A Raspberry Pi is an incredibly versatile device. But, even among an almost limitless range of potential functions, the Pi’s use as a media center is deeply impressive. Parked beneath your TV, it can substitute for boxes ten times as expensive—and often do a better job.
Among the easiest and best ways to get off the ground with your Raspberry Pi home theater setup is with the help of a purpose-built operating system. Here, we’ll look at one of the most popular of these: LibreELEC. But first, let’s consider the software that LibreELEC is built around.
What Is Kodi?
XBMC, or Xbox Media Center, was released in 2004. It provided a lightweight and flexible means of playing content on the original Xbox. It’s since been upgraded, expanded, refined, ported to many platforms, and rebranded as Kodi. Today, it persists as one of the most powerful media players available.
You could run Kodi straight from the Raspberry Pi OS—but it turns out that, for home theater purposes, we can do better. Step forward, LibreELEC!
What Is LibreELEC?
LibreELEC is a bare-bones OS designed to serve just one purpose: running Kodi. It started life as a fork of a now-defunct piece of software called OpenELEC—but now it’s a go-to means of getting Kodi working with a Raspberry Pi.
Why Is LibreELEC a Good Choice for Raspberry Pi?
The stripped-back nature of LibreELEC means that you’re able to enjoy your content without a lot of stuff you don’t need running in the background, clogging things up. This way, you’ll get smoother playback and a more responsive menu experience.
Of course, you’ll lose the familiar desktop GUI you get with the Raspberry Pi OS. But if you intend to keep your Raspberry Pi permanently attached to your television or AV receiver, this is a good thing. It means you can go straight into the media player without reaching for a mouse or keyboard.
What Raspberry Pi Is Best for LibreELEC?
If you want 4K content, then the Raspberry Pi 4 is a must. At 1080p or below, older models will do the job. Great news if you’ve upgraded and have a Pi gathering dust somewhere!
Install LibreELEC to Your Raspberry Pi
The easiest way to install LibreELEC on a microSD card for your Raspberry Pi is to use theRaspberry Pi Imagertool. From its main menu, selectChoose OS > Media player OS > LibreELEC, then the relevant version for your Raspberry Pi model—Pi 4 (which also works on Pi 400), or Pi 2 or 3.
Alternatively, you can download the latest LibreELEC version as a .gzip file from the officialLibreELEC downloadsweb page, then install it as normal using Raspberry Pi Imager (by selectingChoose OS > Use custom) or Balena Etcher. For more details on installation, see our guide onhow to install an OS onto your Raspberry Pi.
For Windows users, the installation process is more straightforward by a nifty little program called (imaginatively enough) theLibreELEC USB-SD Creator. Download this from the LibreELEC website and run it, then choose the relevant version of LibreELEC for your Raspberry Pi model.
A microSD card isn’t the only way to get a Raspberry Pi to boot an operating system. Booting from a USB device such as an SSD or hard drive often means quicker load times and much more capacity, which, if you’re dealing with uncompressed 4K video, can be extremely helpful. You canboot your Raspberry Pi from a USB drive, or via your local network.
Configure LibreELEC
Depending on the version of LibreELEC you’ve downloaded, you might find there are a few extra things you’ll want to deal with before getting started. Check the release notes of your version, which can be found on theLibreELEC site. For example, LibreELEC 11.0.3 comes with the following Raspberry-Pi-related warnings:
50/60fps H264 HW decoding may need force_turbo=1 or core_freq_min=500 in config.txt to avoid AV-sync-issues/skipping.
Kodi at RPi4 runs in 4096x2160 instead of 3840x2160 on 4k TVs after fresh installation. Configure Kodi as described at the wiki and optionally add hdmi_enable_4kp60=1 to config.txt and enable HDMI UltraHD Deep Color in your TV’s HDMI port configuration to get 4kp60 modes.
If you’re not particularly techy, and used to the black-box experience of a typical smart TV, then this stuff might sound pretty intimidating. But don’t worry. Head toSettings > System > Displayand you may easily fix the 4K resolution problem. Change theResolutionfield to the value that’s appropriate to your display—in the case of most 4K televisions, this is3840x2160(UHD).
If you’re not sure, you may find your display’s resolution underSystem Information.
What’s all this stuff about aconfig.txtfile, though? This is basically a very long list of parameters that tell Raspberry Pi how to behave. Some of those parameters have cryptic names; others will make sense only to power users. But you don’t need to understand the whole thing to make changes. Upping thecore_freq_minto 500, for example, will prevent the CPU from dipping below 500MHz, ensuring Kodi has the power it needs to keep those frames coming.
Getting to grips with this stuff will seriously empower you as a Raspberry Pi user. Get started with ourguide to editing the Raspberry Pi config.txt file.
Going Further With LibreELEC
You’ve got Kodi running on your Raspberry Pi. So, what’s next? It depends on your objectives. You may want to spend some time cleaning up the Kodi home page, setting up network drives, andsetting up your phone as a remote with the Kore app. Meanwhile,using HDMI-CECwill allow your Raspberry Pi to wake up automatically whenever the TV turns on, which is very convenient.
Kodi and LibreELEC: The Perfect Match?
Kodi and LibreELEC make a powerful duo. Combined, they’ll allow you to enjoy all of your media in pristine quality, without mandatory trailers, subscription fees, or messing around with discs. If you want an alternative, however, then they exist. In fact, many people might tell you that another Kodi-focused distro is much better.
