The MagPi - July 2018

(^94) July 2018 raspberrypi.org/magpi
Community YOUR LETTERS
YOUR LETTERS
How does the playback of
media on Raspberry Pi work? I
have a Pi Zero that plays 1080p
video just fine, but even my
Pi 3 has problems with playing
4K video at 1080p resolution.
I also have issues with 10-bit
video and HEVC. Why is this?
Surely the more powerful Pi
will play higher bitrate media
like this?
Tom D
The Raspberry Pi has hardware
decoding for a lot of 1080p
video, which is why something
like a Raspberry Pi 2 or newer
model can comfortably run
Kodi and most video you can
throw at it. You might wonder
if it’s a problem with Kodi’s
codecs, but that’s not the case
either: basically the Raspberry
Pi (at least the Zero), on its
own without the hardware
decoding, would struggle with
1080p video.
As the hardware doesn’t
technically support these types
of video, it has trouble decoding
video that requires a bit more
oomph to play. It also does
depend on your encoding –
we’ve seen 10-bit encoded video
looking washed-out and almost
unwatchable, or just have a bit
of tearing in a scene.
For now, it’s better to encode
video with H.264 for Raspberry
Pi playback.
MUSICALLY
INCLINED
MORE
THAN
LINUX
I like using Raspbian on the
Raspberry Pi, but I’m not very
used to Linux and those types
of operating systems. I’ve also
seen that a lot of other operating
systems for the Pi are based on
Linux. Is there any way I can use
Windows on my Raspberry Pi?
Emilio
As the Raspberry Pi is mainly
designed for education, using
something like Raspbian is a
great way for people to learn
about computing and coding.
It’s also slightly easier to get a
Linux distribution to work on the
VIDEO PLAYBACK
I’ve used a Raspberry Pi for a few years in
different electronics projects – some robots, the
odd automatic light, that kind of thing – but I’ve
become interested recently in having my music
controlled and played from my Raspberry Pi.
I know there’s the headphone jack and you can
do digital audio via the HDMI port, but is there a
way to get better audio out of the Raspberry Pi?
With that in mind, would you say the Raspberry
Pi is generally good for a jukebox or party music
application? Whether you’re DJing or just letting
it play from a playlist?
Martin
Among the most common add-ons we see for
the Raspberry Pi are DACs that offer high-quality
audio output designed for sound systems. A lot
of them come as HATs which slot on top of the
Raspberry Pi, making it all very compact, and
several include RCA jacks or optical out.
There are plenty to choose from, but we quite
like the Nanomesher series of DACs as they include
a screen and you can get an optional 3D-printed
case to fit them.
As for DJing with one – the Raspberry Pi is just a
computer, so as long as you can find software you
like to use for it, you can play music as you wish.
We’ve also seen Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi,
do live DJing with the music creation software.
There’s plenty you can do with it!
The NanoSound DAC Pro is
one of our favourite recent
DACs for better audio
While full Windows is not readily available
for the Raspberry Pi, the IoT Core version is
Raspberry Pi due to its relatively
low power and use of an ARM
processor – Windows runs on
x86 computers with much more
powerful processors and such.
However, while you won’t be
getting a Windows 10 SD card
like you would an installation CD
for your computer, people have
been figuring out how to hack
Windows 10 to run on Raspberry Pi.
It doesn’t run particularly well but
if it’s good enough for you to use,
we suggest taking a look into it.