Pi3b - Bet Media Centre in 2023

[CobbledTogether]

I'm new to using a pi as a media centre. My goal is to use a pi 3b to play MP3's and more often, stream music through Spotify or internet radio stations. I will have a 5" raspberry pi touchscreen connected to it and will either be using a bluetooth speaker or speakers attached to a decent quality amplifier. (I was planning to use the 3.5mm jack rather than attempting to set it up via GIPOs)

Ideally I would like to be able to have the option to control volume, media etc. via my phone either with an app or possibly a webpage/via my home network, (I have no need to manage it when I'm not at home or connected to the router at home.

I know very little and only really aware of Kodi and Volumio and thought It would be a good idea to ask the question on the forum. I have minimal knowledge of programming etc and therefore need a simple solution which can output high quality audio. As its a Pi3b it is unlikely that I am going to want to play videos.

I'd love to know what the users of the forum have used or think would be best.

(The pi3b will only have the media centre OS installed as i have little to no need for a desktop OS (as I'm writing this from my Pi4b with Raspbian )

[Man in a van]

Look at Logitech Media Server running on the piCorePlayer OS

[ame]

Run Kodi/LibreELEC/OpenELEC/whatever. You could do it now.

It has a web interface, and a competent app for your phone.

If you want to improve the audio you can do it later.

[bensimmo]

We have Jellyfin setup here. Does the job but might not be what will be easiest for you.

Looks like you should just install LibreELEC https://libreelec.tv/ as you're using it on the Pi itself (we have Jellyfin setup as a server https://jellyfin.org/)

General video should be no problem for a Pi3


Audio, use the 3.5mm jack, the USB adaptors or look for the RaspberryPi audio HATs, depends on how good you would like it.

[bensimmo]

Look at Logitech Media Server running on the piCorePlayer OS

though this looks nice

[GTR2Fan]

Audio, use the 3.5mm jack, the USB adaptors or look for the RaspberryPi audio HATs, depends on how good you would like it.

Agreed. Audio via the 3.5mm jack is good for what it is, but the gain in quality from stepping up to any of the official Raspberry Pi audio HATs or their IQaudIO equivalents is huge!

https://thepihut.com/collections/iqaudio