Raspberry Pi streamer Update 1

I didn't expect to post so soon about my project to build a Raspberry Pi streamer, but here we are.

After I posted, I realized I had everything I needed to begin the project except a remote. I already had a Raspberry Pi device that worked, although a very basic one. It was connected to a keyboard, mouse, and video monitor via a KVM switch.

I already had that up and running, so I knew the hardware was good. I had another microSD card and reader, and was able to set up the software on it. I didn't want to reuse the working OS for the Raspberry Pi, but rather have the streamer OS and software on a separate card. That way, I could just place the card I wanted in it, boot it up, and it would function as I wanted. That's how most will use project devices. I had everything except a remote. So, I looked for a remote to use with it, and found one that claimed to work with it. That arrived Tuesday.

Last night, I decided to see just how complicated it would be to do this. And, yes, it was rather complicated. Well, let's put it this way: I found several different instructions on how to set it up, and ran into issues each time. There was always something a little different about the instructions and reality.

What I mean by that is the instructions would say "You'll find the {thingy} setting under the {whatsit} section of Settings." However, {thingy} wasn't there. Or {whatsit} wasn't, but {whosit} was. Or when that was figured out, some installation would simply fail. I was starting to get frustrated. Then I found The Video.

[Link to YouTube]

This was fantastic! It covered everything, and was easy to do. Hats off to Triple M for his video.

Back to the project. I followed the instructions in the video, using the versions of the software he suggested, and the thing worked! I had a working Android TV streamer. Now, I was using the keyboard and mouse to do the setup of the software. If you follow the video, you'll see that you install a basic OS, then add software features to it via an interface on the device itself. You can do it all on a Windows or Mac device. You prep it there, but put it together on the Raspberry Pi itself.

So, using the keyboard and mouse, it worked great. But I was to the point of using it on my TV. That meant using the remote. Well, the remote didn't work all that well. Regardless, I moved the working Raspberry Pi streamer to the TV, connected it, changed the input on the TV to the HDMI port I was using, then powered it up.

Everything worked except the remote. I was quite disappointed with that. It may be that I did something silly and wrong, but it was late, and I called it a night.

I'm going to do a bit more research into it, and may end up with a different remote, but either way, the project isn't done. Well, unless I want to control it with a keyboard and mouse, which I don't.

I'm happy so far with the Raspberry Pi as a streaming project. I'll find out once I get the remote control issue worked out if it's really a good streaming device. So, for now, it's still a project in my Streaming Life.

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Update 2