My Perfect Raspbmc Setup

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Since I’ve received my Raspberry Pi couple of months ago, it took a while for me to find out the perfect configuration. By perfect configuration I mean running 1080p-HD-videos without clipping, caching, freezing or anything else. Just lay back and relax the movie.

The first task was to determine the suited distribution. I had to choose between following distributions:

There certainly more distributions designated to run XBMC from the Pi, but those three were the most mentioned one to me.

I decided myself for Raspbmc, since it was promised that it would be just run out of the box.   Well it did..unfortunately only for USB-connected disks. My idea was to run it over the network. I found out NFS-protocol is considered to be the best solution in means of speed and stability. There were two parts of configuration process: the server side and the client (RPi) side.

1. Server side:

  • adjust /etc/exports: 
     /media/disk/movies   192.168.178.3(rw,async,no_subtree_check)
  • adjust /etc/hosts: 
     192.168.178.3
  • adjust /etc/hosts.deny: 
     portmap: ALL
  • adjust /etc/hosts.allow: 
     portmap: 192.168.178.3
  • restart nfs-Server: 
     sudo service nfs-kernel-server restart

2. Client side:

  • adjust /etc/fstab: 
     192.168.178.2:/media/disk   /media/nfs-disk   nfs   rw,noatime,async   0   0  

Additionaly I increased the cache memory buffer size in the advancedsettings.xml (/home/pi/.xbmc/userdata):

<network>
<cachemembuffersize> 12589912 </cachemembuffersize>
</network>

Last changes were adjustments in the XBMC-menu:

  • Turn the video refreshment rate to the lowest possible
  • Changing A/V sync method to the clock rate

My TV manages DTS-decoding, so this option is deactivated.

Yeah, it was not that simple to find the perfect match, but now I can enjoy flicker free, buffer free HD-playback at my crip.

G.

 

5 Gedanken zu “My Perfect Raspbmc Setup”

  1. Got mine running last week, currently it’s „good enough“ but I suspect I will have to get reading up to get it to the sweet spot. Mind you, that’s part of the experience – it wouldn’t be fun if it just worked 😉

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  2. I know I am just a noob but I just don’t understand. I have search the forums and everyone has success at fixing the buffering issues but to me I have no idea what they are talking about. Could you possibly make a video for step by step set ups for dumb asses like myself.

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    • Hi JP,
      THX for your comment!
      Don’t get me wrong, but to make a screencast would mean to much effort. However if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask, I would be glad to answer..
      Kg,
      G

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  3. I am having trouble with the client fstab entry:
    1. Is „192.168.178.2:/media/disk“ the server IP and the actual move/music sub-directory?
    2. is „/media/nfs-disk“ the export sub-directory referenced in /etc/exports on the server?
    I’m changing over from SMB so this is new to me. Thanks for the help.
    Greg

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    • Hi Greg!

      First I’m glad that you found my entry in the world wide web 🙂
      To your questions:
      1. You’re right. The IP ist the one of my server. With this command I actually the client (in this case my RaPI) go to 192.168.178.2 and the to the directory /media/disk/. I could also write 192.168.178.2/media/disk/movies. The I would be directly in the movie folder.
      2. With the second part of the command I say to which local folder I want to mount the above (192.168.178.2:/media/disk) folder. It’s better to create the folder first (mkdir /media/fs-disk). You can also use a different a name, it’s your choice 🙂 e.g. /media/movies…

      Hope could help. Don’t hesitate to contact if you still got questions!

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