Jump to content

Emby for the car?


fba

Recommended Posts

Hi guys - 

 

I've been setting up a test system for Emby because it is the closest thing to my ideal media system that I have found.

 

However, I'm wondering if it is possible to set up Emby in some way to make it usable in a car on a small system like the ODroid-C1?

 

  The ODroid can run Android, so I was wondering  if sync would allow me to sync some videos to the ODroid and play them back without needing to have the server also running on the ODroid?

 

If that isn't an option, is it possible to set up the server in such a way that it doesn't try to transcode the video?  (It seems like this would work as long as I transcode it in advance.)

 

 

Has anyone tried to do something like this before?   Any suggestions, pitfalls, etc?

 

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We will probably do our own cay layouts in the android app soon.

 

Also the android app will soon implement the new 5.0 MediaBrowserService. By implementing that service we can expose Emby content to other Android apps, and Google's Android Auto app can take advantage of that.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We will probably do our own cay layouts in the android app soon.

 

Also the android app will soon implement the new 5.0 MediaBrowserService. By implementing that service we can expose Emby content to other Android apps, and Google's Android Auto app can take advantage of that.

 

Any links where I can read about the 5.0 MediaBrowserService?    And, while I think it has some really cool potential if you expose it to Google's Android auto app, it wouldn't help me much as my Subraru is a year or two too old to have Android Car in it.   (I even asked if there was a way to upgrade my system with the newer one, but the dealership said it isn't "drop-in" compatible with the system I have...  "Helpfully" they offered to sell me a new Outback though.. *sigh*)  I'm also curious about the planned time frame.   I have a trip coming up in mid-August that has a 10+ hour drive each way.   So, I need something by then, and if I have to hack something up myself, I need to get going on it ASAP.

 

 

Could someone possibly give me a rundown (or links to information about) on how "car layouts" in the Android app would work?

 

 

Currently, I have a Raspberry Pi that I put a touchscreen on, and rigged up omxplayer to play video out the composite port while allowing the video selection from the touch screen.   For a quick hack job, it works fairly well, but I have wanted something  a bit more "complete".   The initial goal of the box I built was that I could have the Pi with the touchscreen sitting in the front seat so that passenger could select the videos to watch on the screen in the back-seat headrest.   This meant I didn't have to have my then 3 year old handling DVDs and trying to put them in the slot-load DVD player in the headrest.

 

With Emby, my thought would be that I would snag something like the ODroid-C1, solder on the CVBS connector and connect a USB audio device so I could handle composite video and analog audio.   (The back seat monitors are only SD, so there isn't an HDMI connector or anything useful  like that.  Sadly, this is the 2013 model, so as usual, the car companies are waaaaay behind in their tech!)

 

I figured I could either use the USB flash drives I am currently using on the Pi, or possibly a ruggedized USB hard drive for storage.   I may also rig up an IR blaster so that I can control the on/off and input selection on the back-seat monitor from a phone in the front seat.

 

The (probably somewhat obvious) endgame here is that my wife and I could control the media player while our daughter is young, but as she gets older, we could turn the control over to her.

 

 

 

Also, something that I think would be a useful feature request for this type of a situation is the ability to specify transcode resolutions and audio outputs for a box like this.   Since the screen is SD, there is no reason to transcode the video for any HD formats.   And, since it only supports stereo audio, there is no sense wasting space for any advanced codecs.

 

 

Sorry I am getting a little long winded here, but while I am asking for feature requests, I'd love to see an option to force streaming a certain way to certain devices.   For instance, in my house I have a full gigabit network running on enterprise grade gear.   So, I should EASILY be able to stream a full bit-rate Blu-ray stream with the best audio it can support.   So, for most devices in my house, I'd like to Emby not to transcode anything, and just bitstream it to the remote player and let the player handle displaying it.

 

 

Anyway, thanks for the work you guys are doing!  I showed the Android TV version to my wife last night, and she agreed with me that of all the media center software we have played with, Emby seems to be the one that checks the most boxes.

 

 

FWIW - I am also happy to contribute some time, if someone wants to point me in the right direction.   I figure I could start by bug fixing until I get up to speed on the code, and then expand from there.   So please let me know what I need to do to start to help!    I have experience with Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Android code.  And can code in C/C++, VB (yuck), PHP, Java, and a little javascript.   I've also worked with MySQL databases both doing basic admin and writing code that uses them.   I'd gladly provide additional information about other open source projects I have contributed to, or other information via PM.

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...