When I first googled getting A2DP working with the Raspberry Pi I figured it should be fairly simple with the number of articles around outlining clear instructions but to my dismay they all left crucial bits and pieces out required to function properly. On working straight for a couple of days I’ve perfected my In-Car Pi with fully functioning A2DP.
First off, Hats off to the user @bondjames12 over at the RaspberryPi forums (Here) for sharing an image of his working system. However it did not function completely for myself and what I needed it to do.
In this article I’ll cover a couple of basics after writing @bondjames12 image to your Pi that are needed to get your into action.
What you want to do is grab his image, write that to an SD card and pop it in your Pi.
Turn it on, and login as root:root with Putty (DHCP should be enabled so just find what IP it got set too).
First off the bat my Dongle wasn’t being discovered by my iPhone however I could find my iPhone searching from the Pi itself, so I just had to figure out how to make it discoverable.
Since everyones bluetooth dongle is a different MAC address unfortunatly @bondjames12 could not make a setting that reflect everyones different dongles, so to make the neccessary adjustments direct yourself to the folder: cd /var/lib/bluetooth then type in ls -al. If your dongle is supported by the Pi then you should be seeing two folders with a different MAC address on either. For me I differentiated between the two by comparing the dates on both. Delete the MAC address folder that’s the oldest and keep the one which was created recently.
Once thats done, cd xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (Replacing the x’s with your MAC address folder) into the folder. Now go ahead and type sudo nano config
The contents of the file should be alot less then what I have, Simply copy what I have written into yours (Change the name of course to what you want 🙂 )
[code type=mysql]
name PiAudio
pairable yes
class 0x4e0100
#class 0x4e0420
onmode discoverable
mode discoverable
[/code]
When your finished save that file (Ctrl + X then hitting the appropriate keys to overwrite the existing file).
Reboot your Pi (sudo reboot)
You may also need to restart your bluetooth on your phone. It should now be discoverable!
On having some performance issues with Skype on a fresh install of Windows 7 after some troubleshooting I have found a workaround where I am no longer having any performance issues.
The fix is simply setting the skype.exe processor affinity to use only CPU0.
To do this follow the steps below:
Step 1. Click start and type in “taskmgr” without quotes and hit enter – This should open Task Manager
Step 2. Click the Processes tab (Details on Windows 10)
Step 3. Right click skype.exe and click “Set Affinity”
Step 4. Untick all the boxes except for CPU 0.
Step 5. Restart Skype
Due to the PCMediaCenter website being shutdown this article has faded into the web archives. As the article is still current and works I have rewritten the How-To by “grinderrr” with modifications by myself on the best way to set this up in your environment.
You may notice there are alot, if not all steps which require constant restarting. This is necessary as we are using an older version of the DVBlink software which is a bit fragile.
This setup is not for the faint hearted and you may encounter problems while going through the steps. However If you are willing to pursue and are determined I suggest go for it!
Please keep in mind you can click any image below and it will maximize itself without redirecting away from this page.
Requirements Hardware
Minimum 1x Hauppauge Colossus Card Microsoft Remote/IR Receiver & IR Blaster Cables
Optional: Satellite TV Card (For generating your own EPG data) (Must also have Windows BDA Drivers)
Foxtel/Austar IQ Box (IQ or IQ2 will work)
If your wanting to use HDMI you will need a way of removing the HDCP encryption (Please see this article: Here)
Desktop Computer with PCI-Express slots (Corresponding to the number of Colossus cards your installing)
Software
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64bit (Tested & Working)
*Service Pack 1 also works.
(You MUST use these specific software versions as others encounter problems working)
DVBLink Server 4.0.1 dvblink_server
DVBLink For Colossus ColossusBridgeSetup4.0B2
This addon requires a license. You will be able to purchase one the first time you start “Bridgeconfig.exe” in the Configure the Colossus Bridge Software section.
From memory it was about $40USD (well worth it by the end though).
0.1. If you have Foxtel IQ Decoders they automatically have a power saving option switched on which turns the decoder off by default after a certain amount of time. You must go into settings on the decoder and disable this. Unfortunately as I last did this awhile ago I don’t know the exact menu but it was in “Setup”.
1. Install the Colossus card drivers as previously downloaded.
2. Reboot your machine.
3. At this stage ensure you have hooked up your IR Blaster cable(s) to your remote receiver and place the transmitter in direct line of site of the Foxtel Decoder. If you have more then one decoder you can use something like cardboard to separate the decoders&their IR Blasters so they don’t interfere with each other.
Installation of DVBLink Software
1. Extract the file downloaded earlier called “dvblink_server”. Install it then reboot.
2. Extract the file downloaded earlier called “ColossusBridgeSetup4.0B2”. Install it then reboot.
Setup your Foxtel Channels
1. Extract the file downloaded earlier called “mcepgchannelinfo” inside should be a .xml file. Move that file into the directory: “C:\Program Files (x86)\DVBLogic\DVBLink\common”.
2. Restart your computer
Configure DVBLink for Colossus
1. Open up a browser and goto the address “http://localhost:39876” Without the quotations.
The default login details are:
Username: user
Password: admin
There is no need to change these credentials.
2. Create a source by selecting Colossus (Stream) on the left under the source templates list.
If you have multiple colossus cards try to stick to a conventional naming series such as: colo1 and colo2 etc.
Configure DVBLink for EPG Data If you installed a Satellite TV card for EPG data (From the requirements) or use another program for EPG data please continue otherwise skip to configuring the colossus bridge software.
1. Create another source by clicking XMLTV EPG Source in the Source Templates list. Call this fox_xml
PLEASE NOTE: Once you’ve done this step, you must tell whichever program you use to generate your EPG information to save it to the directory: C:\ProgramData\DVBLogic\DVBLink\xmltv
You can name the EPG data file anything. In my case I have named it: TVguide.xml
Configure the Colossus Bridge Software for each decoder
1. Before going ahead, restart your computer again.
2. Open up Windows Explorer and goto the directory “C:\Program Files (x86)\DVBLogic\DVBLink\sources”
3. You should see all sources you created in the previous couple of steps.
4. For each Colossus source you added – go into that source directory and open “BridgeConfig.exe”
5. Choose the Channel Lineup from the dropdown box and click next.
6. Select the input of your decoder
– On the setup tab you need to specify how you’ve connected Foxtel to the Colossus. In my example I have chosen HDMI for both Video & Audio.
Tip: Don’t worry about using the “test” button. Its irrelevant and only works half the time.
6.1 – Click properties and make sure your settings look the same as mine.
7. Select the blaster tab
* I’ve gone to the trouble of figuring out the best settings for my setup. You may or may not have to configure yours if your setup differs or doesn’t respond correctly to them.
* Please note in my case I use a MCE IR system. If you use another option like the Colossus built in blasters or FireSTB your on your own as I have had no prior experience with them.
* If you have a Foxtel IQ Box then you can simply extract the IQ.zip file that you downloaded early and extract the contents to: “”C:\Program Files (x86)\DVBLogic\DVBLink\Data\%capturecard%\”
%capturecard% = What you named your colossus streams back in Configure DVBLink for Colossus > Step 2. Otherwise you will have to learn your cable tv IR commands manually.
8. General Settings Tab
– This is more to choose whether you want power saving for your decoder or not. I recommend not to have any otherwise DVBlink screws up (Happened to me).
9. Advanced Settings Tab
– Leave all these as defaults (If your settings differ then make sure there the same as mine).
10. Once completed make sure you have clicked “Apply Changes” in the bottom right and then press the X on the window. You should now reboot again.
11. You now want to setup the channels on the DVBlink Web Interface.
Open up a browser and goto the address “http://localhost:39876” Without the quotations.
Username: user
Password: admin
12. Click on the Channels tab and setup your channel lineup. You must tick your colossus card and click add then the save button down the bottom. If you have multiple colossus cards add both of them then proceed to the Channel Merge tab.
13. Make sure all Colossus channels are showing on the right hand side.
14. If you have been setting up the EPG then proceed to EPG sources otherwise click save and reboot and goto step 16.
15. Select “epg” from the top drop down box, then select TVguide.xml or whatever you called your EPG XML file in the second drop down box. Now either use the automatic EPG Source assignment to map your channels to the correct guide data or manually map them by clicking on each EPG name box corresponding to the channel and then double clicking the guide data field on the right hand side. Once finished, save and reboot!
16. Now its time to start Windows Media Center and see if everythings working.
TV Setup should be performed only once when DVBLink Server or DVBLink Network Client is installed for the first time.
17. To do TV Setup go to Settings -> TV -> TV signal -> Setup TV Signal. This starts the TV Setup wizard.
18. Follow the steps of the wizard to setup your TV Signal:
19. Select your actual Region
20. Enter your actual postcode
21. Agree to the terms of Guide services
22. At this point Media Center starts downloading of latest TV setup data for your region
23. MediaCenter may ask you whether to install PlayReady. You MUST Click Yes to install it. (If you get an error just ignore it and select next).
Select one by one and configure all shown DVBLink Tuners (There may be either 4 or 8. Make sure you select each one until they are all chosen.
24. At this point MediaCenter will ask you whether you want to configure other available (non DVBLink) tuners. You may want to configure additional tuners if you have them (those which are not controlled by DVBLink Server!) – this is an optional step but please note if you have added a satellite card for EPG data DO NOT add this to media center.
25. When you finish configuring all DVBLink tuners, Media Center will present you with an overview of all detected channels. This should be pretty fast as its reading all the channels from that channel lineup file we dealt with earlier. If you have other tuners you are adding then it may take longer.
26. Once again if you have been setting up the EPG data, you now want to goto the main media center menu > Extras > DVBLink > Synchronize Channel Data.
27. This may affect your computer performance slightly while it imports and matches the guide data into media center with the appropriate channels. This will happen automatically in the future so don’t worry.
28. Give Live TV a go!
If you have problems don’t stress! pursue and google. I am also happy to answer questions directly on this post (I get notifications on each comment). Keep in mind the first installation I did took a few hours extra as I needed to optimize my IR settings for each Colossus card (Configure the Colossus Bridge Software for each decoder > Step 7).
Disclaimer:
I do not intend to infringe on the copyrights of any individual or company. Content here is provided for educational purposes only. If you are the owner of any work(s) listed in this article and would like a file removed please Contact Me.
