“I bought a new Pi (B+) in order to try and gain a more faster OpenElec Media System (XBMC) and am pleased with its performance! After buying the Pi I discovered that I needed to buy a new case (as there are 4 USB sockets) and also MicroSD cards (as opposed to the original bigger SD cards). Concerning the cards one needs to use Class 4 or 6 cards. I am reliably informed that the more expensive Class 10 MicroSD cards do not to perform as well/any better (than Class 4 or 6) on the Pi.
Using the new Pi and upgraded software I have found that OpenElec (now Kodi) boots considerably quicker and in general runs faster. Meanwhile, an error (where I had to wait for an error message to appear and disappear before the Video Addons worked properly) no longer appears. Also one of the addons that was not working properly before (disclose.tv) now works well. Concerning the latter two issues - this could well be due to having installed later versions of software (as the last time I installed the OpenElec software - for the previous Pi - was about one and a half years ago!) I also note that there are many new add ons to discover which come included with the later versions of OpenElec software.
Concluding - although software upgrades maybe a factor behind some of the improvements of running the OpenElec software I am sure that the new B+ has considerably turbo boosted the running speed of the software. I would quite happily recommend other Pi users to do the same to get a noticeably improved performance using this Media System.”
“Been playing with it for a week now, it is fast but needs lots of bits done to make it compatible with the B+, But i am getting there now, A good bit of kit.”
“My experience is that Pi-Hut carry a range of stock which they will send to you quickly and efficiently. There is scope for improvement in their handling of post-sales problems.”
“The short answer is yeas! This bit of kit is awesome, set up.as a media player and it loads my home movies perfectly. Installed it as a nas box for tests and its flawless.
Ordered and it was delievered super quick and well packaged. Would recommend buying :)”
“When my new pi arrived I immediately installed the latest version of kodi/openelec. Openelec boots much quicker than on the old model B.The kodi user interface is not much faster but is now smooth and supple. I had already noticed that kodi 14.1 seems to decode MPEG2 in software , but this is just too much work for the older PI/512, and the audio and video rapidly become out of sync. The PI2, however, handles the extra load with ease; and without any overclocking! This evening someone was using the PI 2 to watch a 1080p film and at the same time I was using it to stream music to my tablet in another room, both without any issues.
I also bought the flirc aluminium case thinking it would act as a good heatsink when I overclock the pi, but the quad core and 1GB memory delivers so much power, I don't think I'll bother!”
