Free media centers: the first step to a smart home. ❤ How I made a home media center with my own hands for $22

Tens or even hundreds of gigabytes music files, a couple of seasons of your favorite TV series, a lot of photographs and other multimedia “trash.” Isn't it a familiar picture? Most often, this data is scattered across hard drives, and only the computer owner himself can quickly find the desired movie or music album. Only the most pedantic users keep all this “stuff” in strictly ordered collections on a separate medium. Others reason something like this: “What’s the point of sorting files or even just copying data onto one disk? It's a waste of time."

Still, you shouldn’t rush to conclusions. If you separate multimedia data from a regular computer by moving movies, music and photos to a separate media center, the benefits of such reshuffling will be obvious. When watching a movie, you will never be distracted by ICQ knocks or pop-up antivirus notifications. Relatives will stop contacting you with requests “Show me a photo of where...” or questions “What disk do you have “Doctor House” on?” The computer will not be occupied in your absence, and it will be more pleasant to watch a movie on a large diagonal TV, sitting on a soft sofa.

And if you assemble a media center based on a miniature board of the Mini-ITX form factor with passive cooling, then instead of buzzing system case you can get a compact, neat and completely silent HTPC, with the ability to view Full HD video and support Wi-Fi.

The word media center itself is generally incomprehensible to many. In fact this is - regular computer, which uses a very convenient and simple shell, understandable even to veterans of the Battle of Kulikovo. Such a computer may also be called an HTPC, which stands for Home Theater Personal Computer. It can be used in conjunction with a TV and even a remote control (purchased separately in most cases). The media center can perform different functions, it will replace the stereo, DVD player. In addition, the media center will support absolutely all formats, it will be “omnivorous” (unless, of course, the hardware of such a computer is too old) and will even be able to play data over a local network.

⇡ MediaPortal 1.2.2: portal to the world of media

One of the important advantages of the MediaPortal shell is the availability of Russian language support. However, in the application configuration window you can see that all program options are in English - this is an unfortunate omission of localization.

Settings can be performed in standard mode or in advanced mode. The second option allows you to try out some experimental program options, the stability of which the developers do not yet guarantee.

I was amused by a funny message from the creators of the application - at the last stage installing MediaPortal on a message appears on the screen that this product is distributed free of charge and (hereinafter quoted) “...if you purchased this program on ebay - you are a fool." There were probably precedents.

MediaPortal supports all analogue TV reception cards with MPEG-2 hardware support, as well as all digital tuners that can run on BDA drivers. Before starting the shell, the tuner must be configured, and you don’t have to look for these parameters in the media center interface. Fine-tuning channels, as well as selecting broadcast standards and other broadcast settings are “hidden” in the media center configuration window, which opens separately from the shell itself.

We tried several DVB-T tuners and noticed that scanning frequency range happens noticeably faster than on “native” software. The recording of TV programs is very convenient and thoughtfully implemented. To prevent your hard drive from becoming clogged with gigabytes of old TV shows, you can specify the maximum storage time for recorded files, after which MediaPortal will automatically delete them from the media. Stream saving occurs without delay and does not slow down the system at all.

The image can be scaled by changing the aspect ratio of the picture. In addition, the frame cropping feature allows you to manually specify the number of pixels from each side that you want to exclude.

The center can use several deinterlacing filter algorithms, but in fairness it must be said that we turned it off every other time.

The program conveniently displays information about the content being played. The screen displays the playlist, album art, track information, and so on. A 3D interface can also be used.

By default, the program contains only basic set functions, many of its capabilities are implemented using plugins. To search for and manage add-ons, a special manager is used, which allows you to download the desired module and run its installation wizard. We found this not very convenient, and the size of the plugins could also be smaller, because loading almost hundreds of megabytes for a small option is overkill.

⇡ XBMC: multimedia for any platform

XBMC Media Center is a free, cross-platform home theater solution. It is worth noting that the stability and functionality of this shell very much depends on the chosen platform. For example, the Live version of XBMC in our case turned out to be much faster and more stable than a similar application for Windows. This media center got its name due to the fact that XBMC was originally created as an application media center for the first generation Xbox.

The media center can work with touch screen devices; any models of presentation consoles are supported. With it, you can watch discs, listen to music, use dynamic playlists, and so on.

Unfortunately, XBMC Media Center does not provide the ability to work with a tuner, but there are a large number of others, no less useful options. The official website of the project contains a repository with free add-ons. With their help, you can very quickly and easily configure the media center in accordance with your preferences. For example, you can integrate support into the center shell popular services- Flickr, Facebook and others. You can also use a variety of add-ons to access online video content. For example, by installing the National Geographic add-on, you will be able to watch some programs from popular educational channels at any time convenient for you.

XBMC can automatically download weather forecasts for several days for the region specified in the settings.

Of all the shells mentioned in this article, we liked the XBMC interface the most - it is convenient, fast, beautiful, looks good on a panel with a large diagonal and, most importantly, is visual. No need to deal with configuration files or use “shamanic” commands with a tambourine in hand: just put it on and it works.

⇡ LinuxMCE: from media center to smart home

Some large corporations, such as, say, Samsung or Sony, are already demonstrating prototypes of “smart homes”. The idea is to connect all electrical equipment, from air conditioning to TV, into a single managed network. A man comes home computer system identifies him and the corresponding program turns on - his favorite music starts playing at a given volume, the lights in the room where he is located automatically turn on, and the screen home TV useful information is displayed, such as the latest news or incoming email.

So far, such a concept looks fantastic, but its presence in every apartment is a matter of time. After all, software solutions that would allow you to do all this already exist, and LinuxMCE is one of them.

The LinuxMCE distribution is universal. This is no longer just a media center, it is a powerful platform that allows you to control a huge number of devices that support data exchange via TCP/IP, X-10, Z-Wave, EnOcean, INSTEON, PLCBus, EIB/KNX, 1-Wire protocols. With LinuxMCE you can quickly connect and automatically configure devices Plug and Play, such as network players, cameras, IP phones, tuners and others.

The “heart” of the system, organized on the LinuxMCE platform, is a separate server. It monitors connected devices and enforces instructions that should be used under certain conditions. For example, if the cameras detect a decrease in light, the system can turn on the lights, and so on. You can also link security alarm management to platform functions.

To control such a system, you can use a media client, the role of which can be played by a tablet, laptop, smartphone - the same interface, called Orbiter, will be used everywhere. On the official website of the project you can see a large list of devices that make it possible to remotely control the functions " smart home» via this interface.

On at the moment LinuxMCE looks rather unusual; not everyone will like the design of its shell, and you will also have to tinker with setting up the distribution. But what are all these difficulties and disadvantages compared to the fact that the media center itself will learn to determine your position in the house - it will turn on the light when you go to the kitchen, or automatically continue showing the video from the moment at which you left.

⇡ Conclusion

Previously, the attitude towards music and films was completely different. Many apartments had a record player vinyl records, reel-to-reel tape recorder, later a video recorder appeared, etc. The very ritual of watching a film or listening to audio recordings was more reminiscent of a cultural event - you had to go to the closet, take the cassette from the shelf, open the colorful case and take out the recording on the media (by the way, even the term “media” was not so common then), insert it into player, perhaps rewind the film, turn the volume control, press the Play button.

Today things are different. A person instantly finds what he is interested in, making a minimum of effort. He doesn't get up from the couch, he doesn't need to go to the closet. He simply presses a mouse button or takes his iPhone out of his pocket. He watches a movie or listens to music, but he forgets the plot and melody ten minutes after watching and listening.

To some extent, the blame for this lies on the conscience of marketers who are trying to implement the idea of ​​share your multimedia wherever possible - from mobile phones to wristwatch and disc burning applications.

The media centers described in this article to a certain extent provide an opportunity to bring back a half-forgotten ritual. Of course, you won’t have to insert any cassettes anywhere, but at least you will be able to take a break from the computer for a while and, having configured software, you can feel the pleasure of being able to conveniently select and watch movies or TV shows.

However, thanks to Kodi (formerly XBMC), there is a free alternative for it that will make playback problems a thing of the past. To prepare collections of music and video, the program receives additional information from the Internet: for example, for music - the album cover and its description, for video - posters and a summary. Thanks to this, you can bring order to your media collection, and, for example, select films only from a certain director or genre. Kodi has an active community (kodi.tv) that develops free add-ons for the media center: for example, for online services such as YouTube, customizing the user interface or for accessing cloud storage.

Absolutely free

Kodi is worth trying out without delay. After installing it on your home PC, you can add your videos to the Kodi media center by going to the “Video” menu and selecting “Files.” First change the language from English to Russian in the “System | Settings | Appearance | International | Language". Now click on “Add Video...” and then on “Browse”. Here you can choose the location where all your movies are stored. This can be either a folder on the computer or on the server, or shared folder V home network. Once you have specified the name of the media source, categorize the content that is in that folder. In our case, select “Movies”. After clicking OK, Kodi will automatically download the movie's cover, description, director, genre, and rating information from the Internet.

Do the same with the music and photos you want to access. To expand functionality, click on "Add-ons" under the "Video", "Photo" and "Music" lines. Next, go to the list of installed services. In the "Video" menu you can, for example, find online video libraries of TV channels, numerous video portals such as YouTube, or streaming services. Audio extras are also available in the form of Internet radio stations and streaming music services.

To play your Kodi Home Library on your smartphone, tablet, TV, or network audio device, you must enable the UPnP server. To do this, in the “System” menu, go to “Settings” and click on “Services”. Now in the “UPnP/DLNA” section you can activate the “Enable access to media library” item and enjoy viewing photos, movies, and listening to music on your mobile device.

Playing content on your home network

While most network-capable TVs and audio devices come out of the box capable of streaming media via DLNA, smartphones and tablets often require additional applications. On devices running iOS, you can use for this, for example, VLC and mconnect players for mobile devices, and on Android gadgets - BubbleUPnP. Thus, Kodi home use provides exceptional services. And for gaining access to the media library while traveling, there are other, more suitable programs.

I admit, I’m not much of a movie fan, but sometimes I still want to watch some new film (especially when there’s nothing to watch on the 55 television channels that my Internet provider provides for free). My TV is not small (the screen is 40 inches diagonally) and works quite well, but it was purchased at a time when having a USB connector on a TV was very rare and greatly increased its price, so my Samsung does not have one. What can we say about the network connector... Therefore, to watch a movie (downloaded from the Internet) on big screen TV, I had to burn it to DVD and turn on the home theater. Home cinema Mine is also far from new; it can only read videos in the “avi” format and DVDs. But for the time being, this was enough for me. The option of connecting the TV to a laptop via an HDMI cable was not considered due to the distance between the devices being too large.
Recently, the speed of home Internet has increased significantly and it has become possible to watch movies online without downloading them to your hard drive at all. As a result, it was decided to purchase a media center that would manage all the multimedia content of our devices at home (there are two laptops at home, not counting the same number of tablets and a bunch of phones).
Having studied ready-made offers in online stores, I came to the conclusion that for the money they were asking for, I could easily assemble a much more powerful device myself by purchasing components in the same stores. Began to study homemade devices, I watched a lot of videos on YouTube about assembling media centers at home, but in the end I realized that it was impossible to assemble one for myself using a ready-made list of components due to their lack of availability in stores.
I had to pick out the filling myself. The budget I allocated for the media center was limited to 13,000 rubles. The toad did not allow me to spend more on such a toy))). I also wanted to buy all the components in one specific online store, which gave a noticeable discount on the purchase (my favorite store, which has been successfully operating in our city for several years now, I use this store all the time, I am confident in its reliability and I have a loyalty card).
For a long time I could not decide on the choice of case; there were quite a lot of options. In the end I settled on Thermaltake Element Q


The case is quite roomy, in my opinion attractive and has a built-in power supply. The disadvantage of this model is the slightly noisy power supply fan. But this problem can be easily solved by replacing the fan with a slower one. There is a lot of information on the Internet on choosing the right fan model. I’ll say right away that I didn’t change anything, because... The power supply fan is the only source of cooling for all components of the case, and it actually doesn’t make too much noise.
The advantages of the case also include the presence of two USB connectors on the front panel. They may come in handy if you need to play videos or photos from flash drives of friends and acquaintances.
The motherboard chosen was GA-J1800N-D2P


Among the advantages are a fairly fast, soldered processor with passive cooling, built-in video and a low price. And Gigabyte products have never let me down personally.
There is only one drawback of this motherboard - only a couple SATA connectors, which limited the number hard drives. Initially, I planned to install two disks in the media center - a 256 MB SSD for the operating system and a 1 TB HDD for data storage. But I had to abandon the SSD, simply because there was nowhere to connect it.
But I didn’t want to give up DVD-ROM at all, since quite often friends bring videos (from various celebrations and family holidays) on DVD discs (and my home theater is not always able to play them).
As DVD player LITE-ON IHDS118-04 was chosen (although by adding 100 rubles you can buy a writing drive, but I thought that there would be no need for recording discs).

HDD drive - WD Caviar Green WD10EZRX, 1TB (does not heat up too much and makes little noise, thanks to high speed spindle rotation).

Memory – two 4GB sticks (the maximum this motherboard supports), PATRIOT DDR3- 4GB 1333, SO-DIMM, Ret

The only one PCI slot on the motherboard, it was occupied by the Wi-Fi board D-Link AirPlusG DWL-G510 (the speed is quite enough for watching videos online and surfing the Internet). I didn’t even have to buy it - I found it among old computer components.


To control the media center I bought a small wireless keyboard with touchpad
RAPOO E2700

After all the components were purchased, I proceeded directly to assembly. No differences from assembling a regular PC in in this case No. Well, maybe only the dimensions of the case and motherboard are slightly smaller than usual. In general, my “media center” is a very ordinary computer, the main task of which will be to work with multimedia.

A small surprise for me, after unpacking the case, was the presence of USB 3.0 connectors on the front panel (there was not a word about this on the online store website) and a large connector with which they connect to the motherboard (I had never seen one like this before - I haven’t built a PC for a long time, I’m behind the times).

Naturally, there was no such connector on the purchased motherboard, because although it has USB 3.0, it is connected directly to back panel, and on the board itself there is a regular connector for connecting case USB 2.0

I started looking for adapters on the Internet. I found it only on a well-known Chinese website, where I ordered it for 90 rubles. But my hands are itching))), I decided to re-solder the connector myself while the order was on its way from China (it’s still on its way). Found it on the Internet USB pinout 3.0, and in the old, unnecessary case there was a “tail” with a USB 2.0 connector (for connecting to the motherboard) and carefully soldered the case connectors to the “new-old” cable. Naturally, they will only work via USB 2.0, but, as I already wrote, the choice is still not great - the motherboard has only one USB 3.0 and that one is on the rear panel.




I won’t describe the assembly process; even a child can handle it.


The housing includes all the necessary screws and plugs. All you needed was a Phillips screwdriver.
After all the elements were placed in their places and connected to the motherboard and power supply, I turned on the media center for testing.
The computer started working immediately and without any problems. Carefully laid the cables inside the case and tied them with plastic ties and closed the lid. The mechanical part of the assembly was completed.

The total cost of the parts was less than 11,000 rubles, I successfully met the allocated budget.
Now the task is to install the operating system (OS). The motherboard website contains drivers for Windows 7 and Windows 8. I stopped at the latter. When installing the OS, I allocated a partition directly for Windows and programs (100 GB) and allocated the remaining space for data. Still Wi-Fi network, although it is quite fast with my Dlink DIR-850 router, but with such a number of home consumers, it is a bottleneck. And I transferred most of the films from the network drive (connected to the router) to the HDD of the media center.
Actually, there were no problems with installing the OS, the system fit like a glove, everything necessary drivers Found on the motherboard website. I spent a long time choosing a shell for the media center to make it more convenient to manage files. I went through about five of them and in the end... I realized that the most convenient thing is not to install any shell at all, but to create shortcuts to folders with videos, photos and music on the desktop and launch required file, simply clicking on it in Explorer (or even working in the eight-tiled interface). But, as they say, it comes down to taste and color... Perhaps someone can suggest a good shell, I’ll be glad to try it.
To watch videos I installed the free and omnivorous Light Alloy, and for music, again free (in the basic version) JetAudio.
Yes, I forgot to write - I connected the media center to the TV with a VGA cable, and connected the sound with a regular shielded cable with 3.5 mm minijack connectors. Using the same cable, but with tulips on one side, I connected the media center with a home theater, in case I wanted to listen to sound in decent quality (fortunately sound cards modern motherboards allow you to output the desired signal to almost every connector).

That's all, perhaps someone will find this note useful when assembling a similar device.
Thank you for your attention.

For a long time, those who needed a full-featured home multimedia center capable of not only reading DVDs, but also showing Full HD video different formats, receive content via the Network, have a built-in player from online services, support for applications and several dozen other different functions, there were only two options: buy a media player like Oppo or Dune, or assemble it yourself from an old computer. Today you can forget about all this and simply purchase an HDMI stick for Android control or a set-top box on one of the mobile chips for 50–100 bucks.

Some time ago I became the owner game console OUYA worth $99. The entire contents of this set-top box, at the heart of which was the Tegra 3 mobile chip that was already outdated at that time, fit in the palm of your hand, and only HDMI, USB 2.0 and microUSB were offered as peripheral connection interfaces. Nevertheless, from this modest miracle of technology I managed to create a fully functional multimedia center capable of swallowing any formats, with Full HD image output, almost unlimited possibilities for playing content from different web services, a built-in torrent client with automatic launch at night, PSX emulators, PSP and Sega Dreamcast and controlled using a keyboard, joystick or Air Mouse. The final cost of the entire kit, minus the hard drive, did not exceed $130.

This may surprise some, but exactly the same system can be assembled using almost any device available on the market built on a mobile chip as a basis: a Chinese HDMI stick on RK3066 or RK3188, MINIX NEO X7 in a more bulky case, but with the same RK3188 inside or another set-top box on a mobile chip from some Lenovo. They are all equally suited to fulfill the role complete replacement commercial and often unreasonably expensive media centers.

In this article, I'll show you how you can take one of these mini computers and invest $30 to turn it into a complete entertainment center.

What do we need?

• Set-top box or HDMI stick. As I said, almost any will do, but I recommend paying attention to those based on either NVIDIA Tegra or the Chinese Rockchip at least RK3066 (now mostly sold on the more advanced RK3188). I would not take a stick or a console on Allwinner (for example, GameStick), the performance may not be enough for comfortable viewing of 1080p video.
• Keyboard and wireless mouse. Not necessary, but makes setup a lot easier.
• USB hub for connecting multiple peripheral devices. On eBay and DealExtreme they give them away for next to nothing.
• Air Mouse (remote control with gyroscope). It is very convenient to control the device; there is a large selection on eBay. I bought mine for $14.
• USB hard drive case or USB drive. It’s better to take a branded one, but a Chinese case for $12 will do just fine (provides a speed of 20 Mbps, which is enough to watch a movie larger than 100 GB or transfer data over a network at a speed of 160 Mbps).

A huge plus will also be the PixelKit Lightpack dynamic backlight monitor/TV system, which has raised half a million on Kickstarter. At the time of writing, it was not yet available in open sale, so I couldn't try it out. However, the system officially supports OUYA and Android, so there shouldn't be any connection problems.

Connection

I don’t think it’s worth going into detail about how to assemble all these components into a single entertainment center, but due to some of the features of set-top boxes and HDMI sticks, I’ll make a few brief remarks. The first thing to consider is the limited number of I/O ports. OUYA or HDMI stick MK808 have the following interfaces: one (sometimes two) USB port 2.0, one microUSB port, HMDI port and SD card slot. In host mode, only full-size USB works, so all peripherals must be connected to it via a USB hub. The microUSB port is intended solely for powering and flashing the device.

INFO

MINIX NEO X7 is one of the best representatives in the series of TV set-top boxes from China. Like classic HDMI dongles, it is based on the RK3188, but is packaged in an attractive case and equipped with a high-quality Realtek ALC5616 audio codec, a Wi-Fi antenna and a remote control with a gyroscope.

Audio output on none of the similar devices I haven’t seen it, but considering the development modern TVs, there should be no problems connecting the acoustics to the TV itself via an analog input or optics. Audiophiles, as usual, will be disappointed by the sound quality of the audio codec built into the chipset, but on acoustics costing less than $500, the difference is hardly noticeable (if any). External cards Android memory does not support.

USB drives are detected without problems, but other than OUYA very few devices can work with file systems NTFS or ext4 out of the box. This problem can be solved using third-party firmware or applications from Google Play(Paragon NTFS & HFS+ or NTFS Mounter). As a last resort, the disk can be formatted in exFAT, fortunately the OS along with the caches is in internal memory devices.

You should also keep in mind that some HDMI sticks cannot display images correctly in 1080p, so it is better to immediately consult about this problem on specialized forums. On the other hand, this problem should no longer be observed in the RK3188.

Otherwise, everything is simple: we put everything together, plug it into the TV and see what comes out of it. In 99.9% Android cases recognizes all peripherals without any problems, including the Air Mouse (by the way, it also emulates a keyboard, so you should connect it at the moment when everything is configured).

INFO

When choosing an HDMI stick, you should pay attention to its cooling system. The best choice would be a stick in an aluminum casing or with a radiator mounted on the body. A plastic closed case will most likely lead to overheating and spontaneous reboots.

Settings

Here again everything is simple. The vast majority of sticks and TV set-top boxes are sold with pre-installed Android 4.1, without any customization, except for advanced HDMI connection settings. Actually, you need to look into them first. Go to “Settings -> Screen”, then to the HDMI resolution settings (HDMI Mode) and see if the stick correctly detected and set the resolution. There you can also adjust the picture to the size of the screen, if it moves out or does not fill it completely, use the Screen Scale option.

Not all sticks will have settings located at this exact address, and some may not have them at all. For example, OUYA does not allow you to adjust picture settings by default, relying on automatic detection parameters, but it has 3D support, which is used in some games (“Settings -> HDMI -> 3D”). You can adjust the resolution and screen size in this set-top box using special application, which I will talk about later.

Google Play, which we need in mandatory, is preinstalled in almost all noname class sticks, but is not present by default in OUYA and may not be present in products from “real companies” like Lenovo. All this is caused by restrictions from Google, but can be mitigated by installing third party market, such as Amazon Appstore or 1Mobile Market. In OUYA, the problem of the lack of a market is solved as described in the sidebar “Root, Google Play and screen settings in OUYA”.

Root, Google Play and screen settings in OUYA

For getting root and Google Play on OUYA we will need three tools:

• the Root My Ouya app, which uses the notorious Master Key exploit to gain root;
• Xposed framework;
• Xposed module.

Opening standard browser(located in the Make menu), download all three applications using it and install them. Next, we proceed according to the following scheme (to launch applications we use the same Make menu):

1. Launch Root My Ouya and click the Start Root button. After completing the procedure, reboot.
2. Launch Xposed, click Framework, then Install/Update, return to home screen, click Modules and check the box next to Mod Collection For Ouya, reboot.
3. Launch Mod Collection For Ouya, click On next to Google Play Store Mod and click Install Play Store.
4. Reboot the console.
5. Launch Google Play and enter your account information.

Please note that there are three more interesting items in the mod collection:

• SU & Mods Preserver - saves root and Google Play after automatic update firmware. Requires ClockworkMod installations using the Install ClockworkMod Recovery button.
• Force HDMI Resolution - allows you to select the resolution: 720p or 1080p.
• Fix Overscan - fix a rare bug with incorrect image scaling. If the picture extends beyond the TV screen, then you should play with the values ​​in the input window on the right (from 0.00 to 0.20).

Graphic environment and media player

Despite being optimized for handheld devices, Android fits the screen very well big TV and is quite easy to control using both a mouse or Air Mouse and a keyboard. On the other hand, the classic desktop on a large screen is somewhat inappropriate, and it is better to replace it with something more suitable, such as Smart Launcher. Unlike the standard one, this home screen does not have the classic application menu, widgets and dock, but instead displays the icons of all applications on several fixed desktops, sorting applications by purpose. Games end up on one desktop, media players on the second, Internet browsers and clients social networks- on the third. This is the best and most convenient solution that I have been able to find in all the time I have been using the console.

The second feature of the Android interface that clearly has no place on a TV is bottom panel management. In Android 4.0 and 4.1, it functions as a navigation bar and status bar. In Android 4.2 and above, the status bar is at the top, leaving only the navigation buttons at the bottom. In any case, this panel is not needed; it does not allow you to deploy applications to full screen and, as a result, seriously degrades the movie-watching experience. To solve this problem, you can flash a third-party build of Android that automatically hides the panel when you launch applications (for example, Finless ROM), or install an application like full!screen, which allows you to completely hide it. To navigate in this case, you can use the mouse (right key - back button) or the keyboard (Esc). By the way, in OUYA there is no panel or status bar initially.

INFO

By default, OUYA does not support Russian language, but it can be activated using locale 2 application.

After installing a third-party home screen and removing the navigation bar, the system becomes quite usable for everyday use. However, multimedia capabilities at this level are practically non-existent. To get a real multimedia center, we must install a certain set of software. Personally, I only use two multimedia applications on my set-top box: XBMC and YouTube for Google TV, but there is a large selection of other applications in the market that may also be useful. I would note the following:

• MX Player is a video player based on the FFmpeg codec, and therefore plays almost everything that exists in nature. In my case, from the gigabytes of various rips downloaded from the Internet, he was able to correctly reproduce absolutely everything. Supports a bunch of codecs, multiple audio tracks in different formats, subtitles (external and internal). To enable hardware acceleration You should install a codec that supports NEON instructions from the market (this will be enough even for 1080p).
• Tunein Radio - 7 thousand Internet radio stations in one application. After the redesign, the application became not very convenient to use, but it does its job with 5+ ratings.
• 500px - archive of thousands professional photos. It is interesting primarily because of its ability to include a slide show.
• ivi.ru is a very good client of the famous portal.
• vkPlayer is a multimedia player from the VKontakte network. Not very convenient, but works great.
• CheapCast - turns a stick/set-top box into a Chromecast. The level of usefulness is low, since YouTube for Google TV can do the same thing.

INFO

In the case of OUYA, a better home screen option would not be Smart Launcher, but Sidebar Plus - it allows you to create a home screen that will slide out from the side.

XBMC

Now about heavy artillery. The omnivorous beast XBMC, originally conceived as the primary interface for Linux-based TV set-top boxes, has been around for quite some time on Android and, I must say, not only exists, but works great and has all the functionality regular version. For those who have fallen out of life, I’ll explain: XBMC is such an interface, but it would be more logical to say an entire operating system designed to perform multimedia functions. XBMC has a chic and very convenient interface that can be completely changed using skins, plays any video and audio, over the network and from disk, allows you to view photos, has a built-in DLNA server, as well as support for thousands of plugins that can perform a variety of functions - from providing access to YouTube or di.fm to implementing a web browser or forum client. In fact, XBMC is the only program you need in a multimedia center.

XBMC- open software, which means it costs nothing and anyone can install it. On the other hand, it is not available on Google Play, and therefore you will have to download and update the application from the official website or through the OUYA store, if we are talking about this console. Starting from version 12, XBMC supports most Chinese and not so chipsets and can use their capabilities for hardware video decoding. The list of supported ones, in particular, includes Rockchip (RK3066/RK3188), Allwinner A31 (A10, A13, A20 are not supported), MediaTek MTK6589T, Snapdragon and, of course, Tegra 3/4.

INFO

XBMC Remote - official application to manage XBMC. Available on Google Play.

There is no need to configure XBMC at all. It works great out of the box, and you can only go into the settings menu to change the language, location (for the built-in weather widget) and enable the DLNA server. The official repository has a huge number of different plugins that are installed and automatically updated via the Internet. I will list the ones I use:

• Digitally Imported is a client of the Internet radio station of the same name.
• Radio - a huge number of radio stations in one plugin.
• Russian Podcasting - Russian podcasts.
• ivi.ru - yes, it’s him again.
• RuTube is a client of the service of the same name.
• Torrent-TV - TV channels via torrent TV (ACE Stream).
• Dozhd is a TV channel of the same name.
• Artwork Downloader - automatically downloads covers for movies and TV shows.
• Web Viewer is a simple browser.

It is worth saying that XBMC itself comes with about two dozen built-in plugins, which are used to automatically download covers, play videos over the network, and so on. You can add network streams that are not available as plugins yourself by writing the stream URL to a file with the strm extension and opening it using XBMC.

Torrents and automation

In my configuration, OUYA is used not only for watching videos and listening to music, but also for downloading torrent files. At first glance, it may seem strange to use a set-top box on a mobile OS for this purpose, but, as it turns out, it copes excellently with the task of downloading, storing and distributing files. Organizing such a work scheme is quite simple. All you need to do is install and configure two paid applications: Tasker automation and full-featured torrent client tTorrent Pro.

INFO

If XBMC slows down when playing 1080p video on RK3066/RK3188, you should try flashing an updated kernel with a Vsync bug fix or custom firmware like Finless ROM.

First, install and launch tTorrent. Go to the settings and increase the number of simultaneous download/upload streams (I set it to 3/3), and also select the directory from which torrent files will be automatically added to the queue (in my case /sdcard/download/). This is necessary so that a torrent file downloaded from the Internet on a PC can be easily added to the queue for nightly downloading using the following command:

$ adb connect set-top box IP address $ adb push ~/Downloads/porno.torrent /sdcard/download/

Install Tasker. We need it to set up automatic start tTorrent. We start, press the “+” button in the center below, select the “Time” item in the menu, then in the “From” option set the tTorrent start time, and in the “To” field - the stop time (let it be 02:00/10:00) . We go back, Tasker will offer to add to the event new task, enter the name of the task (for example, “tTorrent”), in the window that opens, click “+” in the bottom center, select “Applications” from the menu, then “Run application” and select tTorrent. We return back to the main screen. Now Tasker will start tTorrent at 02:00 and stop at 10:00.

Games and joystick

This topic is not entirely relevant for the magazine, so I will not ramble on, but will simply list a few facts:

• The performance of Tegra 3 and RK3066/RK3166 is enough to run any game available for Android.
• You can comfortably play only those games that support a joystick or keyboard (which from the Android point of view is the same thing).
• Android supports almost all Bluetooth joysticks, but only if the device itself has Bluetooth support (surprise!).
• To emulate a joystick using a smartphone, you can use the DroidMote application (plus DroidMote Server on the device itself).
• To play games without joystick support, you can use Tincore Keymapper from Google Play.
• Mod Collection For Ouya has a hack that allows you to play Moga-enabled games (Modern Combat 4, for example) using a standard joystick.
• For Android there are emulators for almost all consoles, from NES to Sega Dreamcast.
• The Sega Dreamcast emulator is called reicast. It is free, open and allows you to display Full HD images with FPS > 25 (at least on OUYA).

Instead of conclusions

The performance of modern mobile chips is such that they can easily outperform any TV set-top box and can replace desktop computer. Most cost pennies and come with a full operating system that supports many types of peripherals, including a mouse, keyboard, flash cards, and external hard drives. Android, in turn, allows you to effectively use all these features without the need to prepare a special distribution and configure it. If you don't require extraordinary capabilities from your home entertainment system, then an HDMI stick or TV set-top box based on a mobile chip is the ideal choice.

You can try it too. But read this first.

Someone chose Apple TV as their set-top box. Someone saved and bought a Xiaomi TV Box. I settled on my own version - “Malinka” with an additional audio module.

Why did I buy it? Raspberry Pi? The answer is simple - you had to buy a media console, but Pi 3 already existed. Most of the time I stood idle.

As a result, an additional audio module and screen were purchased for it. And it turned out to be a cool network audio video player with support Hi-Res sound. Here's how to do it again.

System composition

To build the multimedia required:

– Raspberry Pi;
– X400 audio interface;
– 3.7-inch screen (analogous to the original one from ADAfruit);
– Wi-Fi dongle (not needed for RaPi 3);
– universal remote control Remote control/mouse;
- power unit.

It was not possible to connect the screen and the HDMI output at the same time, so the first one can be crossed out.

General characteristics

Specifications will depend on the selected Raspberry Pi model. If you are not familiar, the characteristics for 2, for 3.


The characteristics of the audio path are much more interesting. At the heart of the X400 is a cool DAC TI PCM5122 Burr-Brown with full hardware support for 32-bit/384 kHz audio stream.


The board is active, it contains two amplifiers at once - for RCA class D TI TPA3118D2 and for headphone output TI TPA6133A. Power provided 20 W for each of 2 channels with resistance 4 Ohm.

The final parameters are very good:
– signal-to-noise ratio 112db SNR;
– distortion level 0.0019% (THD);
– output power 2 × 20 W at a resistance of 4 Ohms

X400 provides high-quality stabilized power to the system - something that RaPi itself does not have. The power supply is connected to the expansion card, and from there it powers the microcomputer. So you can forget about interference.


In addition, there is its own volume control knob - another chance of no interference, this time due to software errors.


Control via a remote control is also possible thanks to a soldered 38 kHz IR receiver.

Harvester at work

Assembly is no problem. Raspberry Pi modules are assembled like Lego - they are inserted one into the other. Then additional interfaces and control devices are connected, a memory card with the recorded system is inserted, power is connected... And the magic begins.

Initially, the device lived autonomously, and instead of a TV, a screen was used, located directly on the board. In this case it is better to use finished image systems with video output to the screen.


When connecting to a regular TV or monitor via HDMI or analog output, it is better to immediately use a flash drive with Openelec or a similar multimedia system.

Then you need to connect and set up the Internet - either wired or wireless. It's Linux - no problem! Then, according to the manufacturer's instructions, we route the sound through the X400.

Feasibility of acquisition

The improvised player can play any audio/video format. There are few restrictions: RaPi cannot decode 4K. Everything else depends on the set of installed codecs.

It is logical to use Kodi and external storage, For example HDD via USB port. Although a 64 GB flash drive is enough, 4K is still not supported.

The remote control will have to be configured, although this is not difficult. You can limit yourself to a Bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad.


The functionality is at the level of Chinese boxes for 30 bucks. Nothing supernatural. Except for the very high quality audio output. But when using a Raspberry Pi (already $40), it's more of a necessity.

The fact is that the developers screwed up somewhere in the audio wiring on the microPC. Via HDMI there is nothing good about it, and through the analog output the sound is downright bad.


Otherwise, everything is very cool. Almost like an audiophile system. In the near future I plan to replace the X400 (purchased for $22) with X600 with optical output, and organize dual video output.