ADVANCEDPROJECTS
126 APRIL2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE386
a1GB Pi 4B TV box bundle should cost £85
(all prices fromthepihut.com).
LibreELEC is compatible with many
remotecontrols; we chose the OSMC RF
RemoteControl, for£23 also from The Pi Hut.
When the kit arrives, follow the case
assembly instructions(seetinyurl.com/
pi-tv-case)rather than the HAT’s guide,as
the case is built around the Pi-and-HAT
combination. Make sure you remove the
protective film from both sides of each
section of the case before assembling it;
the case can be abit fiddly to build, and
you won’t want to have to take it apart to
remove an ugly piece of film.
SOFTWARE
We used LibreELEC forour system as it’s a
lightweight OS based on the Kodi media
centre system. Kodi has been developed
from the original XBMC (Xbox Media Center)
hack to the first-generation MicrosoftXbox.
Over adecade of improvement (and a
thorough rebrand) means that not only is
Kodi apowerful andslick media-centric
interface,but it’s accepted as acompletely
legitimatepieceofopen-source software.
Download the LibreELEC USB-SD Creator
fromlibreelec.tv/downloads_new.Although
we’ll be creating aLinux operating system for
an ARM-based system, you’ll need the
version suitable forthe system you’re
downloading to (so probably the Windows
tool, or possibly the macOS version).
Don’t panic that the USB-SD Creator only
takes afew seconds to download, as this is
just the tool to help you find, download and
flash the latest compatible version of
LibreELEC to your SD card. In the first
section select your device –Raspberry Pi 4,
forexample.The box to the right of the
drop-down menu should populatewiththe
latest version: LibreELEC-RPi4.arm-9.2.0.img.
gz, 129MB, in the case of the Pi 4B.
Step 2isslightly confusing,asclicking the
Download button doesn’t launch what you
would assume to be aprompt to download
afile.Instead it just opens your default
download folder,making it look like the
USB-SD Creator is trying to open afile.Just
click Select Folder andthe download will
start. Once the file has downloaded, check
that the USB-SD Creator tool is pointed at
the SD card in section 3and then click Write.
Close the tool once it’s done and eject the
card. Insert this in the Pi and power it up.
LibreELEC only takes aminuteorsoto
install, reboot and launch its setup wizard.
The wizard is generally straightforward:
⬅⬇Installextra
softwareusingthe
Add-onssystemof
LibreELEC
⬅LibreELEC uses astandardKodi layout, so
everything’s logically placed and easy to access
