Kodi will also support USB flash drives so it’s easy to play additional media by simply plugging a memory stick into a spare USB port on the Pi. I used a 16GB card to give me plenty of options later on. If you plan on storing media on the Pi you may choose to use a larger card. I would recommend a minimum of an 8GB SD card. I tend to use a normal keyboard to do the initial setup. You could of course plug in a standard USB keyboard to get the system working and perhaps treat yourself to a smaller device later on. Mine is branded “eSYNIC” but others are available. It comes with a USB dongle and works straight out the box without any configuration. This is a much better choice as it allows you to quickly type text into search boxes. You don’t need much to turn your Pi into media player but here is the list of hardware I used :Īlthough some TVs can control Kodi via HDMI I opted for a mini wireless keyboard. These are both available from the Official Raspberry Pi download page. I chose to use OSMC and wasn’t disappointed.
#Video player os for raspberry pi 2 android#
The XBMC project spread its wings and was renamed Kodi and now supports a range of platforms including Windows, Linux, Amazon Firesticks, Android boxes and the Raspberry Pi.įor Pi users there are a number of SD card images you can use that require almost no configuration. Two of the most common Kodi images for the Pi are OSMC and Libreelec. Then HD content became more common and I retired the Xbox. For playing media from a network this was an unbeatable combination. Many years ago I used an original Xbox running XBMC. I had a spare Pi so decided to stick it behind the TV, connect it with HDMI and hook it up to my video and MP3 collection. Although I’ve used the Pi since 2012 I’ve only recently used it as a media player.