A multimedia center is one of the most interesting utilities that we can give to our Raspberry Pi. This device of just 40 euros can become an entire entertainment center from which to play any movie or series, listen to music, view photos and much more. And all this in the simplest possible way. The only thing we need for this is, in addition to the micro-computer, an operating system specialized in this task, as is the case with OSMC.
OSMC ( Open Source Media Center ) is a distro specially designed for the Raspberry Pi that allows us to turn our micro-computer into a complete multimedia center. For this, this operating system brings with it a version of Kodi modified and modified to give it a personal touch and, at the same time, improve its operation compared to the original program.
What OSMC offers
OSMC is a complete operating system for Raspberry Pi , totally free and open source. This system uses Debian as a base , and on it includes the OSMC platform, also free. Although it comes as standard prepared to function as a multimedia center, this distro brings the official repositories prepared, so we can download and install any program or dependency that we want.
Although this distro uses Kodi as a multimedia hub, it is not the same Kodi that we are used to seeing. OSMC is a modified version of this multimedia center, much easier to use, lighter and faster. In addition, it has its own extensions store to be able to adjust its operation according to what we want to do with this distro, and it includes all the codecs to reproduce any format without problems, and it is even compatible with all network playback protocols.
OSMC also has a software center . Through it we will be able to receive system updates, as well as download the programs that we want to make the system more useful. We can download a torrent download client or a web browser in seconds.
Differences with Kodi
As we have explained, OSMC uses Kodi as the default multimedia hub. And then why not choose to use Kodi directly? OSMC developers have worked hard to provide users with the best possible user experience. While Kodi is a program, OSMC is a complete Linux distro (Debian) that comes with a modified and optimized version of Kodi by default.
Thanks to the fact that it behaves like an independent distro, OSMC can be updated very easily, it is compatible with all kinds of hardware (something very important if we connect keyboards, controls or Wi-Fi adapters) and it is also specially designed and optimized to take advantage of the hardware and resources of this system.
Compatibility
This distro is specially developed to run on “Vero” devices , the very multimedia centers that its developers sell us. However, if we do not want to spend money on buying your multimedia centers, we can prepare a micro-SD in a few seconds to convert any Raspberry Pi (up to RPi 4) into an OSMC multimedia center. In addition, if we have an old Apple TV (first generation, only), we will also be able to use it for this purpose.
As for the installer, its developers offer us an installer prepared for both Windows and macOS, so we can easily use any operating system we have to create our own multimedia center. The advantage of this installer is that, while preparing the micro-SD, it allows us to configure many other aspects of the system, such as network settings or partitions.
Unfortunately, we cannot install OSMC on other devices or equipment that we want. Although, as the project is free, we can be free to adapt it to our needs if we want.
Download OSMC
We can download this distro completely free of charge from the following link . Here we will find the installers for Windows and macOS that will help us when downloading the latest version and saving it directly to the memory card that we want.
In addition, we will also find at the bottom a download section with all the images, ordered by devices. We must select the image that corresponds to the device or equipment where we want to start OSMC, since the image of the first Raspberry Pi units is not the same as that of the last ones.
Other distros to turn the Raspberry Pi into a multimedia center
OSMC is one of the lightest and most elegant distros that we can find for this purpose. However, it is not, by far, the only option we can find for it.
- OpenELEC (Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center) is a JeOS-based Linux distro designed with the latest version of Kodi running right from the start. This distro can be installed on a Raspberry Pi, on devices like WeTek and Cubox and on any Intel x86 architecture.
- LibreELEC is a very similar alternative to the previous one, also based on JeOS. Broadly speaking, it may be very similar to OpenELEC, but it is an independent project created by a series of ex-OpenELEC collaborators seeking to be more stable and taking into account the ideas of the community. Also this project is compatible with many other micro-computers and other architectures.