Raspberry Pi New Year’s Party Pack (AU / NZ ONLY) - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: Raspberry Pi New Year’s Party Pack (AU / NZ ONLY)

Author: waelect

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Independent Products

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: Beaglebone Black

What were the biggest problems encountered?: Network connectivity due to more WiFi available than wired network.

Detailed Review:

This is a short road test review as there is more detail information on the Raspberry Pi Blog including my very first video looking at my self in a camera image. Nerves got the better of me and my lack of quality recording equipment and editing software did bring up major challenges.

 

The blog entry and the embedded youtube link is Raspberry Pi's New Years Party Pack (AU) with XBMC

 

I fortunately carried out my research prior to the Road-test enrolment completed and once awarded I ordered the necessary extras to create a complete a comprehensive media centre package. I am as always pleased with the speed of the delivery, as the evaluation kit arrive at the same time my optional components arrived. As fast as always. image

 

The primary reason for my interest in this package was for me to be more involved into being with the family in the living room instead of the computer catching up with some instructional videos. My final intention is to set up a full media centre to accommodate all my video usage including university studies and more. So far it has just as I wanted, less agression from my wife and more enjoyment of what I am watching.

 

Due to my wife's hearing loss there are some challenges that I have still yet to overcome but this is fortunately not an issue with the Raspberry Pi XBMC system only the production of videos.

 

I have had very little issues with the setup with the exception of the optional extra WiPi adaptor I purchased that ran very slow Internet connectivity. I was though lucky to have a few USB WiFi dongles available to try. The silver keyboard may have been a better option for remote a operation as the keyboard was difficult to view in our dark living room.

 

One of the best benefits to the kit was the pre-imaged SD card. It made life a whole lot easier in getting the system running without fuss on the same day I received it. This allowed me a lot of time available to mess about with the Raspbmc operating system. Although I was unable to do a complete review of the operating system I was able to carry out more detail appraisal of the XBMC media centre application. There are a few other options that I may consider but through my trolling for information this was the easiest to set-up for first time users.

 

I would like to thank Element14 for the opportunity to evaluate the New Year Party Pack. I also hope to add one or two more videos on my blog, the first a more detailed configuration experience along with my poor camera work and editing. image

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