until the next time the BBC change their streaming format to try and break it and other non-BBC apps like Get_iPlayer.
But I do entirely agree with your sentiment of having an "official" add-on for such things from a larger user-base, for all such stream sources (also things like Sky Go and 4OD). Especially in this day and age of things like YouView and other similar platforms.
What is the point then, why not buy a Pi and stick with what is proven? How many cheap video decoders do we have now, do we need another?
Mini-ITX still seems to be the smallest affordable PC architecture that is worth a damn. Pi holds the throne on these little nothing video decoders, and rightfully so being it can be used in many other projects. With this it seems someone thought "Ooh, I can make a Pi too." and headed on over to kickstarter to fund a project that adds another shadow to the Pi.
Here in America, the Pi sells really well and isn't going anywhere any time soon until a board comes along that takes a little more than just video into consideration (in the same manner the Pi did with electronics, but in a different direction).
I guess wake me up when we finally get gigabit, sata and possibly ECC ram options for under 80usd...I need tiny NAS box.
Plex on a Fire TV only does stereo audio out, multi-channel audio doesn't work. It's a limitation of the way third-party apps can use the Fire's media player software, it's not fixable by Plex.
Unless you need the internal storage I'd still go for a Roku, the 1 is down to £30 now.
Yep, but it's presumably part of that kickstarter bonus thing. Kickstarter overfunding bonus - ability to disable the device's only USP.
And yeah, Ethernet is also over USB.
A far, far, better alternative would be one of Olimex's boards, probably the A20 Lime2, which has *real* SATA, *real* *gigabit* ethernet, more memory, and no annoying LEDs. For 30 quid.
Thanks for linking that Tufty. If it had ECC RAM I'd buy 3 of them immediately. However, even without that, I'm on my way to buy 1 and try it out. With all these circuit boards on the internet, it's hard finding just the right one. I still can't find an all inclusive comparison of them, I know that would be tough an picky, but it would be nice.
One does wonder, why did they concentrate on the useless bits - like the insane amount of lights, and an aluminium case? It has an RF remote control, so if doesn't need to be in the line of sight, and besides who actually wants to see the case? Surely it would be better hidden from view? Who would want to look at another box? I get that people might want feedback from the LEDs, but you will get more feedback/detail from the TV screen - who will be looking at the Slice box?
Full HD 3D support arriving for Raspberry Pi 1 & 2 (so Slice too), a first for any Kodi platform using the internal player (rather than a lashed together external player, if at all).
This update adds Full HD HDMI output (frame-packing). It is enabled by default but can be disabled in video acceleration settings.
When enabled, 3D modes will use full 1080p resolution (rather than half-SBS or half-TAB).
This is particularly useful for MVC content where you will get the full 1080p resolution for both eyes.
This is a first for Kodi. No other platform supports full resolution playback of 3D BluRay MVC files using Kodi's internal player.
Currently the gui will be rendered as half-SBS or half-TAB (and expanded), but the video will be full resolution. You can confirm the 3D mode with "tvservice -s" which will report "3D FP" when in full resolution mode.
There is much better hardware available for a media center, and anybody familiar with programing a PI will be able to program them too. I just downloaded KitKat 4.4.4 for a CuBox, already rooted, and everything 'just worked'. There are no "will do it next year" items. I bought another CuBox (from NewEgg) for a Gigabit Ethernet SATA server, and from Ebay bought a 'Banana Pro', with case for an integrated SATA hard drive, for $69.
Sure, I have two PIs, but it is time to replace the server's 100Base-T and USB2 disk limitations. My PIs have done their job. There is an active ecosystem of small Linux (/Kodi/Android) systems out there now. Time to move on from our obsession with PI, IMO. Eben has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams...
There is the bonus of Slice / Pi vs Roku that Pi actually supports MPEG-2 (I'm guessing Slice have paid the licence fee for that). Roku don't, at least not on the Roku 3, and it is a complaint on lots of their forums.
It's the main reason I dumped the Roku 3, as I just rip DVDs onto a NAS without transcoding.
Amazon Fire TV can allegedly do MPEG2 on the ARM.
Only one Pi compute module...tsk.
I remember a year or two ago some learned academic institute lashing together (with Lego) dozens of Pi's into a Beowulf cluster. Now they have crafted a Pi into a SO-DIMM form-factor I'd love to see a few Pi compute modules in some multi-slot shenanigans. Not, perhaps, necessary for a media player but one can dream.
I bought a Pi 2, an MPEG2 license, a cheap box and an SD card. Installed OSMC and added DNSMasq and DNSCrypt.
So I thus got a very nice home theater box, it plays movies via SMB from a USB HDD connected to my router, accepts AirPlay content and serves DHCP/DNS to my LAN. On the backend it connects to a DNS of my choice using an encrypted connection.
Cheap but much happiness.
I think Apple TV can't play (potentially pirated) media files on your NAS drive (at least my flat hasn't been able to figure out how to do this with Apple TV). I tried to read if Roku could do this, but got lost in walls of text in review focusing on its Netflix support.
I think this is the main difference between Slice and Roku/Apple TV? Please correct/abuse me if I am wrong?
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