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Building a small PC receiver

13K views 28 replies 8 participants last post by  DPyro 
#1 ·
Hi,

I have a PC that I use to watch Bell Fibe in a browser, but I wanted something smaller and not so loud (because of the fans).

Has anyone used a raspberry PI to watch Fibe?
 
#3 ·
Doesn't Bell block the Fibe app from doing this?

Usually I cast content from my tablet to my TV, but I tried with the Fibe app and it says mirroring is blocked. Won't it be the same with an HDMI cable?

Q: Can I connect my smartphone or tablet to a television or another external display to watch my content?
A: No. The Bell TV app is not authorized to transmit and view content over displays other than a smartphone or tablet. This includes trying to connect to devices such as Apple AirPlay, Chromecast or using HDMI output cables.
 
#6 ·
Why not build or buy a silent PC or modify the existing one to make it quieter?

Apple TV (4th generation) is supported. A Bell wireless receiver is another option.

Haven't tried a Raspberry Pi but given the restrictions placed on Fibe TV content it is not likely to work.
 
#7 ·
Watching a hockey game with all your friends huddled around a tablet doesn't sound like a fun night :)

Building a silent PC or making the old one quieter wouldn't be a good option since it would be less expensive to just get a new receiver.

I thought a raspberry Pi is just like a computer so it would be able to launch a browser and I could access tv.bell.ca. I'm just wondering if it's powerful enough to play the video without any stuttering.
 
#8 ·
The RasPi is quite capable of playing HD video. There is a dedicated KODI distribution which is very popular for using the RasPI as a media player. There are a a couple of CODECs required to enable full hardware video acceleration. The MPEG2 CODEC is required to play HD MPEG2 video such as OTA TV and will help with DVDs. It should not be necessary for Fibe TV.

The issue is not with the hardware, it is with restrictions placed by Bell on the content. Most Canadian broadcasters place severe restrictions on how their signals are viewed. That is made apparent by restrictions on video controls, the lack of streamed content in general and the lock down on viewing Fibe TV content using the HDMI ports with Android and iOS apps. The RasPi runs Linux which is not an approved platform for viewing Fibe TV content. Windows is approved and Windows browsers use approved Windows subsystems for decrypting video content with copy protection.

I don't know why Fibe TV allows the use of HDMI ports with Windows and not iOS or Android (or Chromecast.) I suspect it is a corporate decision or a technology shortcoming related to Bell and Canadian broadcasters because most other streaming apps and services allow it.
 
#9 ·
I don't know why Crave TV allows the use of HDMI ports with Windows and not iOS or Android (or Chromecast.) I suspect it is a corporate decision or a technology shortcoming related to Bell and Canadian broadcasters because most other streaming apps and services allow it.
From the CraveTV FAQ:
Does CraveTV support AirPlay and Chromecast?
Yes! CraveTV supports both AirPlay and Chromecast.
Most Windows-based solutions from all providers allow HDMI because modern desktop computers use HDMI to connect the monitor. I wonder if it's even possible to differentiate between an HDMI monitor connection and an HDMI TV connection.
 
#14 ·
Can't say. The hardware is certainly capable of playing HD video. Whether it has enough horsepower to play Fibe TV in a browser is another question. Platforms with low power CPUs will sometimes be able to play video with an optimized app but choke on the overhead required by a browser. The best way to find out is to try.
 
#15 ·
Agree best way to find out is try..
No clue what Fibe is... But I can say I have no problem playing high bitrate HD video feeds from C/Ku Band satellite on my Rpi3...
A raspberry pi will perform best when some steps are taken to keep it cool.
Recommend one of them Flirc cases, where the aluminum case assumes the
the role of heatsink. Doing that ya can get away without using a fan which you said ya wanted to do.
You can run them without any cooling at all but will be subject to the clock throttling down
as it heats up. Which in turn will cut in to performance.

Month or two ago I put together a desktop PC for my wife. Of course she HAS to have a Desktop...:p
Like OK, whatever...
It has a quad core Intel cpu, with No CPU fan at all, just a quiet fan on the power supply is all. Can't even tell it is on.
It consumes a total of 22 watts from the AC Line as measured on my Kill-A-Watt meter,
while sitting there, and about 30 watts when it's busy compiling the linux kernel.

I have it hooked up to a 22" TV that she uses as a Monitor.
There are some extremely efficient Motherboards out there.
 
#17 ·
Naw, I think that is the wrong attitude to go in to with something new to you...
What you would be stuck with is an awesome learning tool.
Ya might actually learn something. Is that so bad?
Seriously...
 
#18 ·
Why don't I quit my job as an accountant and go to medical school, so I can learn something new too...lol

I'm not asking for a learning tool :)

There are different versions of the Pi, so even if I bought one it may not be the one that works with Bell.
 
#19 ·
Trust me, if you bought one, for the whopping $35 plus accessories,
you would want the rpi3, without a doubt.

What is the process of watching Bell Fibe?? What's so big about it?
Not familiar with it. Codecs? Transport is what??
 
#21 ·
I built a silent (except for a barely audible CPU cooler that barely runs) using an AMD M1 CPU a while back. It's in a nice little mini-ITX case and runs Win10 very well. It was quite inexpensive as well (much cheaper than an Intel NUC at about $200 + third party CPU cooler + RAM.) Unfortunately, AMD discontinued that line of CPU. Tried an Intel NUC with a mobile CPU but it was an absolute disaster in performance and it was overpriced.

Adobe Flash is an issue and it's going away soon. In a year or two all browser support and vendor support will be gone. Then it will be an even worse security issue.
 
#22 ·
I can play with an open source implementation of flash on my Linux pc, essentially what mythweb is doing when you watch a recorded video over the web with mythweb (talking MythTV here) and the pi is running Linux. The pi3 can also run windows.
Though i can't say I ever have.
 
#23 ·
I tried playing some online video in FF and Chrome on my RPi2. It was very tedious and pretty much a total failure. For starters, the web browsers are very slow to start and to load pages. I don't have access to Fibe TV so I tried Rogers On Demand. That was a total failure due to incompatibility. Tried Crackle, which failed to load movies. Tried YouTube which sort of worked but was plagued by stuttering and pauses. The problem is probably due to the slow speed of the SD card that appears to be bringing disk I/O to a crawl. It's a class 10 card but probably not the fastest available. The CPU and other resources appeared to be ok.

I bought the Pi2 to watch TV and videos with Kodi and that works fine with the RPi KODI distro. Unfortunately, KODI won't work with Fibe TV or most streaming services. It will work with streaming services that are supported by a media server such as Plex but, again, you won't see Fibe TV on Plex.
 
#24 ·
I think if you are 1/2 satisfied with rpi2, you'll be pleasantly surprised with rpi3.
By comparison I can't go back to rpi2 having been using rpi3 for over a year.
My rpi2 was converted to a router, after installing LEDE on it.
Works well so far, but haven't connected it to the internet yet. On the TODO list.
 
#25 ·
The RPi3 looks like an impressive upgrade from the RPi2. Not sure if it's enough to make me want to use it for browser video though. The RPi2 is just too painful to make the RPi3 look appealing. I would like to see an option for a faster disk drive, like an NVMe connector. It would probably really push up the price though.

I considered using the RPi2 as a firewall/router. The lack of gigabit speeds on the LAN or USB ports made me look elsewhere. Not that I need those speeds for internet right now but I still had concerns over the USB to LAN adapter performance and overall throughput. It would do in a pinch.

In the meantime, it's an interesting hobby box.
 
#26 ·
exactly, one can't expect much for a $35 price point. But it does the job for me..
I don't use it for a web browser. One thing ya might try is configure it to be it's own DNS server and use google as a backup.
 
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