Home Theater PC using Raspberry Pi
NOTE: This should be upgraded to a Raspberry Pi 4.
I am replacing a Home Theater Windows PC with a Raspberry Pi-based PC.
The Home Theater RPi PC will be rack mounted. I'll save a few bucks a month in electricity as compared to a Windows PC. The family doesn't use the Home Theater PC very often. We use it for group activities that are hard to do on a single PC (e.g., Taxes).
Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) will be used to connect the Home Theater RPi PC.
Required Parts:
Raspberry Pi 3 B+
HDMI Cable
Denon Receiver
USB wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Step 1. Setup Raspberry Pi 3 B+
Choose the full desktop option
Don't put the Raspberry Pi in a case
Don't set up Wi-Fi
Insert the microSD Card in the Raspberry Pi
Step 2. Shutdown the Raspberry Pi
Run this command to shutdown the Raspberry Pi
$ sudo shutdown -h 0
Step 4. Install HDMI cable and USB Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
Step 4. Edit HDMI Settings
Edit the HDMI settings
$ sudo nano /boot/config.txt
And make the following changes:
# hdmi_safe=1
# hotplug allows HDMI to be plugged in and recognized while the Pi is running
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
# hdmi_group=2 sets to DMT
hdmi_group=2
# hdmi_drive=2 sets to normal HDMI with sound
hdmi_drive=2
# config_hdmi_boost=5 boosts signal. Can go as high as 9
config_hdmi_boost=5
Troubleshooting:
Display did not show through projector. I got out an HDMI monitor and ensured the display was being seen. And then I played with the Denon receiver settings until the display appeared (set as Blu-Ray and not Blu-Ray Player)
RPi Troubleshooting - scroll down to see guide to fixing video issues
Show video settings by running the command:
$ tvservice -s
state 0xa [HDMI CEA (16) RGB lim 16:9], 1920x1080 @ 60.00Hz, progressive
References:
RPi 3B+ uses HDMI 2
Maximum video resolution for RPi 3B+ is 2560 x 1600