The Raspberry Pi Thread

I have used Pi and NAS with a 4 TB external HDD and it works pretty well. I never used Jellyfin/Plex server, just used to play locally on my TV through Kodi. If your smart TV is less than 3 years old, you don't need to worry about format support, x.265 will work.

In a simple NAS setup, the Pi is just reading the file and sending it over the network. So if you have a USB3 HDD and wired connection to the Pi (even 100 mbps is enough), your Pi will never be a bottleneck.

And unless you plan to stream content from your home over the Internet (when you're not home), I wouldn't recommend Jellyfin/Plex. Kodi is good enough. It's more customisable than the others and has a lot more options. Works well out of the box. And if you need a shared library, you can do that using MySql server on the Pi. It's a very simple setup, no technical know-how needed.
sibot said:
I plan to run the Pi in headless mode. Is the Pi an ideal solution? Do you guys recommend Plex, Kodi, JellyFin, or some other service?
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raksrules said:
I once tried 4K video but it didn't work, not sure if it was my TV an issue or what since my TV is 1080p resolution
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yes its the TV and JF is trying to downsize the video to 1080p.
raksrules said:
for most files, jellyfin tries to transcode on server side and I feel RPi4 doesn't handle that well.
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its strange.. why jf will try to transcode every video.. firestick supports almost all codecs, android by default - native support x245 & x265. ( more info here - https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/media-formats)
What container the video are ( mkv/mp4) ?
Can you please share media info of any video its forcing to transcode ? ( you can take pm route if you wish)

I use emby / which is carbon copy of jf.. i have transcode setting turned off, but never had any playback uses of any kind of file i got from internet.
my personal experience wit kodi was terrible .. it was pushing the firestick to its knees and entire firestick was x3 slow until i uninstall kodi.
VLC is also not/never optimised for android/iOS - so you will never get smoothness. you can check out Vimu Media player for firetv instead (https://www.vimu.tv/) or the built in Exo Player.

edit: rpi are not powerful to transcode videos, so must avoid the need of transcode.

edit 2 - check out this thread hxxps://old.reddit.com/r/jellyfin/comments/rqzecj/how_to_get_jellyfin_to_transcode_on_raspberry_pi_4/
 
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There's a setting in Emby/jellyfin to turn off transcoding. By default it will try to transcode everything.

Personal experiences with Kodi may vary. It works fine on my Fire Stick 4K. But yes, if it doesn't work very well, Jellyfin with transcoding turned off is definitely an option. I have also used it on my smart TV and it worked just fine. I got a Fire Stick because I got a home theater and my TV was not doing 5.1 passthrough via ARC.
 
anyone else noticed.. Raspberry Pi 4 Models are going out of stocks (8gb out about 2 month and now 4gb is also in the same path) with all Raspberry approved resellers.

Is there any shortage of chips/boards ?
I dont thing we are expecting a newer model anytime soon .
 
enthusiast29 said:
Been the case since 6+ months.
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Thanks for the link. this makes total sense now.
So, just like my network upgrade plan... i can safely forget getting a new pi in this year :(
tech.monk said:
plus pi supported coin mining
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please tell me this is fake... mining is just like MLM.
Because of those minors ( and other companies who exploited the situation) I have to ditch PC gaming :(
They already scrwed GPU, HDD.. what else left ?
 
Planning to buy a Raspberry Pi zero W to make my old USB HP Laserjet MFP wifi enabled.

Good idea? Or there is a better solution?
 
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One advice to anyone buying any RPi, DO NOT go for any combo deals that give stuff like case, microsd card reader, HDMI cable etc together. I did that and sort of regret it. Only because the stuff they give might not even get used. If you plan to have headless system, just buy the Pi and good case which can help with dissipating heat. The combo I got had a third class plastic case which would make my Pi temps soar to 70-80 degrees and on recommendation of @Marcus Fenix I bought one passive cooling case and I rarely see temps going above 55 degrees and Pi is super cool. The case cost me I think 1000 Rupees or so (may be more) but it is definitely worth it.

Obviously if you see use of the combo items, by all means go ahead but most won't need I feel.
 
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I am looking to get a lightweight web browsing/document/spreadsheet editing machine for under 10k, and thinking of buying a Raspberry Pi 400 for 5-6k and then a used 10-15 inch monitor for the remaining 4k. I need advice both on whether this is a good decision or if I should just get a used Chromebook instead, and whether there are 10-15 inch displays that I can get for cheaper so I can fit in a power adapter, micro sd card and micro hdmi cable within the 10k budget too.
 
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mayank0623 said:
I am looking to get a lightweight web browsing/document/spreadsheet editing machine for under 10k, and thinking of buying a Raspberry Pi 400 for 5-6k and then a used 10-15 inch monitor for the remaining 4k. I need advice both on whether this is a good decision or if I should just get a used Chromebook instead, and whether there are 10-15 inch displays that I can get for cheaper so I can fit in a power adapter, micro sd card and micro hdmi cable within the 10k budget too.
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Get a used laptop. Or there are Zotac Zbox mini PCs for sale in the classifieds section, you can get those. I wouldn't recommend the Pi for this purpose, even though it does the job.

For monitor also, you might have to take the used route. Small monitors from reputed brands have pretty much disappeared from the market.
 
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I've wanted a Pi just for the novelty but the more I think about it, the less practical it seems. Aside from PiHole I haven't seen anything particularly useful I could do with it other than a linux file server or VPN
 
prime said:
Planning to buy a Raspberry Pi zero W to make my old USB HP Laserjet MFP wifi enabled.

Good idea? Or there is a better solution?
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So I got RPi 3 for this from TE sale threads.

Being a ZERO in linux, I watched few youtube videos and shortlisted this and I thought it is going to be simple. And it was simple to follow instruction but still I was getting error "Stopped. Filter Failed". There is a plug-in required for some HP printers/MFPs. I tried hard but no luck..

Then I discussed it with @jinx because he also bought RPi 3 from the same sale thread for his printer. And he suggested few commands/links which were like OHT for me.... I requested him if he can do it through Team Viewer (through my spare laptop) and he gracefully agreed. Once he took charge, he worked like a PRO with linux commands. He spent 40-45 minutes and made it working. Hats off to you man @jinx . Thanks a lot. :cool:
 
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