Raspberry Pi DVR - Software

In addition to the hardware for this project, I'll need software to make it all work.  For all intents and purposes, the only OS that runs on the Pi is Linux - which is fine by me.  I first learned Linux back in college only a few years after the OS was created.  Yes, my Linux "skills" are no where near my Windows "skills," but I know enough to be effective in the OS.

My ultimate goal is to create a DVR, so to make that happen I need TV recording software.  So far the only software I've found that supports this task is "tvheadend."  If I go with my stretch goal of a full-blown media center, then I'll need a software package to play videos and media content.  Here I have several options, but in truth there is really only one contender - XBMC (soon to be renamed "Kodi").

Linux is different than Windows in that you can get Linux from many different sources, each source being custom tailored for a different use.  Each of these different versions is called a "distro."  For the Raspberry Pi I have 5 different distros that I am considering.  One may work better than another with the hardware I have and the goals I'm trying to accomplish.  So my plan is to try all 5 distros and report back on each.  I'll blog about each distro in a separate page as I test with them.  But here's an overview of the 5 distros I'm going to try.

Raspbian
Raspbian (a.k.a. Wheezy) is pretty much the default OS for the Raspberry Pi.  If you're looking to use the Raspberry Pi as a general computer; web surfing, checking emails, word processing, programming, etc. then you'll most likely use Raspbian.  It has a friendly graphical user interface along with support for a lot of hardware and software packages.  My guess is all new Pi owners should at least start here, to get a feel for how the hardware and software works before moving onto more specialized options.

Raspbmc (soon to be renamed OSMC)
As stated above, XBMC is the preeminent media center application for the Pi.  Whereas you can install and run XBMC on Raspbian, with so many resources used by the OS it sounds like it will run sluggishly and/or have issues.  Enter Raspbmc - one of several distros dedicated to running XBMC on the Pi.  Raspbmc is built on top of Linux, but it is built specifically to run XBMC.  Anything in the OS that is not needed by XBMC has been removed.  What's more, the creators have taken the time to add drivers and support for hardware specifically used by media centers.  Hardware like TV tuners, remote controls, etc.  The trade off is these media center distros are not general purpose computers.  You cannot check email, surf the web, etc.  In fact, when you power up the Pi it boots directly into XBMC.

OpenElec
OpenElec is another dedicated media center distro for the Pi.  It sounds like OpenElec is Raspbmc taken even further.  Even more of the unused parts of the OS have been removed making OpenElec tiny and fast.  It sounds like OpenElec is even faster than Raspbmc, but at the cost of customization.  If OpenElec has support for your hardware then you're golden, but if not it sounds like your only option is to download the sources and recompile OpenElec yourself - not for the faint of heart.

Xbian
Xbian is the last of the dedicated media center distros I'm going to look at.  From what I've read, Xbian sounds like a cross between Raspbmc and OpenElec.  It's got the speed of OpenElec with the customization and flexibility of Raspbmc.

RetroPie
The last distro is completely different from the others in that it is not for media but is designed to play retro video games.  It's basically a collection of computer and video game emulators as well as free and open-source video games from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.  Assuming I connect the Pi to my TV (and not headless in the garage) this would be a fun distro to have on hand for playing "old-school" video games.


That's a summary of the 5 distros I plan to look at.  Not having tried the distros, only going by what I've read on the Internet, it sounds like OpenElec and Xbian are the most promising for my goal.  I think it all boils down to if these two distros have drivers for my hardware, and if not then I'll have to research how to add that support.

As I said, I plan to run all 5 distros and report back on my findings and impressions of each.