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Looking for ideas: offline entertainment device (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 week ago by iii@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I'm looking to build a small entertainment device for use in my offgrid place. I'd like to use it for reading, music and movies. I'd like for it to have low power needs. And for it to carry a varied library.

How would you build such a thing?

My initial idea is to repurpose an android phone, install VLC, and an SD card with pirated video transcoded to 720p, ebooks and mp3s.

Does it make sense to maximize battery life by jailbreaking the phone and disabling background services?

Thanks for your input

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[–] A_norny_mousse 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Movies will eat battery no matter what.

Make sure your device and the OS support hardware decoding - since you want to transcode them to 720p anyhow, I'd say h264 is your best bet. Don't try to compress them too much; my guess is that battery will be more expensive than storage in your off-grid scenario?

FWIW I recommend going Linux for this sort of stuff. You simply have more control. It would be cool if there's a phone that supports full Linux; maybe check PostmarketOS' supported devices.

I recently thought about repurposing a TV box or whatever they're called - it's possible to install Linux on some of them. Maybe check out Armbian. Of course you'd still need a screen then.