Build a media centre quick & cheap, to sell and make ££

[ryan301]

OK so I was thinking about how I could use a raspberry pi to build something for the 'non-tech' public so I could sell and make a profit.

At first I was thinking of a duplicator as these were on sale for several hundred and it wouldn't be too difficult. Then I thought of a media centre so I done some research.

for 3.99 on ebay I could get an internal laptop DVD drive. A HDMI cable, WIFI adapter, 4GB SD card, Powered USB hub, An internal 2.5" (512GB/320GB) cheap SATA HDD with some SATA to USB adapters and bits & bobs for just a few quid each. The Pi and Hard Drive would be the profit killer.

All this placed neatly inside a £10 potting box would make a tidy XBMC/Kodi centre. About an inch in height, The width would be just slightly wider than the internal DVD drive and the length would be about 150mm.

Now if the Hard drive came fully pre-loaded with, shall we say linux distributions, This would get some sales. Along with 'brand new & custom built' thrown in there.

 

[madtek01]

Sounds good mate. I had a similar idea 6 months ago as ive got loads of old faulty tower pc computers and thought about making a media centre and install ubuntu or openelec something like that so its just running xbmc. But problem was there all old processors and no graphics cards. For a good xbmc media centre you need atleast a quad core processor now to compete with some of the other android boxes out there and needs a good graphics card so it can handle 1080pi and 3D TV.

 

[madtek01]

Never priced it up though. Got me thinking about it now. Wont be a project i could get into straight away. Ive got a couple other projects on the go right now. Getting parts direct from China might be a cheaper option.

 

[ryan301]

Sounds good mate. I had a similar idea 6 months ago as ive got loads of old faulty tower pc computers and thought about making a media centre and install ubuntu or openelec something like that so its just running xbmc. But problem was there all old processors and no graphics cards. For a good xbmc media centre you need atleast a quad core processor now to compete with some of the other android boxes out there and needs a good graphics card so it can handle 1080pi and 3D TV.

Yeh the graphics are abit sluggish with a pi. Well everyone has shy'ed away with towers now they have laptops, phones and ipads. So old PC hardware is easy to get hold of. There must be some use for it somewhere.

 

[madtek01]

No idea mate given up on that one for now as there are plenty other things to work on as xmas just round the corner. Liked your idea though of making your own box with uptodate hardware. All the china made ones are made themselves and most without any firmware upgrades and some cant even upgrade the android version. Ive been looking at the amazon fire tv they look good

 

[oneman]

Sounds good mate. I had a similar idea 6 months ago as ive got loads of old faulty tower pc computers and thought about making a media centre and install ubuntu or openelec something like that so its just running xbmc. But problem was there all old processors and no graphics cards. For a good xbmc media centre you need atleast a quad core processor now to compete with some of the other android boxes out there and needs a good graphics card so it can handle 1080pi and 3D TV.

you don't need a quad core CPU, it will run perfectly fine on any CPU that benchmarks 500 or above on Passmark. Of course don't use windows, use one of the lightweight linux distributions. That also means you don't need a hard drive and can run the whole thing from USB memory stick.

You will need a HD video card, something like a ATI HD5450 can be picked up for around a tenner on fleabay and will playback 3D 1080p no problems and has HDMI out. Also passively cooled so silent. The reason for anything more powerful is if you are looking for 4K playback.