Carputer thoughts

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
The battles over the DVD player has begun. We've had a player for a few years so my oldest had something to do on our trips from home to the in-laws house (5 hrs). Now that we have a 2nd who is almost 3, he wants to have the screen too. Looking at a few options for what to do. I can do a full blown Win 8 machine for about $500, put XBMC (or other) on it and even a few 2 player games as they get older, and have a good setup.

The other option is a Raspberry Pi setup for about $100 running a variant of XBMC. I'm not a Linux guru (which the Pi runs), so my main concern with this setup is accessing an external HD, and being able to provide the entertainment options the kids want.

For the rest of the setup, I've sourced what I need -- LCDs and cabling and such. From a price standpoint, the Pi is the way to go, but I'm looking for opinions from people who've done this type of thing before.
 

mudchet

Got Mud?<br><img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/
Founding Member
Location
Brentwood, TN
Would you consider a tablet? I was hell-bent on getting a carputer until iPads and tables hit the scene. THese days I would probably rather get a couple cheap tablets for back seat passengers than wire up a computer. Thoughts??
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
It's not a tablet, it's two. And the thought of managing the libraries on both machines as well as maintaining two copies of the videos we have (home media pc format and table format) is a headache I don't want. And before you suggest storing stuff in the cloud (or my home server), the cell signal along the road is spotty in several locations.
 

J Everett

Suspension Lift
Founding Member
Location
Houma, LA
I vote RaspberryPi just for the learning experience. Though, in all actuality, most of the work has been done already and can be found online. You'd just have to mimic someone else's setup. I seriously thought about doing a full Windows Carputer and then thought about going RaspberryPi, but in the car I want some actual buttons and knobs for some of the functions (which the carputer touchscreens don't have), so I just recently bought an Android based head unit. I should be finishing up the installation tomorrow when my dash kit arrives.
 

metzican

Suspension Lift
Location
Lafaytte, la
I'm sitting here without kids going tell them to look out the window....

I would want something more portable then just in the vehicle. I would look at a tablet or portable movie player or something on those lines.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
I think it's a novel idea. Always kinda wanted to do one. Are we talking about simultaneous display of the same content? Or each kid having his own?
 

thecoalition

Call me Daddy
Location
Richmond, Va
The rpi is the best option and super easy to tackle as a little project. Once you get it setup it's no different than using any other system. Just need to pick the right distro for the project - and there's plenty out there so you don't really need to do all that much now.
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Pulled the trigger on a Pi to do some testing with. Figure I can play with this one and see how it works as a media server for my bedroom TV.
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Have XBMC on the main tv, so will start with that. I don't want to try and learn a new media software while in trying to figure out this dastardly new OS
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
I'm dedicated to XBMC as well. However, I also run the Plex server on my media machine because of the streaming capabilities. Any Plex client that you log into has full access to your library from anywhere in the world. I know XBMC (or KODI as it's now called) is working on that, but thusfar, it ain't got it.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Example, my entire library is available at my parents house. Via the Plex client on their Mac mini. I maintain the database and the content, my 75mbps upstream throws it out in HD goodness.
 

Intender

Wheeling
Location
Lewisville NC
Example, my entire library is available at my parents house. Via the Plex client on their Mac mini. I maintain the database and the content, my 75mbps upstream throws it out in HD goodness.

I used to use plex, and stream stuff when I was working out of town a lot. but since I moved out in the middle of nowhere my blazing fast 2.5M/384k dsl connection makes it useless. I have got to figure out how to get faster Internet out here.
 
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