Raspberry pi as player
This repository contains scripts and patches to use one or more raspberry pi's as a video player controlled over the network by a Puredata patch.
General description
- the script loaded on the patch starts vlc on boot and loads the video but doesn't start the playback. Playback is stopped at the video's last frame until a new "play" command is received. For testing purposes the script loads a test video that comes with the raspbian os.
- to play another videos you need to change the path in the script load_video.sh. (and load_video_cli.sh)
- you can also control vlc over a telnet connection [port 4212]
- you need the full version of the Raspberry Pi OS.
Pi configuration
open vlc player and go to tools->preferences. There go to show all and then to interfaces. Under interfaces/lua and in the tcp interface write 0.0.0.0:9999. This sets vlc to listen to any address on port 9999.
create a directory called ~/scripts
~ $ mkdir scripts
It is a good idea to copy all the scripts to the pi just for backup. It is important that the files load_video.sh and load_video_cli.sh stay in that folder. create a directory called ~/.config/autostart/ and copy the .desktop file there
~ $ mkdir .confg/autostart
~ $ cp scripts/load_video.desktop .config/autostart/load_video.desktop
It is important that the ip-address of your pi stays the same because the address will be hard-coded on the pd patch. Open the dhcp config file and uncomment the static address lines. Make sure that your router allows hosts to set their ip-address.
~ $ sudo nano etc/dhcpcd.conf
on the control computer
- you need the pd patch vlc_controller.pd somewhere in your computer
- the address on the [connect< message box must match the one in your pi
- after the pi is booted, you can connect to the vlc and control the playback.
- make sure that your computer is on the same network as the pi!
Command line version
After finishing and testing the setup, it is a good idea to boot without the gui to save resources. Some steps need to be taken to make the version without gui work:
copy the file load_video.service to the systemd directory
~ $ sudo cp scripts/load_video.serivce /etc/systemd/system/load_video.service
Test the service
~ $ sudo systemctl start load_video.service
if it works, you can enable it to start at boot
~ $ sudo systemctl enable load_video.service
To make the Pi boot without gui you need to go the config->boot options->desktop/cli and select console autologin