Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7-7.
Decode licenses added
Once your Raspberry Pi has rebooted, it's worth your time to check that the codecs are working. There are two
main ways to check. You could boot into the operating system and check that you could play an MPEG-2 file. Without
the codec you won't get any video, just audio. Given that I like to use the command line for everything, I will now
show you how to check the codecs via the command line. Log in to the Raspberry Pi and ensure that you can run the
following command:
# vcgencmd
Let's now run this command to check for each codec that has been enabled. First, check for the MPEG-2 decode
support. Run the following command to check if the decode is enabled:
# vcgencmd codec_enabled MPG2
This should return "
MPG2=enabled
" if your codec is installed and working. Now do the same for the VC-1 codec:
# vcgencmd codec_enabled WVC1
You can see an example of the MPEG-2 and VC-1 decode support being enabled in Figure
7-8
.
Figure 7-8.
Enabled codecs fully working
Now you're all set up and ready to use the media center. Exciting times ahead! Connect your Raspberry Pi to your
TV and watch it boot up.
The First Boot
I use HDMI for all connections. I would hope you will do so as well. There is no point trying to watch high-definition
content over the composite output. It's time for the first boot: the first thing you will notice is a nice OpenELEC logo
and, of course, the Raspberry Pi logo. After a few seconds your screen will go black and then swap to the XBMC
dashboard. The first boot may take upward of one minute so be patient and go grab yourself a drink. You can see what
this looks like in Figure
7-9
: by default OpenELEC will automatically boot and log in to XBMC.
