Introduction
For those of you who don't know what the raspberry pi is, is a computer the size of you credit card (At least that's what it says on the website, though it's more like a few credit cards stacked). The raspberry pi is great because, despite it's tiny size, it has a full fledged ARM processor inside a SOC(System on a chip) which includes 512 mb of ram and a graphic processing unit. What I love about the pi, is that it has 2 USB ports, a HDMI port and runs of a phone charger.
To me its a perfect replacement for my DVD player. However it easily out does many of the devices such a roku, the dreaded Apple TV or the overpriced Samsung/LG "Smart" TVs.
The raspberry pi runs a tuned down version of Linux, and in theory can be used as it features a web browser, some office suite apps, and you can python, C and many other languages in it's GUI glory. However that isn't the pi's strong suit. Although it can make a perfect computer for senior citizens, you can plug the thing up to the TV add a mouse and keyboard and you're good to go, as it's slowness may actually be a plus point in this case.
Though initially designed for educational purposes, the raspberry pi excels as a dedicated home theater PC. It is capable of running XBMC as an operating system and capable of playing 1080p videos with DTS/Dolby bit-streaming, and also supports HDMI-CEC. This article will describe in detail how to setup up your raspberry pi as dedicated media center.
Buying The Pi
At the time of writing, the raspberry pi is literally available everywhere, and in surplus. I don't recommend buying from global distributors such as Digikey or Farnell, as I'm sure you'll be able to get it from a local vendor for much cheaper. Being in India, I actually got mine from kitsnspares. But you can get it from anywhere, in fact even your local hobby shop might have it. Make sure get Model B, and the latest revision(rev 2) at the time of writing.
The model B has 2 usb ports vs 1 on model A. The revision 2 can be identified by checking the LED indicators, it should have a LED labelled 'ACT' instead of 'OK'
