My mother is 94 and no longer able to use TV controls etc. The nursing home staff kindly put the TV on for her and select something reasonable for her to watch. However, the program rolls on and eventually offends her in some way. Her distress prompted me to find another solution to provide good quality content. Even pay services are only as good as the selection you make which is beyond her.
Enter PiPresents.
After much searching and experimentation I stumbled on PiPresents. PiPresents is a package that runs on a Raspberry Pi. Written by Ken Thompson here: https://pipresents.wordpress.com
Its primary purpose is for museum and other interactive displays, check it out. Essentially it is as Ken describes, “a playlist on steroids.” It seems that it is only limited by your imagination.
My requirements were a little out of the ordinary so after much experimentation I would like to share the results.
Requirement:
- The solution must be easy for nursing home staff to use.
- It must be cost effective.
- It must have bulk storage for videos etc.
- The storage must be able to be connected to a computer for mass loading.
- It must be reliable.
- It must play 1080p without a problem.
Raspberry Pi 3 is a fantastic solution. Already proven technology and fast enough to play 1080p, it has a GPU. Although originally designed to run off Micro SD card it can be configured to use Mass Storage Devices, USB stick, SSD via USB.
- Purchase a Raspberry Pi3 and case, power supply, Micro SD card, SSD drive and case. In Australia element14 had the best price for the Pi3, here. I purchased a 240 GB Sandisk from msy.com.au with a case.
- Download Raspbian Pixel or Lite image from here. NOT NOOBS.
- Follow this to install the image, Installation Instructions.
- After boot, setup Raspberry Pi preferences, localization, password and hostname, wifi etc.
Next step is Setup SD/SSD Booting