Hello.
A mate has a new offroad caravan and they are intending to travel around Australia.
He has a 4Tb hard drive (200Gb unused) with movies and pics and whatnot for entertainment hoping to use on a small TV in the van.
No internet where they are going. They are not all that computer literate Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The media are 576p/1080p in .mp4 containers with codecs mpeg2/mp2, h264/aac, h264/mp2, h264/ac3.
I had a google and there do not appear to be any cheapie current out-of-the-box media players here able to handle large external USB drives, they seem to be limited to "1Tb support".
So, I had a "brainwave" Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Perhaps I could repurpose one of my old Pi3 or Pi4 as a media player with the hard drive plugged into one end and the HDMI output into the TV ?
From time to time they will have to rely on solar to recharge batteries, so the Pi's low power usage would seem to make it perfect for this scenario. I suppose they could use a laptop, if a Pi is a no-go.
However, I am unsure if a Pi3/Pi4 with some sort for media player "package" would read and play those formats without jerkiness etc ?
Not sure about a remote control for it, if such a thing exists ? Perhaps plug in a USB keyboard with a long USB cable may have to suffice ?
Recommendations for an easy to use non-internet media player package for a Pi3B would be most welcomed.
A mate has a new offroad caravan and they are intending to travel around Australia.
He has a 4Tb hard drive (200Gb unused) with movies and pics and whatnot for entertainment hoping to use on a small TV in the van.
No internet where they are going. They are not all that computer literate Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The media are 576p/1080p in .mp4 containers with codecs mpeg2/mp2, h264/aac, h264/mp2, h264/ac3.
I had a google and there do not appear to be any cheapie current out-of-the-box media players here able to handle large external USB drives, they seem to be limited to "1Tb support".
So, I had a "brainwave" Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Perhaps I could repurpose one of my old Pi3 or Pi4 as a media player with the hard drive plugged into one end and the HDMI output into the TV ?
From time to time they will have to rely on solar to recharge batteries, so the Pi's low power usage would seem to make it perfect for this scenario. I suppose they could use a laptop, if a Pi is a no-go.
However, I am unsure if a Pi3/Pi4 with some sort for media player "package" would read and play those formats without jerkiness etc ?
Not sure about a remote control for it, if such a thing exists ? Perhaps plug in a USB keyboard with a long USB cable may have to suffice ?
Recommendations for an easy to use non-internet media player package for a Pi3B would be most welcomed.
Statistics: Posted by hydra3333 — Sun Feb 11, 2024 11:38 pm