Noobs

I downloaded and tried the Noobs thing. Interesting idea, unpack a large zip to a new SD and boot (so much simpler than the Beagle’s “the MLO must be here (or else)!”).

Recommended – Raspian. Why? Apart from three web browsers, Python, and Scratch – it didn’t seem to do a lot “out of the box”.
I do, however, like the idea of Scratch. A pointy-clicky programming environment that would be great for kids to understand what programming is about. I guess this is the twenty first century version of the LOGO turtle. ;-)

What I was taken with was the Pi version of xbmc. After a tweak to get output to my monitor (1280×1024@60), the thing loaded fairly rapidly and displayed a naff-looking interface with lots of jaggies. After switching back to the original “confluence” skin, and ignoring the clock stuck in 1970, it was good to go. That Kara no Kyoukai that even the Beagle struggles with was perfectly fluid – such is the difference of asking the GPU for help (oh, and there’s apparently a GPU temperature sensor as well as the CPU one!). But that’s only 480p.

I tried the Kick Ass 2 extended NSFW trailer¹ in 1080P but it freaked. I’m not sure if this is the Pi’s way of saying “nope” or if this is the HDMI→VGA adaptor saying “nope”. At any rate, I got a mostly black screen with this appearing every so often, so I’m laying blame on the HDMI→VGA adaptor (and possibly also xbmc for doing something weird with the display output)…

It’s a screenshot – literally – a shot of the screen. ;-)

Anyway, I stepped back to 720P and this was smooth and without trouble, which is more than I’ve had from my 1.6GHz eeePC at times…

It will even auto-load subtitles as long as the video and subtitle have the same leafname; here’s an srt I put together for a video² that has had a staggering 1.7-something billion views… that’s more than all those stupid Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber (and any other famous Justin) songs added together!

[my subs file is here if anybody is interested]

To add to this, there are provisions for plugins, weather reporting, and apparently it can also display RSS feeds (which is more than my phone can manage – thanks Google!).

Just a few months ago I was looking at a “media player” box in a shop. Insert or connect a harddisc, SD card, etc and it will play a bunch of types of media file. Smart box, reasonable spec, price tag around the €150 mark.

So now I’m looking at this and thinking that CPC are selling the Pi with a Noobs SD card for under £30. That, a power supply³, a keyboard⁴, a mouse⁴, a display/TV⁴ and you’ll have the same thing sans fancy box for a fraction of the price. In fact, this could easily be taped⁵ to the back of a large telly to play digital media, all with minimal outlay.

I fear SMPlayer might have some competition…

¹ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nje6dcArZrI – I loved the first, can’t wait for this to come out…

² http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 – quirky, cute girls, tragically lame dance, lots of colour, juvenile humour, what’s not to like?

³ I run my Pi off the eeePC’s USB port. Usefully, the port remains powered when the machine is in standby with the lid closed; so think of the eeePC as a giant over-specced battery. ;)

⁴ USB mouse? USB keyboard? Display or telly? You can probably salvage/borrow/repurpose most of what you need from other stuff you have around.

⁵ Eeeek! But, kinda Blue Petery, no?

BTW, when you go to a directory, the bottom-right will count up the duration of the media in that directory. So I now know I have 37 hours of animé to catch up on. O.M.G.
I guess I should have watched Kiniro Mosiac instead of that dumb programme announcing the new Doctor Who. I still don’t know who the guy is, I’ll wait to see how he is in an actual episode (I thought I’d hate Ecclestone, but he did surprisingly well). At least the new guy inherits a cute sidekick…

Mmh not sure, don’t care much about Soufflé myself.