Best gizmo box to output composite video?

[Brent94Z]

Hey Guys!

I do a projection setup for Halloween and Christmas. It is pretty cool I think For Halloween I had 9 projectors going. A couple of them are the cheap LED projectors that take the SD card but the others are all regular projectors... nothing new, fancy, and high def but they are functional, bright, and work pretty good for this purpose. I run these with DVD players using the composite input on the projectors. It's a bit of a pain and somewhat cumbersome putting these DVD players all around and I really like the way the LED projectors work just by inserting an SD card... but these cheap LED projectors aren't the brightest and don't give as good of projection as a regular bulb projector.

I was wondering if any of you have an opinion on the most economical "gizmo box" that would play avi or mp4 or whatever type video files off an SD card and output simple composite video and basic L/R audio? It doesn't need to be fancy... just want to be able to loop a reasonable quality composite video signal and be inexpensive. I've got a stash of about 10 DVD players purchased at garage sales for around $5 to $10 but if I can replace these with some type of cheap gizmo box, I might do it to save the hassle of messing around with DVD players

I call it a "gizmo box" because I don't even know if such a thing exists. LOL I was thinking maybe a Raspberrry Pi but it's way more advanced than I'd need and outputs I believe just HDMI.

Thanks!

Oh, if you're interested, here is my Halloween setup from last year...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLnuvUyP4Pg

And the Christmas setup...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0iGuPcDis8

[Skirge01]

Can't help with your question, but BRAVO on the holiday displays!

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Can't help with your question, but BRAVO on the holiday displays!

Thanks! Because I don't have them in waterproof enclosures or anything like that, it takes a little bit of time to get the projectors and speakers setup each time but it is fun and I enjoyed doing it

[wayner]

The RPi does output composite video or HDMI but not both at once. But I think that is fine for your purpose. The original Pi had a separate RCA video connector but I think the B+,2 and 3 combine everything into a mini headphone jack type of plug so you would need an adapter, not unlike what cameras sometimes use.

Maybe some of the cheap Android TV boxes do this as well.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by wayner

The RPi does output composite video or HDMI but not both at once. But I think that is fine for your purpose. The original Pi had a separate RCA video connector but I think the B+,2 and 3 combine everything into a mini headphone jack type of plug so you would need an adapter, not unlike what cameras sometimes use.

Maybe some of the cheap Android TV boxes do this as well.

Thanks, wayner! I'm not really familiar with the Raspberry Pi but will check that out... I glanced at some pics and noticed the HDMI output and that was it but the headphone jack thing makes sense.

Maybe I can find some old cheapies if I can't find anything else

[pjpjpjpj]

I found a cheap HDMI-to-composite gadget on monoprice a few years ago that we've used in our minivan on trips to stream video from my phone (HDMI output cable) to the car aux input. Why minivans still only have composite input, I don't know.

Anyway, I know that's just another step and not really what you want, but if you can't find a good solution that can natively output to composite, you could always go that route.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I found a cheap HDMI-to-composite gadget on monoprice a few years ago that we've used in our minivan on trips to stream video from my phone (HDMI output cable) to the car aux input. Why minivans still only have composite input, I don't know.

Anyway, I know that's just another step and not really what you want, but if you can't find a good solution that can natively output to composite, you could always go that route.

I'm thinking you're talking about this for using the Raspberry Pi?

Anyway, I just got in one of the Android boxes mentioned above. It's around $32 and looks like it'll work and do a lot of other stuff as well. I haven't tried it yet but should have some time next week to give it a shot!

http://www.amazon.com/TICTID-Android...ilpage_o00_s00

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

I'm thinking you're talking about this for using the Raspberry Pi?

Anyway, I just got in one of the Android boxes mentioned above. It's around $32 and looks like it'll work and do a lot of other stuff as well. I haven't tried it yet but should have some time next week to give it a shot!

http://www.amazon.com/TICTID-Android...ilpage_o00_s00

This looks interesting. Please post results.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

This looks interesting. Please post results.

Will do!