In vehicle video player?

[odledm]

Just curious what you guys are using to play videos in your cars. Like many of you I have ripped all of my movies. We are about to get a new vehicle that will probably have a DVD player in it, but I don't want to hastle with DVDs. The rear entertainment system does have rca or possiblely HDMI. I was thinking about grabbing a raspberry pi and throwing kodi on it with a thumb drive with some movies loaded. Any other ideas out there?

[Fuzzy]

I actually used to have an atom PC in my last truck, with 7" touchscreen, and I used SageTVPlaceshifter on it to watch TV/movies. Launched it from StreetDeck (a now defunct carpc front end).

Current truck I currently only have a couple cheap headrest monitors and a car DVD player - I didn't built this setup, was in the truck when I bought it - and it's been good enough for now. I think I actually have the parts around to be able to hook my phone's HDMI to the monitors, but haven't had the motivation to do it.

[Wayneb]

I think a raspberry pi 2 running kodi is a great option, the version 2 pi uses a 1/8" jack for audio/video output if you can't use the HDMI port, from what I read somewhere a zune audio/video cable works for composite video out.

[tmiranda]

I want to see who is the first to post that they are waiting for the iCar

[Wayneb]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I want to see who is the first to post that they are waiting for the iCar

Let me guess, it will have giant Apple logos on the doors and a really small trunk, if you need more storage space it's going to cost a lot more.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Wayneb

Let me guess, it will have giant Apple logos on the doors and a really small trunk, if you need more storage space it's going to cost a lot more.

No, extra storage space isn't an option. You'll have to wait for the iCarS that will have a slightly larger trunk, but will drive completely differently.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by odledm

Just curious what you guys are using to play videos in your cars. Like many of you I have ripped all of my movies. We are about to get a new vehicle that will probably have a DVD player in it, but I don't want to hastle with DVDs. The rear entertainment system does have rca or possiblely HDMI. I was thinking about grabbing a raspberry pi and throwing kodi on it with a thumb drive with some movies loaded. Any other ideas out there?

I have two of these using rear seat tablet mounts, for my two children. I put 64GB MicroSD cards in each one, loaded up with movies and have them run Kodi. They run flawlessly. They also run SageTV client very well.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

No, extra storage space isn't an option. You'll have to wait for the iCarS that will have a slightly larger trunk, but will drive completely differently.

Don't forget, the iCarS is their lightest thinnest iCar yet. It's revolutionary with it's new innovative and worlds first iShift technology, which automatically picks the right gear based on the speed of the car on the road. They also will introduce a new battery called the Ionic Tri-Proton reactor (Lithium Ion), which gets "hundreds of miles per charge", or 101 Miles.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I actually used to have an atom PC in my last truck, with 7" touchscreen, and I used SageTVPlaceshifter on it to watch TV/movies. Launched it from StreetDeck (a now defunct carpc front end).

I remember StreetDeck. I had a VIA C3 1.3Ghz Mini-ITX setup with an 8" touch screen in my car. It was awesome. That was when having a computer in your car was the only real way to have a good smart entertainment system. Now some people just slap a large Android device in the dash and there's your carputer.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I remember StreetDeck. I had a VIA C3 1.3Ghz Mini-ITX setup with an 8" touch screen in my car. It was awesome. That was when having a computer in your car was the only real way to have a good smart entertainment system. Now some people just slap a large Android device in the dash and there's your carputer.

My old carpc (an Atom330 if I remember correct) is actually now my router at my house - that board has run continuously for about 4 years now in that capacity.

[stuckless]

Depending on how old your kids are... I would think a cheap $99 tablet, each, would be better than an in car entertainment system. When my kids were toddlers, having a DVD player in the van was great, but as they grew older, they mainly wanted their tablets/laptops for trips. So, when traded in the van, I didn't bother with any entertainment stuff... except for satellite radio... but that's for me

[Fuzzy]

Yeah, my girls alternate between watching movies on the headrest monitors, and staring at their nexus 7's when we're on road trips.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

My old carpc (an Atom330 if I remember correct) is actually now my router at my house - that board has run continuously for about 4 years now in that capacity.

Unfortunately the C3 motherboard is just laying around. It's very power efficient, but that processor is missing some key i686 instructions so you have to either build your own kernel or install something flexible like DSL.

[odledm]

My kids are 4 and 2 (and 1 on the way, hence the reason we're getting something a little bigger). We currently just use tablets in the car, but the WAF has degraded over time, so we are looking for something built in, but aren't opposed to adding something aftermarket if we can get a good enough deal on a car. The big problem is that these Rear Entertainment Systems (or at the lest the factory ones) don't have a way to play videos that aren't one a DVD. They do have RCA jacks and one system even has HDMI so all is not lost. If I go the Pi 2 Kodi route, I would need to find a good way to select the videos from the front seat. I was thinking about using Yatse remote on my phone, I'm guessing I'll have to put in some kind of mobile router to do that (although, maybe I can just turn my phone into a hotspot, or do a point-to-point connection) It gets a little complicated and I can already see some gotchas that may cause a low WAF. Another plus for the pi2 route is I could possibly add an emulator for some games in the future when they got a little older. Thanks for the tips and keep them coming.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by odledm

My kids are 4 and 2 (and 1 on the way, hence the reason we're getting something a little bigger). We currently just use tablets in the car, but the WAF has degraded over time, so we are looking for something built in, but aren't opposed to adding something aftermarket if we can get a good enough deal on a car. The big problem is that these Rear Entertainment Systems (or at the lest the factory ones) don't have a way to play videos that aren't one a DVD. They do have RCA jacks and one system even has HDMI so all is not lost. If I go the Pi 2 Kodi route, I would need to find a good way to select the videos from the front seat. I was thinking about using Yatse remote on my phone, I'm guessing I'll have to put in some kind of mobile router to do that (although, maybe I can just turn my phone into a hotspot, or do a point-to-point connection) It gets a little complicated and I can already see some gotchas that may cause a low WAF. Another plus for the pi2 route is I could possibly add an emulator for some games in the future when they got a little older. Thanks for the tips and keep them coming.

You could potentially use Plex instead of Kodi. this would allow remove control from other plex devices, so you could control it from your phone, for instance. But this will of course require them to be on the same 'network', meaning the need to have wifi as well.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

You could potentially use Plex instead of Kodi. this would allow remove control from other plex devices, so you could control it from your phone, for instance. But this will of course require them to be on the same 'network', meaning the need to have wifi as well.

A mobile WiFi hotspot would take care of that.

[Fuzzy]

True - an issue I've run in to when i was doing a similar setup in my RV, is that if I use my phone as a mobile hotspot, the phone resides on the public IP, and NOT on the private IP, so running Plex on the phone that is also the hotspot doesn't connect to other plex devices on the hotspot.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

True - an issue I've run in to when i was doing a similar setup in my RV, is that if I use my phone as a mobile hotspot, the phone resides on the public IP, and NOT on the private IP, so running Plex on the phone that is also the hotspot doesn't connect to other plex devices on the hotspot.

The Verizon WiFi hotspot I'm using is dedicated to that task, and greatly reduces the chance of my cooking another smartphone from doing what you mention(it took over a year of regular use as such before it died, but it did).

It also behaves as something of a router, so it does use the 192.168.1.x IP range and gives the option to turn AP isolation on or off.

As a related note to Verizon users, they recently changed their pricing on data plans and the hotspot access points(was $20/month, now $10) among other things. If you haven't checked your plans recently it might benefit you to do so. Even the guys with grandfathered plans.

[pjpjpjpj]

I do the cheapo Virgin Mobile phone deal, and they have an inexpensive portable wifi hub (4G) that you can activate for a month or even daily. I used that on a trip last year. But the way I did it was kinda rigged.

Minivan has a 110v outlet. Plugged a power strip into that (had to use an adapter that took out the grounding portion of the plug so it was just the hot and neutral).

-Wifi gadget providing the signal (plugged into the power strip even though the battery probably would have lasted)
to
-Using Plex, streamed stuff from my Sage server at home through the wifi to a tablet
to
- Tablet HDMI-out cable (Tablet powered by power strip)
to
- Powered HDMI-to-RCA (composite, yellow/red/white) adapter, also plugged into the power strip
to
- Minivan's RCA-in jacks.

Cables, wallwart plugs, and gadgets all over the friggin place... but it worked.

(and, of course, my kids just decided they wanted to watch a DVD we had in the car repeatedly for most of the trip.... )

I don't understand why any vehicle manufacturers, in this day and age, are still putting RCA into vehicles instead of HDMI. The van is a 2013 model.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I don't understand why any vehicle manufacturers, in this day and age, are still putting RCA into vehicles instead of HDMI. The van is a 2013 model.

I'm still laughing at truck stops and some other venues selling HDTV sets.... with built in DVD players for use on the road.

Come to think of it, I think trying to find a small portable bluray player with screen is still nearly unheard of, but DVD players of the same type can be found with no trouble. I guess people who buy bluray disks are not supposed to travel with them.