How to Install XBMC on Raspberry Pi

I know a few people have been awaiting this video so here you go!

Following on from a prior post, I’ve had some time to muck around with the Raspberry Pi and after a quick play with one of the suggested Linux distributions I thought I’d try something more interesting such as XBMC. Being able to use the Raspberry Pi as an ultra-cheap media centre is a huge bonus so I was keen to see how easy it was to get going and how it performed.

Anyway, it does take a while to go through the whole process from inserting the burnt SD card into the Raspberry Pi and booting into XBMC proper so if you’re strapped for time it is best to let it go over night. Larger SD cards can take a little while to repartition and format depending on their speed but be patient – it may seem like nothing is going on but it will still be doing its thing! Rebooting prematurely can really screw up Raspbmc and brick the installation meaning you need to completely wipe the SD card of all partitions and start over from scratch.

I’ve cut down the video and removed all the boring bits (i.e. waiting for progress bars to reach 100%) but you can skip further into the video to see how XBMC performs with AirPlay using an iPad. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to play with DLNA/uPNP when I shot the video but have got it working since then and it works a treat for everything except pushing video which I still need to work out.

FYI – the video will be available in up to 1080p (YouTube can take a little while to process the higher resolutions) if you right click on the video and choose “Watch on YouTube” and change the resolution setting.

Stay tuned for the review video!

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