Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Inexpensive Smart TV - Part 2

Okay I have been bored stiff from the Covid-19 lockdown situation in my country and need something worthwhile to keep busy. The thought of streaming vides came to mind an a new project was borne. This video plug is the second part to my initial video on what to order for the project as seen here. If you haven't ordered your parts yet you can do so on eBay or www.360hub.com.ng

We need to install a barebone operating system called LibreELEC on the Raspberry Pi, Kodi is a sophisticated media centre that will run on this Operating system and facilitate process of running and managing our smart TV. If that sounds technical, don't worry, much of the work has been done by experts and you only need to configure a few things.


The first thing we will do is to burn the LidreELEC Image on the SD Card. Follow the video below and leave comments for help. Next step will be connecting the TV and starting the Raspberry Pi for the first time.

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Friday, April 24, 2020

Inexpensive Smart TV - Part 1.

Frustrated from the world-wide Covid-19 clamp down I have been unable to sleep having lost track of time. I got tired of watching TV - I hadn't paid for subscription on DSTV for so long, I am sure the might have flagged my account to be delisted. I could have been watching movies on Netflix, or my favorite documentaries from the internet if only I had a smart TV. I wanted to buy one a few years ago, but they were much too expensive for my liking...

So that's when it hit me that I could actually use Raspberry Pi to make my old TV a Smart TV. That sure sound like a good Covid Project.


I posted the above video on my Whats App status page, and my mailbox started overflowing with request on the "How Tos". The reaction was so much that I have decided to make a follow-up video to guide anyone who is interested.



So the list of things to prepare are as follows
  1.  A TV with HDMI or VGA port.
  2.  A short HDMI cable OR A HDMI - VGA adaptor if your TV doesn't have a HDMI port.
  3.  A high quality SD card with at least 16Gig storage space (Nothing else on the SD it will be reformated and all files deleted)
  4.  A laptop or PC with full adminstrative privilages to allow you install on.
  5. Full access to the Internet (Preferably high bandwidth).
  6.  2 Sided Velcro to stick our Pi to the back of the TV
  7.  Raspberry Pi - Preferably RP4, but RPi Zero, Pi 1 - 3 will still work.
I will be waiting patiently for you to order for these parts and we can start the simple 5 steps.