Pi Video Player

STORY

Description

My son’s 2nd Birthday has been and gone, however I have been looking for a project to make the perfect gift for him. He absolutely LOVES things like Peppa Pig, Despicable Me (in particular the Minion mini movies), and many, many more. At home, it’s all good- we have everything on DVD or on a USB stick on our TV. Whenever he goes to his grandparent’s house, however – they don’t have a USB port on their TV nor the extensive DVD collection he has at home or the ability to play from USB Sticks

What I plan to create is a Box that my son can take with him with all his media on, and provide a simple interface for him to choose what he wants to watch.

Details

My initial thoughts to make this are:

Raspberry Pi-based:

I already own a Raspberry Pi so it is the perfect candidate for this project. It is highly configurable and has a HDMI out for easy connection to TVs. I contemplated using the A+ to conserve space but, as the project progresses I have realised there will be room to use a model B.

Python-powered GUI:

Python is a favoured language of mine, and am keen to become more proficient in using it.

The PyMedia library allows for easy video playing capability, and using TKinter/PyGame i aim to create a simple interface for it. I am also looking at PyOMXplayer.

I will run a python script on startup to compile a library of all the media stored on the attached storage, and then will have the Pi load the GUI immediately.

Arcade Buttons:

I will use some big arcade style buttons to allow my son control over what to watch. I aim to have a Python script monitoring buttons. Pressing a button will change the directory that the video player is sourcing it’s files from.

this way I can put a picture of a character on/around the button so he can press it to put it on.

forward, back & play/pause will also be available.

I may look to use an Arduino for buttons (and potentially sliders) and pass them to the Pi via serial. While interfacing with the Pi’s GPIO headers would be simpler, communication via serial plays more to my strengths, while allowing for analogue controls to be added at a later date (think volume sliders, pots etc)

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