your thoughts
It’s a Raspberry Pi in a fancy customised (and expensive case)
I bought my Rpi2 for $40 + $3 (Case) + $89 (1TB USB HDD) + $8 (MicroSD Card) + $0 (OpenELEC(Kodi) = $140 AUD
compare that to their 1TB Bundle = £189  (convert that to AUD … $394)
$254 price difference … (could buy a few more Pi’s and Hdd’s with that)
If you catch them on sale you can get the Zotac BI320 for 140.00 with Win 8.1 and a 32GB SSD. If you don’t like Windows you can put (OpenELEC(Kodi) on it.
Lot of better deals in the world than that one…
JoeySmyth, how is it all put together, with the slice media player its plug and play, is it a case of just putting the pi2
into case and hard drive, plugging in then installing music and film files
fender62 wrote:
is it a case of just putting the pi2 into case and hard drive, plugging in then installing music and film files
pretty much 
the only thing you have to manually do 1st is download OpenELEC and install in on the MicroSD card …
which takes less than 5 minutes to do … then pop it into the case and attach a hdd if you wish or attach an ethernet cable for streaming your media. (wireless adaptors are sold separately)
p.s. i put a copper heatsink on the main chip because i have my Pi Overclocked to play retro games as well … (Playstation1, N64, Snes, Megadrive, Arcade etc) … for normal media use, the Pi doesnt get too hot
Saw this and just thought it MIGHT be a good deal for someone wanting one?
http://flash.newegg.com/Product/9SIA5YB34Y2087?icid=WP_17_08082015
I too have been considering Raspberry Pi, is this what I need, http://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Complete-Original-Preloaded/dp/B008XVAVAW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1440724715&sr=1-1&keywords=rasberrypi
im not sure what im getting or need
That’s not a bad price for what’s in the kit
The “Essentials” are …
Raspberry Pi 2Â (duh) 
Power Supply
MicroSD Card (noobs installer is optional) *
HDMI Cable
all the rest are “Optionial” IMO eg…
Wi-Fi Dongle (i’m using Wired for streaming)
Case (not critical to have one … but looks nice)
Heatsinks (Unless you’re gonna Overclock your Pi, then it doesent get that hot)
Remember as well, there is no TOSLINK / Optical Output for 5.1 Surround (i had to buy a HDMI Audio Extractor for my old Audio Receiver)
This works perfectly : http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Support-4K-2K-resolution-3D-HDMI-V1-4-HDMI-to-HDMI-Audio-converter-Spdif/1478057632.html
But, if your AV Receiver has HDMI input, then you’re set
* To get XBMC\Kodi up and running … this is the simple procedure
1. Download “OpenELEC” (which is XBMC/Kodi)   http://releases.openelec.tv/OpenELEC-RPi2.arm-5.0.8.img.gz
2. Unzip it using “7zip”   http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
3. _ Insert a MicroSD card into your PC _
4. _ Download “Win32 Disk Imager” _  http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/    and open the extracted img (from Step1) and select “Write”
5. _ When finished remove MicroSD and insert into the RPi2 _
6. _ Power on and enjoy _
thanks JoeySmith very helpful, i think im gonna order one, would there be another kit you would recommend or is this one ok?
i like pi2 idea, but would like a 1 or 2 tb hard drive…can a case be had for the pi2 that allows for a hard drive
@dudeman316
i guess you’ll have to look/shop around 
Personally, i bought my RPi2 + Power Supply from Element14 Australia and then bought a MicroSD card down the road at my local Officeworks Retail Store and then a couple of weeks later bought a case of Ebay
@fender62
I’ve seen a few “case mods” … just gOOgle “raspberry pi case with hard drive”
but, it’s easier to copy content (via USB3) to a portable drive and just plug it inÂ
(i resorted to ripping out the WDTV Live Hub’s internal HDD to copy stuff … because Network file transfer is sooo slow)
1 Like
another question, ok ay I get a raspberry pi, and wanted to use it as HTPC, in know install openelec and run it from sd card, but lets say in addition to HTPC, i wanna play retro games, would I just use another SD card with RetroPie on it?
ok, i’ll admit, haven’t played around much with with that one … but, i am looking into it
but what i do know …
1) RetroPie + Kodi can be installed on the same MicroSD … and accessed via the “EmulationStation” UI
check out Youtube … eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLkI481Ntn4
- For a Kodi interface launcher with “Retro Games” … yes it’s possible (i downloaded an *img for that install last week … but haven’t tried it … been meaning to … i will try and find the download link)
could’ve been this ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlQDjRgLs
have just been playing around with RetroPie on a spare MicroSD i had laying around
Anyways … my Bluetooth dongle is’nt working anymore with my PS3 controller anymore (works fine with USB) … oh well, off to the forums and google to figure out why
just remember, with the Raspberry Pi … you gotta love tinkering and problem solving
thats awesome, I just wasnt sure if was possible to store one os on one card and another on another card, let me know if u tinker with it what your findings are, Thanks!
dudeman316 wrote:
thats awesome, I just wasnt sure if was possible to store one os on one card and another on another card , let me know if u tinker with it what your findings are, Thanks!
yes it sure is … they are interchangeable
i remember where i got the image link from now (Kodi+Retroarch)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SR2DvcZF3I
Well i tested it … it *works* … but it must be an old version of Retroarch, cus the roms don’t run as well as my Retropie setup
Think i will just keep one SD Card for Kodi and another SD Card with Retropie
1 Like
great Joey, thanks for the info, I just ordered one. This is gonna be fun 
thanks for your info, I will let u know how it goes once I get it.
Joey what brand and size SD cards are you using and recommend?
Joey got my Raspberry Pi today, running XBMC on it, so far so good, one thing my Hi-Def Rips of Harry Potter play choppy and sound is ahead of video, any ideas on that one?
no idea (need more info) … i personally have not had any choppy video or audio sync problems (i use 4TB usb)
Maybe they are WMV(VC-1) ? … if you haven’t bought the license … then they will be Software Decoded
(if the video bitrate is high then it will be choppy)
When you purchase the license, then they will be Hardware Decoded (using Hardware Acceleration)
Personally, i purchased the WMV(VC-1) license … which costs £1.20 or $1.84 USD or $2.64 AUD
http://www.raspberrypi.com/license-keys/
P.S. all of the above applies to MPEG-2 as well
awesome I will check into it, thanks again for your help
