Posts by adam.h.

see also this thread

Quote from shedrock

I installed LibreELEC-RPi4.arm-11.0.3.img.gz using the LE installer on my MicroSD 128GB but my system is just telling me there is "No Signal on my HDMI 2 port".

Probably dead microSD - check your LED flash codes as described here.

Quote from HiassofT

The power button works pretty much as on a PC: if you press it for a shot time it'll do a graceful shutdown and if it hold it for 5s it'll do a hard poweroff (needed when the system/kernel completely locked up).

They claim that RTC that can wake up your Pi from sleep mode and it’s programmable - I wonder if that also means that remote can wake it up easily with some setup...

However this plays nicely with LE12-nightly, so I suppose this is the way

The movie starts without video, just with the sound. I see this in the log:

 info <general>: ffmpeg[0x42e7318]:   Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Advanced Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 1280x694 [SAR 1:1 DAR 640:347], 3001 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
 info <general>: ffmpeg[0x42e7318]:   Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 640 kb/s
...
 info <general>: Creating video codec with codec id: 12
 info <general>: CDVDVideoCodecDRMPRIME::Open - using decoder V4L2 mem2mem MPEG4 decoder wrapper
error <general>: ffmpeg[0x42e7318]: [mpeg4_v4l2m2m] Could not find a valid device
error <general>: ffmpeg[0x42e7318]: [mpeg4_v4l2m2m] can't configure decoder
 info <general>: CDVDVideoCodecDRMPRIME::Open - unable to open codec
 info <general>: CDVDVideoCodecDRMPRIME::Open - using decoder MPEG-4 part 2
 info <general>: ffmpeg[0x42e7318]: [deinterlace_v4l2m2m] Using device /dev/video18
debug <general>: CDVDVideoCodecDRMPRIME::FilterClose - Freeing filter graph
debug <general>: CDVDVideoCodecDRMPRIME::FilterTest - found deinterlacing filter deinterlace_v4l2m2m
debug <general>: CVideoPlayerVideo::OpenStream - open stream with codec id: 12
 info <general>: Creating video thread

Is it a known problem for MPEG4 and RPI? Changing to 'gpu_mem=256' didn't help.

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                           : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings                          : BVOP2 / Custom Matrix
Format settings, BVOP                    : 2
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, GMC                     : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Muxing mode                              : Packed bitstream
Codec ID                                 : XVID
Codec ID/Hint                            : XviD
Duration                                 : 1 h 29 min
Bit rate                                 : 3 001 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 694 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.85:1
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.141
Stream size                              : 1.87 GiB (82%)
Writing library                          : XviD 69

So here is my small pet-project to create handy HTPC device for vacation travels. There are multiple sources how to setup new remote type (here and here) and how to connect TSOP receiver (here), unfortunatelly all a little bit outdated.

So I noted all my steps into this short guide.

Hardware:

- RPi4 4GB

- Argon Remote (why this one? I had a spare, and besides I like its terse design)

- TSOP sensor (any type for 38 kHz will work, I used TSOP4838)

Software:

- Installed latest stable LE11 on RPi4

- TSOP in my case was connected to GPIO pin 23, so following line needs to be added to config.txt (you can edit it directly on the SD card):

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=23

- Connect via SSH to RPi4 and create with nano editor these 2 files (see for the contents in the attached zip file):

/storage/.config/rc_keymaps/argon40.toml

/storage/.config/rc_maps.cfg

That's it, pretty simple. Attached few pictures from my setup, I used alu fanless cooling case and drilled hole in it to expose the sensor.

Enjoy!

I know, I can't wait for biodegradable processors either, but for now I consider 2-3 years old electronics as a crap, no matter how much it costed initially. That's why I replace my smartphone after 2-3 years too. Yes, what a waste, coming generations would need to fix it.

Shutting up now, this is completely off topic.

Quote from Da Flex

Super cheap also means super cheap software, and no chance to install other OS's. Something under 50$ should be OK.

Right, you can find some Android boxes which can run 8K video on pre-installed Kodi for around $40 (if you filter out all the really cheap crap), and they are ready to go (with remote, power supply etc).

But still you may find hardware issues after a year, or updating to latest Kodi will be impossible etc.

On the other hand with RPi4 you need:

• RPi4 2GB RAM = $35
• IR Remote = $15
• MicroSD 1GB = $2
• Power Supply 15W = $12
• Micro HDMI to HDMI Adapter = $9
• Alu case = $12

So in total around $85.

Buying some $40 android player and put it in the trash after 2 years when it breaks and buy again another one for $40 might not be bad strategy after all

Quote from petediscrete

Is that the over priced NUC that Intel have decided to discontinue manufacturing that you are referring to. That is sound advice indeed.

NUC overpriced? We are talking about some decent hardware for reasonable price, not such premium devices like these 

Quote from petediscrete

Keep costs to a minimum and create a personalised bespoke system unique to yourself.

Also, don't listen to these cheap RPI4 bargains, if you want to have decent HTPC, invest into some NUC or NVIDIA PC

Rpi4 is usually "good enough".

Invest into Intel NUC or Nvidia Mini PC for premium experience - at least these are my lessons learned.

Quote from QueK9

Thanks, does all NUC have built in IR Receivers?

Yes, for most of them - check it out.

Intel announced that model 13th will be the last one, so prices may drop. I'm happy user of NUC 10th, IR wake up and shut down works nicely.

Quote from QueK9

Will any of the recommended hardware allow powering on and off via an MCE remote?

NUC does.

As far as I can see, that Kamrui thing doesn't have built-in IR receiver, which usually means that you cannot wake it up using remote.

Powering off will always work when remote works, just use Power/Power off menu option.

see here

Quote from cannonballgray

I deleted a movie using rm by mistake.

it depends what file system are you using - is it attached ext3, or perhaps mounted FAT32 or NTFS? the simplest way is to copy the original file from a cloud into your drive again. don't have backup copy? ouch.

Quote from pseries

do I need to enter this code via SSH Terminal on my Mac?

You will need to save your code as *.py file, then wire it to the autostart, see here.

Did you try GPU passthrough for VM with some regular Ubuntu image? If that would work, you could just install Kodi on the top of it.

My experiences are mixed as well. For a short time I used Argon One with M.2 NVMe expansion board, so could use small M2 SSD to boot it up. That part worked fine, however all together it drained so much energy from the power supply that I was not able to use external USB SSD where I keep my movies (tested several 3+ A power adaptors).

I didn't want to add additional powered USB hub to that mix, so just switched to passive cooling case, where single power adaptor is running RPi and external USB SSD without issues.