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====== Home Mediacenter and NAS with the Raspberry Pi ======

This is my recipe to build a **[[wp>Home_theater_PC|mediacenter]]** and **[[wp>Network-attached_storage|NAS]]** box using the **[[wp>Raspberry_Pi|Raspberry Pi]]**. This is the list of hardware components:

  * **Raspberry Pi 4** Model B with 4 Gb RAM.
  * 4 Tb **hard disk** Seagate IronWolf 3.5 inches.
  * **Suptronics.com X835** USB to SATA adapter, to connect the hard disk.
  * Ugreen **USB audio** adapter.
  * **Gamepad** USB wireless (SNES-like) used as remote control.

{{.:raspberrypi:rpi-nas-mediacenter.png?640|Raspberry Pi NAS and mediacenter}}

{{.:raspberrypi:wifi-forbidden.png?90 |WiFi Warning}}
**WARNING** :!: It turned out that the **Raspberry Pi 4**, when it uses the **USB 3** interface, produces **radio interferences on the 2.4 GHz** band. It is **impossibile to connect to the 2.4 GHz WiFi** access point which is only 5 meters far. It was also **impossible to use a wireless keyboard and mouse**, using one USB dongle which also operates on the 2.4 GHz. To operate a **wireless gamepad** (which also uses an USB dongle on the 2.4 GHz frequencies) I had to distantiate the dongle from the Raspberry Pi using and USB **extension cable of about 0.5 meters**. Due this **severe problem**, I can suggest the RPi4 solution only if you will use the **Ethernet** interface or an access point on the **5 Ghz** band. As an alternative to the wireless gamepad or keyboard, you can use the **[[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.leetzone.android.yatsewidgetfree|Yatse application]]** on an Android smartphone.

{{.:raspberrypi:forbidden-mpg4.png?90 |MPEG4 Warning}}
**WARNING** :!: There is another potential problem with the **Raspberry Pi 4**: due the increased CPU power, the designers decided to drop the **H263** and **MPG4** codecs from the hardware. That codecs were enabled in-hardware into the older Raspberry Pi models and the license price was included into the hardware price. In older models you could also purchase additional licenses, e.g. for **MPEG2** and **VC-1**; this is no longer an option on the Raspberry Pi 4. I experience a **[[https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/4257|bug]]** with **Kodi** and **kernel 5.10**: software decoding of MPEG4 streams (e.g. the ones produced by the XviD library) were terribly jerky. I had to downgrade to **kernel 4.19** to solve the problem. Notice that the **LibreELEC 9.2** and **10.0 Beta** distributions play the same file smoothly.
====== Subsystems ======

  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_x835_sata_board]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_smart_hard_disk]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_networking]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_kodi]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_audio]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_mail]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_remote_control]]**
  * **[[raspberrypi_nas_case]]**