RMD Me a sub £201 AV Receiver.

[keasy]

Any advice ?

I want to bung a 5.1 and standard stereo external speaker set up on to it, a Rasp Pi set up as a music centre and a poss additional Rasp Pi as a video/movie machine.

I know 200 quids isn't much but it can surely get something half decent, no ? Speakers I will look into in their own right.

[Ekona]

I'd look at Pioneer stuff at that price, as I really like their kit and it gives excellent VFM. I'm still running a VSX920 after 6 years, still a nice bit of kit.

You may want to rethink using an RPi as a media streamer, as they don't have gigabit Ethernet you won't be able to stream full bitrate BD rips without constant buffering. 720/2.0 will be fine, but 1080/5.1 at decent rates just won't happen. Check my thread for more info on the issues I had, and why I gave up. A used PS3 with a broken disc drive will be about the same cost, and can run Plex happily.

[keasy]

K man, thx.

I just took it for granted that the rasp pi was up to it.

[Ekona]

So did I, sadly. If it had gig Ethernet, it would be absolutely perfect, as the rest of it is more than manly enough.

[Dan]

rPi2 may be able to do it - still only has a 100Mb network port, but the faster CPU means you actually get 100Mb. On my original Pi I could only get about 20Mbit of throughput. Worth getting one to play with. They're fairly inexpensive.

(I can definitely stream high bitrate 1080p rips from a USB hard disk on both my Pi and Pi2)

[Ekona]

With DTS? What bitrate video?

[keasy]

RasPi2 seems more than up to the job if used as a Kodi MC, which will more than suit me with a dedicated external drive plugged in to it.

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Pioneer stuff does seem to be on the money Ek, that and some lower end Yamaha.

[Dan]

With DTS? What bitrate video?

Honestly no idea! Whatever handbrake does on standard settings when fed a bluray rip. Seems to work out at around 2Gb an hour.

[Ekona]

Almost certainly not multi-channel at that size, which is probably why the RPi is happy with it.

Keasy, Kodi is just XBMC renamed, that's exactly what I was using that the Pi struggled with. It's not the player as such (that works fine), it's the size of the file. There's no point having a nice 5.1/7.1 system if you're only ever playing stereo through it, which is why I stopped using mine as it was too flaky with any multi-channel audio. I'd settle for DTS, but really you want the DTS-HD or TrueHD to make the most of what you have.

That said, if you're happy with 1080/2.0, then it should be fine as long as you stay away from the full bitrate 1080. 720/2.0 will be fine though, even at full bitrate.

[keasy]

Aye, I see your point mate.

I'll sack that idea, I'm not buying a nice AV kit to be limited to 2.0.

I'll look into building a little HTPC for movies and a raspi for streaming music....is it any good for music? LOL

-----------------------------------

Also toying with buying a Nikon D3300 as an entry level DSLR.
I messed with a Nikon EM SLR back in the film days and was just getting into it when Digital swept the globe and film became expensive to get developed properly.
Couldn't even sell my kit after that.

[Ekona]

RPi works perfectly for music, it has zero issues streaming of my lossless audio. You can even get piggyback DACs now for them, which look ace.

[keasy]

Necro*


Well, I've just about saved up my 20p coins, enough to get me looking at shit.

Here's where it's at....


http://www.whathifi.com/pro-ject/elemental/review

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyundai-Multica ... g+speakers

the AMP still eludes me! Although admittedly the speakers should be drawn from the amp...but hey...

Any genuine advice that fits towards the budget end, appreciated!

To give an example of what I'm looking for....

Paul Simon - Graceland ...original cut . that's the sort of production I'm looking to replicate on a budget.