LEDAdd1ct
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hi folks! I decided to write this simple tutorial on how to make a very basic media extender. CPF'ers are a creative, inquisitive bunch, and I'll bet that at least a few of 'em like to watch things on the tube (or plasma, or LCD, or...)
Steps on Making an Embedded Computer System:
(these steps can and will vary!)
1) Decide what your goal is. Do you want something to watch your xvid or DivX encoded home movies or see a slideshow? Or, do you want a silent PC to go on the Internet with?
2) Decide how much you are willing to spend. This will vary from person to person, of course.
3) Look around your house. Do you have any old computers, say Pentium III 600 or higher, doing absolutely nothing? These are perfect for playing home movies on your television, but Windows is a resource hog. More on that later. If you would rather go the silent route, you'll have to give up some cash and/or tinker.
Okay, I will outline the steps I took to make my media player.
First, I knew I wanted something silent. So, that ruled out conventional computers. I went on e-Bay and purchased a thin client, which is a very basic computer with extremely low power usage. It usually lacks a hard drive, and uses either an IDE flash chip which plugs directly into the 40-pin IDE controller, or, uses a compact flash to IDE adapter. For all intents and purposes, either one will work.
So, I went on e-Bay and purchased a thin client with a one ghz. VIA Nehemiah CPU. It is passively cooled, and therefore, entirely silent. It came with a 256 meg IDE flash chip, which I backed up before messing with anything.
Then, I went on the Internet and spent a half-hour looking for tiny Linux distros with a GUI to play different sorts of videos. I decided on Geexbox, found here:
http://geexbox.org/en/index.html
You can run it off a CD, or, you can install it. I chose to install it, and it takes up only eight megs of "hard drive" space. The installation is pretty painless, except for the part where it asks you to partition your drive. You may want to ask a computer friend for help with partitioning in case you get stuck.
The major advantage of going this route is:
a) the distro is free
b) it uses *way* less resources then even the most bare bones installation of Windows.
c) it boots up extremely fast.
d) it plays many different types of files, including DVDs (with a DVD drive).
CPU speed/strength does still play a role. The VIA CPU in my thin client does not do well with some types of files, but it does play most formats well enough to make it worth it. If you choose to use an old Pentium machine (say 600 mhz. or higher, or the AMD equivalent), it should work great on most home movies encoded with DivX or xvid, though you will have the noise of the power supply and CPU fan.
Finally, you need to get that signal to your display device. Most of these thin clients have a free PCI slot, where you can insert a PCI display card with S-video (or better) out. I know some modern televisions have a DB-15 or DVI input, so that would work, too. I opted to purchase a used scan converter, to go from the video-out on the thin client to the S-video in on my TV. I tried finding a good PCI card with video out, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle.
Now, there are units such as the Popcorn Hour which will do all this with minimal fuss. But, the Popcorn Hour (and others) cost more money, it's a lot more fun to "do it yourself," and there is a great sense of satisfaction in using a box that was previously sitting in the garage doing nothing!
For the cheapest install, here is what I would do:
1) Find an old compact flash card sitting around, buy one dirt cheap off e-Bay, or find a nice friend to give you one. You can find a 256 meg card on e-Bay for under ten dollars.
2) Scrounge up an old Pentium III class or better computer.
3) Hook the compact flash card up to your computer with either:
This:
http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/adidecf.asp
or this:
http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/adebidecf.asp
There are cheaper brands out there, but the Addonics are pretty highly regarded.
4) Download the Geexbox .ISO from here:
http://geexbox.org/en/downloads.html
5) Burn it with this free tool here:
http://www.burnatonce.net/
6) Pop it in your computer and boot, hitting the "F1" key to select "Install".
7) If you have a video card with TV-out, great. If you don't, pick up a used scan converter for cheap off e-Bay. Be sure to check out this page to see which chipsets are supported:
http://geexbox.org/en/hard.html
You're all set!
You can play media off USB thumbdrives, which should be plugged in before booting (though I think you can plug it in after booting, too). You can also use external hard drives/optical drives and your LAN. You should not need USB 2.0 for most videos, but it does not hurt. HD videos will require more processing power than a thin client is likely to have, but faster computers should be able to handle them. Knowledge of Linux is helpful but not necessary, since the OS will automount local drives on boot. Have fun!
Notes:
For some reason, the latest release, 1.1, will not play .FLV4/vp6 files. I found that 1.1 RC2 does this just fine.
3/13/09
After contacting those involved in the distro, it may have been errors in my Vp6 files which I downloaded, and not the mplayer build itself. Newest release is 1.2.1.
Steps on Making an Embedded Computer System:
(these steps can and will vary!)
1) Decide what your goal is. Do you want something to watch your xvid or DivX encoded home movies or see a slideshow? Or, do you want a silent PC to go on the Internet with?
2) Decide how much you are willing to spend. This will vary from person to person, of course.
3) Look around your house. Do you have any old computers, say Pentium III 600 or higher, doing absolutely nothing? These are perfect for playing home movies on your television, but Windows is a resource hog. More on that later. If you would rather go the silent route, you'll have to give up some cash and/or tinker.
Okay, I will outline the steps I took to make my media player.
First, I knew I wanted something silent. So, that ruled out conventional computers. I went on e-Bay and purchased a thin client, which is a very basic computer with extremely low power usage. It usually lacks a hard drive, and uses either an IDE flash chip which plugs directly into the 40-pin IDE controller, or, uses a compact flash to IDE adapter. For all intents and purposes, either one will work.
So, I went on e-Bay and purchased a thin client with a one ghz. VIA Nehemiah CPU. It is passively cooled, and therefore, entirely silent. It came with a 256 meg IDE flash chip, which I backed up before messing with anything.
Then, I went on the Internet and spent a half-hour looking for tiny Linux distros with a GUI to play different sorts of videos. I decided on Geexbox, found here:
http://geexbox.org/en/index.html
You can run it off a CD, or, you can install it. I chose to install it, and it takes up only eight megs of "hard drive" space. The installation is pretty painless, except for the part where it asks you to partition your drive. You may want to ask a computer friend for help with partitioning in case you get stuck.
The major advantage of going this route is:
a) the distro is free
b) it uses *way* less resources then even the most bare bones installation of Windows.
c) it boots up extremely fast.
d) it plays many different types of files, including DVDs (with a DVD drive).
CPU speed/strength does still play a role. The VIA CPU in my thin client does not do well with some types of files, but it does play most formats well enough to make it worth it. If you choose to use an old Pentium machine (say 600 mhz. or higher, or the AMD equivalent), it should work great on most home movies encoded with DivX or xvid, though you will have the noise of the power supply and CPU fan.
Finally, you need to get that signal to your display device. Most of these thin clients have a free PCI slot, where you can insert a PCI display card with S-video (or better) out. I know some modern televisions have a DB-15 or DVI input, so that would work, too. I opted to purchase a used scan converter, to go from the video-out on the thin client to the S-video in on my TV. I tried finding a good PCI card with video out, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle.
Now, there are units such as the Popcorn Hour which will do all this with minimal fuss. But, the Popcorn Hour (and others) cost more money, it's a lot more fun to "do it yourself," and there is a great sense of satisfaction in using a box that was previously sitting in the garage doing nothing!
For the cheapest install, here is what I would do:
1) Find an old compact flash card sitting around, buy one dirt cheap off e-Bay, or find a nice friend to give you one. You can find a 256 meg card on e-Bay for under ten dollars.
2) Scrounge up an old Pentium III class or better computer.
3) Hook the compact flash card up to your computer with either:
This:
http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/adidecf.asp
or this:
http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/adebidecf.asp
There are cheaper brands out there, but the Addonics are pretty highly regarded.
4) Download the Geexbox .ISO from here:
http://geexbox.org/en/downloads.html
5) Burn it with this free tool here:
http://www.burnatonce.net/
6) Pop it in your computer and boot, hitting the "F1" key to select "Install".
7) If you have a video card with TV-out, great. If you don't, pick up a used scan converter for cheap off e-Bay. Be sure to check out this page to see which chipsets are supported:
http://geexbox.org/en/hard.html
You're all set!
You can play media off USB thumbdrives, which should be plugged in before booting (though I think you can plug it in after booting, too). You can also use external hard drives/optical drives and your LAN. You should not need USB 2.0 for most videos, but it does not hurt. HD videos will require more processing power than a thin client is likely to have, but faster computers should be able to handle them. Knowledge of Linux is helpful but not necessary, since the OS will automount local drives on boot. Have fun!
Notes:
For some reason, the latest release, 1.1, will not play .FLV4/vp6 files. I found that 1.1 RC2 does this just fine.
3/13/09
After contacting those involved in the distro, it may have been errors in my Vp6 files which I downloaded, and not the mplayer build itself. Newest release is 1.2.1.
Last edited:
