Beginner questions on the Vero

Help and Support Vero
1

Hi all,
First let me make it clear that i’m a complete newbie on all these stuff.

But I’m good in programming, it’s my day job (mainly Java)
so I think I’m not (…completely…) dumb. :wink:

Well I’ve just bought my order for a vero. 15min ago.

I was desperately looking for something to play my medias
Didn’t want to do what I’ve done 10 years before (grabbing an old’ notebook, connct it to TV, AV Receiver etc… and everytime hacking on it);
and yeah, desperately , close to buy one of the craps there when I stumble on Vero.

So I say “let it be, the time is now !”
let’s give it a try.

Now, I will wait for the shipping, meanwhile I want to prepare the stuff. This is why I’m asking the staff directly :smile:Can you list recommended hardware to complete the vero ?

I hope i’m clear I’ll be rebuilding my appliances from scratch all around the vero.
I have 2 main goals in mind :
a-/ enjoying my medias with no hassle via the vero who will be wired on ethernet, attached to my AV receiver and to the TV
b-/ using another storage attached to it as a NAS for a more work-related usage; backup; sharing office files…
Can I imagine things like one storage for the media streaming (music and movies)
and a second one for a NAS usage : backup things from my little home network ?

I know, you have really precise and specific requirements on the best parts to assemble to let vero gives it best !
And I think most of us will really like to enjoy the best from Vero.

So which sd card to order to extend from the 8gb shipped with Vero, to an extra 64g with same tested and certified quality ? I know Sam said something about it not be related to the Class but to some precise abilities.

And what about the hard drives I will feed the Vero ?
what’s the best pattern there for drives ? external e-Sata? usb3 ? ssd ?

I have a concern with my choice on the Vero : here i will have extra power supply for everything while ; as many power supplies as hard drives attached ? Ain’t this ruining all the extra low-power side of the Vero ?

Well I hope you got my concerns , and I wish you can help me as I ask you for best recommendations before starting buying all around amazon and ebay .
(Well if it matters , I’m in France. not in UK)

Thanks !

2

I suggest you keep the SD card only for the system and use an external hard drive attached via USB for all your mass storage purposes. Doesn’t matter if it’s a HDD or SSD, but it looks like Vero has USB 2.0.
As for the power supplies, do you know the common wisdom when it comes to external HDDs? Like “3,5” drives always use own PSUs and 2,5" might run from the USB port just fine"?

3

The vero is perfectly suited to get all media from there network. I recommend a NAS somewhere in your location and the vero in your living room connected to your TV or projector. Even the TV receiver can be a network device located elsewhere as long as all components are connected via network

4

Thanks for you time and attention guys.
As I said I’m here to learn a little before having my hands on the vero. It will be a premiere for me with all this stuff osmc etc…
OK for the SD Card stuff and thanks for the USB drive’s tip
But I have one concern back, reading what chris said about him “…recommend a NAS somewhere…” ??
Excuse but a NAS , bare to bone is just a file server with extra more services. Right ?
The Vero is a device *nix-OS-based so lot of appz and services and programming lang can run on it , Right ?

So if this is OK, why the heck should one invest in an NAS ?
Can’t you just plug a dedicated disk and configure the NAS-like Services you want with the vero ?

I will love to hear from your experiences to help me (and may be other beginners) to understand what will be the best model
Cheers

5

One more question :: As is said in my first post , I’m new in this but essentielly as a developper I think I will hack a little bit on the VERO.
Can the vero run JVM ecosystem stuff and languages ? I think of groovy essentially as it’s damm good for scripting.

I think all it needs si a JVM present on the OS, so what about Java JDK on the vero ?

I can chek myself as I don’t get my vero yet, and I don’t know for other devices as I’m new in the game.;
so Thanks y’all in adavnce for your help.

6

A single USB HDD is very limited in capacity: how big is your local movie/music/picture collection? I personally use UNRAID as my NAS solution → I place an ISO of all of my (legaly owned) DVDs and CDs here… then place the physical media into a box in the crawl. I use this NAS to stream locally to 2 different Raspbmc/OSMC locations and an Android phone (with KODI installed).

note: if you want to skip the ISO container and use PLEX docker in UNRAID you can STREAM all your media to your android phone REMOTELY :smile:

7

OK I see, Land (thanks for your advices) , so as Always it depends…
depends on what you are doing with your stuff (how do you consume your medias ?)

Well, for my personal use it’s essentially

  • music , things that I listen to (the rest I regulary backup somewhere or delete if I really don’t like (don’t see the point to collect things I know I will never enjoy);
  • The same for movies , (I’m not in TV shows) , and for movies once I see , I delete (or gives the dvd to someone) ;

I’m the kind of fool who finds it really difficult to watch again a movie I’ve seen less than 6 years ago.
Can’t stand it ! :confounded:

So all in all I, use something close to 1T as “LIVE” media content.
so I’ve just bought a brand new 2To USB for grabbing all that and attach to the vero

That’s why I think , in my personal case,
IF the vero is capable of decent services regarding NAS-like behaviour I can cop’ with it and “basta !”

Well in fact what I need ? just being able to stream from and to my local home network.
When I leave home I copy what I want on a stick or on tablet or phone (depends what…)
for instance I’ve been usingusing MediaMonkey until now for my music library
(Impressive music library management, and synchronisation I can tell you all guys.
Don’t know it ? give it a test, seriously.
It’s what I think I will miss the most)

So for now, it’s really all local
My windows PC, my droid Tablet and Phones… everything (wired or wifi) must be able to read/write/stream from-to the Vero ;
Got an Harman Kardon AV Receiver on the network with DLNA for music streaming ; and the vero will be HDMI-attached to the AV receiver.

Quite simple I think. I don’t got extravagant needs.
If this it’s OK; then I’m happy. :smile:

8

Just attach an external 3TB drive to your Vero and set up SMB in the Kodi GUI options.

9

Hi bytes,

You can run

sudo apt-get install default-jre for JRE
sudo apt-get install default-jdk for JDK

I notice you are a bit concerned about power. The hard drive will spin down when it is not being accessed.

Sam

10

Thanks Sam that’s whatI figured out, as there is a full little debian behind scene. Now that I got my vero in my hands, I just have to spare one or two free week-ends, and I will know more !
By the way let me thank you Sam for this good work on the vero. Being a new commer in this, I just don’t got the time to do such a thing by myself (too old for theses craps now :wink: )
People should appreciate a little bit that you certainly invest a lot of time in this venture (and of course you got to make a living); and that it is NOT that simple to launch such enterprise.
All in all, as long as I’m concerned you’ve done you part. Thank you and all others committers for that

That’s being said, back to my questions what I still don’t know yet is this :
let’s say I start building stuff, scripts crazy stuff etc… where to find information what you can do and what you can’t do , or more approprietly you shouldn’t do on the Vero (obviously because it’s still a “little” machine.) what limits…

-Second point will be interactions between whatever scripts or program I build and OSMC. : how to make sure my stuff doesn’t create panic with OSMC core, is there some sacred book made of basic rules of peacefull collaboration to follow ?

If you guyz got some focused topics or newcommers tutorials, feel free to point me towards
Cheers

11

I would say feel free to experiment with things. If anything goes bad you can easily reload the software on to an SD card and put it back in the Vero. This will put you back to factory

S