Simple Media Center

Background

We've accumulated a collection of movie DVDs over the years. Some titles get watched so much that the DVDs have become scratched and nearly unplayable. For these favorite titles I've ripped them onto the computer to allow us to continue watching these favorites without the hassle of loading them up and dealing with the skipping issues. Also, it's just nice to have all the movies, music and other digital media located in a single spot.

Once you have this digital library the next challenge is how to access the content. This is a rabbit hole that can quickly swallow and overwhelm even the savviest of techies. And as usual I always make projects more complex by trying to do them as cheaply as possible.

After going through at least ten different designs for a home theater PC I threw my hands up and just wished for something super-simple that almost anyone could use. But I could not find anything. So I just made my own solution.

The Idea

A method for hosting and presenting digital movies (e.g. movies) that is free, easy to use and easy to maintain.

Progress

Method 1: Chrome + Visual Basic Script (VBS)

This is the method I have been using successfully for years. It requires minimal setup and maintenance and is completely free. It takes about 5 minutes to add new movies.

1. Obtain your media in MP4, M4V,  MPG and/or MPEG format. (I use Handbrake)
2. Copy all your media to a single folder.
3. Create a sub-folder called "thumbnails" and add PNG images files for each movie using the same exact name as the movie file.
4. Run a vbs script, "Create_Movie_Page.vbs" that will create an HTML page in the folder.
5. Open the HTML page in Chrome to see all your movies.
6. Click on any movie to watch!

The code and instructions are hosted on my Github page: Simple-Movie-Server-1

Method 2: Raspberry Pi

Okay, this is free and AWESOME, but not easy.

On road trips we used to take DVD players and mount them on the backs of the seats. This was a decent solution, but had issues managing cords, scratched discs, and the video skipping due to the car bouncing.

I discovered the Raspberry Pi a couple years ago and built a "portable media drive". Now my kids use an old phone or tablet to pull up a list of movies to watch. They can each watch their own movies independently, and now we just have to manage battery life.

To give full credit, I discovered this project from gavsworld. But I had to make some changes since I was using a Pi 3, and I relied on other sources for info. I also recommend this post on the Raspberry Pi site.

If you want the awesomeness without the fun of a project, you could just buy one. They are not well known because the industry hasn't agreed on a standard marketing term. Or maybe it's because the terms they use are so generic that they result in lots of cross-over devices. You could look for "wireless hard drive" or "portable media player".