Hard Disk Drive or HDD PLAYER

Actually this is very possible to build or buy. Take a look at the Pcdruino3 because it has a SATA interface already available. Add some case building and a 2.5 inch drive for low power weight and I think you have what you need. I would pick XBMC software which is built into the EEPROM already to play movies or music. As a side benefit, wireless is built in and can be used to get the material off another pc instead of the hard drive. Hope this helps...

Thanks for the suggestion I will see if I can figure this out. By chance do you know if this board can utilizes the portable dvd players controls???? I am considering trying to wire in a teensey3.0 to use the for the controls (Play, Stop, Menu, Select) I appreciate the suggestion.

Let me make a wee bit of a suggestion. You are trying to remake the wheel here. All you have to do is get a smart TV and a external hard drive. Store all the movies on the hard drive and then plug it into the usb port on the back of the smart tv. You can probally even find a mounting rack to attach the external drive to the wall mounts of the tv. If you look around I am sure you can find a cheap smart tv in the size you need. I was at wal marrt and saw a visio 22 inch hd smart tv for 109.00.

here is the link for the tv and external hard drive.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/VIZIO-E221-A1-22-1080p-60Hz-Class-LED-HDTV-Refurbished/38661988

Toshiba 500GB Canvio Connect Portable External Hard Drive - Walmart.com

Well thanks but I think you have missed the point of my original project idea probably didn't explain it very well sorry. I would like to make this so it could be used on a plane or in the back of a car or maybe out camping. So it  Also it is for my son who is autistic so having something with a bunch of stuff would make it more difficult for him. My son has a 42" Samsung TV with 1TB external it works great for at home.

I need it to be battery powered also because it is portable

Self Contained

7"inch to 10"inch screen

Can be powered by AC or DC

Thanks again for the help this post is only meant to clarify my intention of the project. I would appreciate any further input.

I would suggest any number of the media players you an buy for £15-45 most of which take SDcards and some even HDDs.

Obviously you need some software to copy the movies on to the card. For  a simple reliable and physically strong solution I think you would do well to get one of these devices rather than a project as they a would be so difficult to package well.

I did miss understand what you were looking for. In this situation I would say forget building something and get a kids tablet like Nabi 2. The tablet should have a mini hdmi port and a rugged outside. You can store movies on the tablet and on a sd card.

The tablet would be particularly useful as it's a very common device and cheap too. Also the child looks more street cred and has lots of nice games to play with

My brother has cerebral palsy and he uses a nabi also.

So something like that seems to be a winner then, this has been informative.