Linux Media Server and RaspberryPi

Hi everyone,

I work and live on a yacht and in each room there is the following:

Sky Deck
3 x Pairs Marine speakers (Zoned from Upper Deck Saloon)
3 x Bose SA2 Amplifier
1 x Bose PMC II remote

Upper Deck Aft Cockpit
2 x Pairs Marine Speakers (Zoned from Upper Deck Saloon)
2 x Bose SA2 Amplifier
1 x Bose PMC II remote

Main Deck Aft Cockpit
2 x Pairs Marine Speakers (Zoned from Main Deck Saloon)
2 x Bose SA2 Amplifier
1 x Bose PMC II remote

Wheelhouse Deck
2 x Pairs Marine Speakers (Zoned from Upper Deck Saloon)
2 x Bose SA2 Amplifier
1 x Bose PMC II remote

Upper Deck Saloon
40” LCD Television
Bose V25 Lifestyle System with iPod Docking Station
Samsung Blu Ray Player

Main Deck Saloon
50” LCD Television
Bose V35 Lifestyle System with iPod Docking Station
Samsung Blu Ray Player

Master Stateroom
40” LCD Television
Bose V25 Lifestyle System with iPod Docking Station
Samsung Blu Ray Player

Starboard Guest Double Stateroom
32” LCD Television
Harman Kardon BDS2 - 2.1 Blu Ray System

Port Guest Double Stateroom
32” LCD Television
Harman Kardon BDS2 - 2.1 Blu Ray System

Starboard Twin Guest Cabin
26” LCD Television
Harman Kardon BDS2 - 2.1 Blu Ray System

Port Twin Guest Cabin
26” LCD Television
Harman Kardon BDS2 - 2.1 Blu Ray System

Crew Mess
26” LCD Television
Harman Kardon BDS2 - 2.1 Blu Ray System

I am now looking into setting up a central media server so that each room can play films, music individually and so that people can stream music and films from there own devices, such as iphone,ipads. I was trying to make it a easy and as simple as possible to setup. Would Raspberry Pi with XBMC work as i dont know if that allow you to stream music?

Also would Ubuntu be the program to use to set up the media server?

Any help would be appreciated.

well if using XBMC or IPTV it will be network dependent so amongst all that other tech you have i hope you have a fast internet connection.
a networked media server with pre loaded films would be good..besides looking at your gadget list i guess you can afford for a chap to come in and fit it and set it up for you.

AJT said:

well if using XBMC or IPTV it will be network dependent so amongst all that other tech you have i hope you have a fast internet connection.
a networked media server with pre loaded films would be good..besides looking at your gadget list i guess you can afford for a chap to come in and fit it and set it up for you.

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This looks like it is what you are after...

Denon D-F109DABNSPBKEK Network Streamer System with Network Player, DAB Receiver and Speaker - Silver/Black: Amazon.co.uk: TV

install PLEX media server on a linux box with all the movies/tv/music on then depends on the tv's but some can have the plex installed on them and play through that or install xbmc boxes on the tv's and use plex.

its what it is made for!

+1 for Plex, I have got it setup in 4 rooms and have multiple external users, as everything is held centrally you also get seamless playback if you move from one device to another, I often decide I want to go to bed while watching something downstairs and pick back up right where I left off on my iPad

If you use RaspPi's with plexbmc you should get the Airplay/PlayTo functionality your looking for too so you can stream to TV's from phones/tablets

Couple of quick questions,
- How are all the different devices connected ? Have you got ethernet installed ?
- Are you trying to play back media from internet or from local stored files ?
- Have any of the TV's or blu-ray players have DNLA ?
- Budget ?

As several people have mentioned, plex on a central file server sounds like the way forward. Your tables, PC can connect to it with an app no problem. The problem is the TV. If they don't have Plex support, then you can use DNLA. If the TV don't support it, do the blu-ray players ?

It gets a bit complicated in terms of playback as well. If the device being used for playback has correct codec support then your plex server can send the file as is. Very little overhead on the server for this. However if you are using DLNA or the playback device does not have native codec for the file you are playing, then your plex server has to re-code the file, in real time. This puts a high burden on CPU and something that Pi would really struggle to do.

Personally I would look at building a i7 based storage server using ubuntu or mint with plex and plenty of storage. This can cope for transcoding multiple HD video streams.

For clients, assuming the TV/blu-ray players aren't up to the job you could use Pi or something like one of the Roku streamers. Alternative would be something like Google Chromecast device, these are pretty cheap and have native MKV support. They don't have remote control but can fairly easily be controlled from iPads.

The Pi's are a great starter unit and act as a great dlna player, but dont expect too much in regards of performance