Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Make your own Raspberry Pi-powered media streamer with the XBMC kit from element14

Gloria Sin
By
Raspberry Pi Board with Newark element 14 XBMC bundle
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We all have various media files, like photos and movies, stored on our computers and mobile devices that we occasionally want to share with friends and family on a bigger screen, whether it’s a 60-inch high-definition television or a desktop monitor. If you have an Apple TV and Mac products, you can of course use AirPlay to stream your content between devices to your HDTV. But for everyone else – Android, Windows, and even iOS users who use a mix of different platforms – you’re pretty limited. Sure you can buy a little streaming stick like the $100 Plair, but it’s currently limited to beaming whatever site you’re visiting with the Chrome Web browser on your computer. However, if you have a Raspberry Pi single-board computer, you can actually turn the mini-PC into a wireless media center for your home that works with all platforms.

Newark element14, the online store and community for DIYers, is releasing an XBMC bundle for the Raspberry Pi that makes the project doable even for newbies. The star of the kit (as pictured below) is an SD card preloaded with the Raspbmc operating system, a Linux-friendly version of the open source media center software for the Pi (based on Debian), created by 19-year-old wunderkind Sam Nazarko. You’ll also get a USB-powered wireless mini keyboard with touchpad as a remote control, an HDMI cable to connect your Pi to a screen with an HDMI socket, and an Ethernet cable for the initial setup. (Note: This bundle does not include the Raspberry Pi, so you’ll have to buy it separately.)element14 XBMC Bundle for Raspberry Pi

Recommended Videos

According to its online tutorial, all you have to do is hook your Pi up to your network via Ethernet (at least for the first time; you can use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet after), plug in the SD card, and you’ll navigate the graphical XBMC interface without reading any code. Just use the included keyboard as a controller. From here, you’ll be able to access files on any device currently connected to the same network, whether they’re pictures, videos, music, programs, or other content. You can even side-load the files through a USB stick, and download the files via FTP.

Because Raspbmc works with Apple’s AirPlay and AirTunes standards and can understand most file formats, your Raspberry Pi media center can communicate with a broad mix of Wi-Fi devices from iPod Touches to your Windows 8-running computer. Don’t worry that the little bare-bones-looking media streamer will make your high-definition content look pixelated: it even supports 1080p playback on any full HD display so your movies and games should look just fine.

The Raspberry Pi XBMC bundle retails for $70, while the SD card with the Raspbmc software can be had for just $12.71. Both the XBMC kit and SD card are available from Newark element14 or MCM Electronics today.

What would you want to make your Pi-powered media center do?

Gloria Sin
Gloria Sin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gloria’s tech journey really began when she was studying user centered design in university, and developed a love for…
Quest Pro 2: What we know about Meta’s next premium VR headset
From a side view, you can see how glasses can be worn along with a Quest Pro.

While Meta’s Quest Pro is one of the best VR headsets available, it never reached its full potential as a laptop replacement for spatial computing. Meta hasn’t given up on making a work-centric solution, and rumors suggest a Meta Quest Pro 2 is still in development. Here’s what we know so far about Meta's answer to Apple's Vision Pro.
Meta Quest Pro 2 release date speculation
It’s difficult to make a solid prediction on when Meta will launch the Quest Pro 2. Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth made it clear in an Instagram AMA that Meta is continually prototyping new VR headsets to find out what’s possible with current technology. That gives Meta more flexibility than manufacturers that research for years before doing hardware testing.

If Meta is satisfied with the performance of the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 and LG can deliver enough micro-OLED displays, the Quest Pro 2 could arrive as early as this October at Meta Connect 2024.

Read more
Does RAM speed matter for PC performance?
Installing RAM sticks in a motherboard.

RAM is one of the primary components in a PC, and it's important that you have at least a certain amount of RAM depending on what you want to do with your PC. However, there are more things to RAM than just capacity: Frequency and latency are important considerations, too.

The question of whether RAM speed matters is especially important now that we have two generations of RAM available, both DDR4 and DDR5 -- and they have vastly different speeds. The official maximum clock speed for DDR4 was 3200MHz, while DDR5 starts at 4800MHz, an increase of 50%; however, you'll easily find RAM kits reaching above 7000MHz. Although latency significantly went up, from CL14 on most 3200MHz DDR4 kits to CL40 on most 4800MHz DDR5 kits, DDR5 is still found to be faster.

Read more
The 6 best 2-in-1 laptops for drawing in 2024
Portal RTX running on the Surface Laptop Studio 2.

Whether you're a seasoned professional or enjoy drawing as a hobby, investing in a 2-in-1 laptop is a great idea for all sorts of artists. Drawing on a laptop makes it easy to quickly share your creation with others, which is especially useful if you're doing it as a professional–negating the need to upload your pen-and-paper sketch to the computer before sending it to a client. Moreover, working on a laptop lets you undo mistakes, zoom in to better handle small details, and quickly change utensils.

There are a lot of perks to drawing on a 2-in-1 laptop, but not all of them are great for creators. Some have unresponsive displays that can't register all your movements, while others might have a lackluster resolution or color spectrum that turns most images into a muddled mess. Because of that, it can be hard figuring out which laptop is best for your needs. And if you'll be spending a good chunk of change on the laptop, you'll want to make sure you get it right.

Read more