Introduction:
I have a flat screen television that is about 7 years old that I purchased before Smart TVs were commonly available.
What I wanted to achieve with My Pi project was to turn my slightly old TV into a media centre. I wanted to play music through my TV as well as play saved movies and stream internet content.
It was important for me to be able to stream ABC iView and SBS On Demand as they provide a free service and have a lot of good content.
Instructions:
Firstly, I purchased a Raspberry Pi 3B+, a case, an Official Power Supply and a large capacity SD card (for me 128GB)
Next, I formatted the SD card to FAT32 using GParted Partition Editior (available for Ubuntu), downloaded NOOBS and copied the files to the SD card.
I then booted up the Pi with SD card, inserted, and installed Raspian once prompted. I could have chosen LibreELEC however SBS On Demand would not have been possible then as there is no add on available through Kodi.
Once Raspian was installed I set up network/internet access by clicking on the wifi symbol to the top right of the screen and selecting and entering my network and required password.
I then opened terminal with a keyboard connected and ran updates and upgrade using sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Next, I installed Kodi using: sudo apt-get install kodi
Once Kodi was installed I shutdown the Pi and removed the SD card to copy my music to the SD card using another computer.
I then imported the music into Kodi by clicking on Music, then Files and then Add music, and browsed to where my music content is saved. It took a while for the music to be processed into the Kodi library.
ABC iView
Next, I set up ABC iView by following these instructions from tvboxbee.com:
Follow the below instructions to install ABC iView Addon On Kodi 17 Krypton:
01. From the main screen of Kodi click on Add-ons
02. Now click on Settings Icon that you can see at the top left side of your screen
03. Select Add-ons option and click on Unknown Sources option to enable unknown sources on your Kodi
04. Once you will click on Unknown Sources option you will get a popup window, then press Yes
05. Now you need to return back to the main screen of Kodi by pressing the return button(Back arrow)
06. Click on Settings Icon that you can see at the top left side of your screen
07. Click on File Manager
08. Click on Add Source
09. Click on None(Textbox) and Keyboard will pop up on the screen
10. Type in the web address http://apsattv.com/kodi/ and click on Done
11. After that click on Textbox underneath “Enter a name for this media Source”, type iview and click on OK
12. After that, you need to return back to the main screen of Kodi by pressing the return button(Back arrow)
13. Click on Addons
14. Now click on Add-on Browser Icon that you can see at the top left corner of your screen
15. Click on Install From Zip File
16. Click on iview
17. Click on plugin.video.abc_iview.x.x.zip and wait for Addon Enabled notification
ABC iView Addon is now installed. The Addon can be accessed by going back to the main screen of Kodi >Add-ons and there you will find ABC iView Addon
SBS On Demand
Next, I set up an account for SBS On Demand. After logging in I selected “Remember me” so I don't have to enter credentials every time I want to watch something. I also saved SBS On Demand website as a bookmark to minimise the need for a keyboard.
Since I have limited space in my television cabinet I installed a virtual keyboard for times when a keyboard must be used. To do this I used: sudo apt-get install matchbox-keyboard.
I then rebooted the Pi and keyboard was available under the Raspian menu/ Accessories/ Keyboard. This way the only peripheral required would be a wireless mouse which is inconspicuous and can easily be tucked away completely if necessary.
Netflix
I have not installed Netflix as part of this media centre project as that is not something that I want to include at this stage.
As far as I can understand, Netflix is not available as a Kodi Add on for Kodi Krypton 17.x
Netflix will be included in Kodi 18 however there is no stable release for Kodi 18 as yet.
It may be possible to view Netflix via Chromium by following instructions in the article: How to watch Netflix on the Raspberry Pi at the www.pi.io