Setting up Raspbmc on the Raspberry Pi - soon to be OSMC - using Windows 8

The Raspbmc image for the Raspberry Pi is a port of the Media Center software XBMC. It is a beautiful media center interface and since the final port has been completed is an absolute pleasure to use on the Raspberry Pi hardware. It makes the RPi a very affordable Media PC.

XBMC has been renamed to Kodi and subsequently the Raspbmc port will also be renamed to OSMC. To view the latest tutorial on how to install OSMC on the Raspberry Pi click here.

What you need

For this project you will need the following components:

• Raspberry Pi (B or B+)
• 8Gb class 10 SD card (should work on 4Gb, but rather use 8Gb or more)
• Micro USB power adapter ( I used to plug a USB cable into the TV and power the device from my TV, but this causes the device to have to boot whenever I switch the TV on which takes some time)
• HDMI cable
• WiFi dongle or Ethernet cable (optional but recommended)
• Input device (i.e. keyboard, although some TV's support CEC and allow you to control the device with your TV's remote)
• USB hub (this is to provide power to your storage devices)

You will find the instructions and the latest distro here.
For the sake of those that don't want to be confused by multiple options to choose from, here is the procedure I follow using a laptop with Windows 8 64-bit.

Download the image

The first things to do is download the Raspbmc image. This link will download the standalone install which we need to write to the SD card we have waiting for this project. You will need to download and install 7zip to unzip this image file. I downloaded this version of 7zip which works on Windows 8 64-bit.
Once 7zip is installed you an right click on the downloaded Raspbmc image file and select the 7zip option and unzip the package.

Write the image to the SD card

To write the image to the SD card we need to download some software called Win32DiskImager. The download can be found here.
Once you have installed the Win32DiskImager it is time to start writing the image to the SD card. This process can take some time (mine took about 5-10 min) so be patient and make some coffee (or tea).

Clicking on the "blue folder" allows you to select the image you want to write, so browse to the location of the image you just unzipped with 7zip. Once you have connected the SD card it will show up in the device menu. Make sure you don't accidentally select a flash drive or another SD card as this completely removes all the data that was on the device.

When you have made sure that you have the correct image and the correct device selected you can click on the "Write" button. This will ask if you are sure, click yes and wait for the process to complete. There will be a popup box once the process completes.

Setting up the Raspbmc Image

Once the image has been written to the SD card, you can now plug it into the Raspberry Pi (with all the valid cables connected) and then power the device.