NOOB Question. Arduino and HDMI Media Player what type and how to interface them

Question

Dear Element14 forum.

I am Steve writing from Italy.

Due to a project I need to play via HDMI screen a total 20 MPEG movies that the final user select them single via 20 push button.

Now I have thought to put an arduino to get the push button matrix but I have the problem which media player interface to use to be controlled via arduino.

How could I implement this?

What are Your opinion?

The system must be very reliable since it has to last more than 2 years continuously used...

So running a raspberry I thing it is not a good answer.

Any help is appreciated.

Best regards and thank You in advice.

Steve

clem57 · Accepted Answer

I would guess the buttons will fail before anything else. So get good buttons. razzpisampler shows how to connect to a Pi and The Raspberry Pi Hobbyist: Debouncing GPIO Input shows how to debounce them. Some more http://raspi.tv/2013/how-to-use-interrupts-with-python-on-the-raspberry-pi-and-rpi-gpio-part-2 and https://blog.adafruit.com/2009/10/20/example-code-for-multi-button-checker-with-debouncing/ If you wanted a keypad, see https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8653 with tutorial Using the sparkfun 12 Button keypad, with the arduino which can be adapted to the Raspberry Pi. To play video see Playing Videos On the Raspberry Pi Command Line Clem

clem57 · Answer

Here is some issues to be aware of: SD card may fail if not a good reliable one. Check http://www.xappsoftware.com/wordpress/2013/06/10/two-tricks-to-make-your-raspberry-pi-more-reliable/ for tips. Power to Pi must be clean 5+volts with good 2+ Amps. Cord should be thickish not thin and rated UL. Environment like a good case protected from dust. Read headless - Is the Raspberry Pi suitable for running continuously, 24/7? - Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange Clem

balearicdynamics · Answer

Hi Stefano, Clem is true but I have experimented in past some good workaround that made - under a stressing test situation - the Raspberry PI (Model B2) working for days. First of all you should clear what is the kind of support you plan to stream videos and media. If is it a local storage I suggest to use a USB hard disk, as you can imagine for question of reliability. About the SD card it is also true that it is not long-term reliable, especially with frequent read/write operations. The best solution to avoid this issue is to move the partition of the entire filesystem on an external USB disk. I have adopted this solution with a SATA SSD (120 Gb) and a SATA to USB adapter. You can find on the internet plenty of similar pre-built options. Some good suggestions maybe found on an article I published in past. Here is the link: Raspberry PI: USB hard disk boot Enrico

clem57 · Answer

What balearicdynamics says is very good points since he has much experience. To help use of external USB for booting Raspberry Pi, you can use berryboot. It setups a external USB for booting your Pi. Clem

bwelsby · Answer

Berryboot is great, you can install without needing a monitor on the RPi using vnc, and set the file system to be on a USB memory or HDD or even on network iSCSI storage which is what I have been using. Brian

jodahm · Answer

Another alternative for your project may be the PCduino nano LinkSprite pcDuino3 Nano – LinkSprite it has HDMI and the good thing it can boot from the 4Gb onboard flash and you could store your videos on a SATA SSD, to add on you have Arduino headers where you could create your push buttons as a shield and program them using their Arduino IDE version or C++, python, etc. I tested one of these on a sensor network as a gateway running 24/7 during 3 weeks with no issues, just get a good power supply.

houseman74 · Answer

Clem, You are THE man!! Thanks a lot I appreciate it so much!

NOOB Question. Arduino and HDMI Media Player what type and how to interface them

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