Raspberry Pi as retro console or media player
A Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 is an excellent little hobby computer and media player for under your TV. It’s quiet, energy-efficient, and fits behind the television.
As a retro console
With a Raspberry Pi you can play games from old consoles, such as NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PlayStation 1, and with a Pi 5 also PSP and Dreamcast. You don’t need to install separate programs: there are complete operating systems.
- Batocera is a good choice for a Pi 5 and a Pi 4. You write it to a card and can start immediately.
- RetroPie is well-known and works well on a Pi 4 and earlier models. You can find it in Raspberry Pi Imager under Emulation and game OS.
Read how it works in Complete retro systems. Which games run on which Pi, you can see in our emulator selector. You use games and BIOS files from your own collection; read our starter guide and how to extract a BIOS from your own console.
What you need: a Pi 4 or 5 with power supply and cooling, a micro-hdmi cable (Pi 4 and 5 have micro-hdmi), a fast SD card or ssd, and a controller via usb or Bluetooth. Set your display correctly with our aspect ratio tool.
As a media player
- LibreELEC is a simple system that only runs Kodi, the well-known media player. You can find it in Raspberry Pi Imager under Media player. It plays movies and series from your network or a usb drive. Use it together with your NAS or with Jellyfin.
- Jellyfin as client: you can connect Kodi to a Jellyfin server, or use the Jellyfin app on your TV and let the Pi only serve as a source.
- Music: operating systems like Volumio and moOde turn your Pi into a network player for your amplifier.
Useful tips
- Use the official power supply. With insufficient power, video and audio will stutter.
- With a 4K TV, choose a Pi 4 or 5 and a good hdmi cable.
- Don’t run a heavy emulator on a Pi that can’t handle it. A Pi 4 runs PlayStation 1 fine, GameCube and PlayStation 2 not.
- Are your games stored on a NAS? Share them with Samba or NFS.