Standalone HDMI-output media players?

Anyone tried using standalone media players?  Ones that can output HDMI from a plugged-in SD card or USB drive?
 
I've got a Dashbon portable projector and I'm looking for ways to play movies with no network connectivity.  Now, most of the time I'd be fine with playing from a Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV stick or screen-casting from a phone or tablet.  I've got dongles for those and they work fine.  Yes, I could use a tethered device like a phone or tablet but there I'd be stuck leaving the device connected to the projector and dealing with the charge state.
 
So it occurs to me it might be worth consider a standalone box that'd be capable of being powered by 5V USB.  Something like this:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Blusmart%C2%AE-1080P-Player-Remote-Control/dp/B00PFDNAY0
 
But I have no idea which are more troublesome than others.  Any experiences out there?

A Raspberry Pi running Kodi would also work.


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serodgers said:

A Raspberry Pi running Kodi would also work. 

Click to expand...

 
True, it would 'work' but it would it'd introduce a level of clunky-ness that I really want to avoid.  
 
I've rolled the dice and ordered one of these.  
 
http://www.amazon.com/Crenova%C2%AE1080P-Streaming-Multi-Player-player-Black/dp/B00NL72HZK
 

 
 
My hope is the inclusion of button controls on the box will help avoid issues with remote batteries going dead while stored in the carry bag.

What I need to find next is a case that'll allow me to store the remotes in the bag such that there won't be pressure on the buttons, leading to their batteries going dead.  That and keep a few spare batteries in there too.  I've got a ton of eyeglass cases lurking around...

I've learned over the years to take a 'belt and suspenders' approach to any kind of gizmos that are going to be used in front an audience.  Nothing drops credibility like gizmos going dead or being overly tedious to use.

Here still utilize / have Patriot PBO boxes.  They are tiny and play everything.  I have one configured with a 1 TB notebook drive in it. 
 

 
 

Roku?  Apple TV?

wkearney99 said:

What I need to find next is a case that'll allow me to store the remotes in the bag such that there won't be pressure on the buttons, leading to their batteries going dead.  .

Click to expand...

 
Is there a reason you don't plan on removing the battery from the remote before you store it?
 
-Tom

xlurkr said:

Is there a reason you don't plan on removing the battery from the remote before you store it?

Click to expand...

 
Yeah, right, at the end of the night (or when it starts raining) I'm sure everyone involved in packing it up with properly remove the batteries AND likewise store them away properly.  Versus putting them into a container that doesn't have the buttons pressed on, draining the batteries.  There's perhaps just as much chance they'll ignore the container, but at least there won't be stray batteries lying around loose in the bag.  Or the battery door or tray lost or broken.  Some of the remotes use those coin batteries that are a hassle to remove/replace.  I do NOT want to have to scramble around in the grass looking for some tiny piece of plastic.
 

wuench said:

Roku?  Apple TV?

Click to expand...

 
You perhaps missed my point about being stand alone?  Where I mentioned use with NO connectivity?

I am less familiar with ATV but Roku has a built in media player app, (I have not tested it for local playback, and there may be file type limitations):
 
https://support.roku.com/hc/en-us/articles/208754908-Roku-Media-Player-Playing-your-personal-videos-music-photos   

Also +1 for the Kodi/RPI solution.  I have used that in the past, and if you are looking for a player that can play just about every media type Kodi has a large number of files/codecs supported even on the Pi.    Not sure what you find clunky unless you mean the remote control support, I haven't experimented with that, but they support several remote options, and there is also just usb keyboard/mouse support, so you could even just use a wireless mini-keyboard/mouse as a remote.  Installation is really just writing an ISO to an SD card and then configuring Kodi once it boots.

An over-arching factor here is ease of use, with limits on setup/maintenance running a VERY close second.
 
As in, easy for the wife/kids/friends to set up and use.  While not being a candidate to drag me into being the danged roadie all the time.
 
While I love using the Pi, it's nowhere near a set-and-forget arrangement.  No remote control without, what a goat sacrifice to the lirc gods?  Then there's ganglia of gizmos that have to get attached to it from all four sides.  That and Kodi is just plain ugly to use.  Sure, you can rearrange it "any way you like" but you could likewise do that with a C compiler... and only slightly more work.  I kid, sorta...
 
I never liked how the Roku handled things.  It's possible they've made it suck less.  Not sure I'm inclined to bother figuring it out.

You could probably pick up a used Patriot PBO box for cheap these days.   When powered and USB connected is is easy to copy media to the hard drive.
 
I like the multiple mechanisms of video / audio output.  Remote is medium sized; not too big or too small.
 
It is very low powered and with a little firmware update the media tank gui works fine.
 
I have not problems with it using the old fashioned Microsoft Media player IR remote control with it today.
 
I did configure a Kodi box for a relative who found it a bit too complicated such that I replaced it with an old media tank (Patriot PBO).  Basically it just boots up to a menu with all of the media content.  That is as complicated as they wanted it It has analogue video out, RGB and HDMI outputs. 
 
I use KODI today on the LCD televisions.   Here utilize AOpen digital engines with meat (CPU/Memory) running KodiBuntu connected Gb to the main network.  Each also have one SATA drive which I use sometimes for local temporary storage.
 
Plex and Emby will do transcoding just fine and the eye candy is nice with these two applications.
 
I don't understand about KODI being ugly to use nor see any difficulty with the navigation.  You can do anything with it theme wise these days for nothing (free).  You can also very easily create a propietary playback only theme in about 5 minutes.
 
While XBMC / KODI was slow with the RPi; it is fine today with the RPi2 (but I do not utilize it).  One of the original goals of the RPI was the installation of XBMC and making it work.  (similiar to the old video processing contests of yesteryear with the AMD versus Intel thing).
 
If you want small / AMD and expandible you can purchase one of these today for way less than $100 refurbished.  It is a tad larger than an RPi Arm based computer.  These two will run circles around any Arm / Android based mini computer.
They will run Windows 10, Android or Linux (KodiBuntu would be my preference).
 

 
The above noted; probably would be easier just to get an Android tablet / Windows tablet and use that with whatever media you want on a usb stick.  Just noticed this past weekend that my daughter connected a tablet to your exercise machine and watches streaming / live TV with that set up.  Personally I like to watch and enjoy my media content on something larger than a telephone or tablet; that is me though.
 
Googling this morning found a cheap media tank for $39.51/ free shipping with all of the bells and whistles.  Looks just like the one you purchased from Amazon for $35.  I did find yours for around $27/free shipping.   I like that it supports an internal drive; well similar to the Patriot PBO (well modded by a bunch of EU folks a few years back).
 
I have no idea about the firmware / GUI on it.
 

 
- Model: J-03
- Plastic housing material
- Full HD 1080P media player
- Supports 2.5" internal SATA HDD up to 1TB; external SATA/IDE HDD up to 2TB
- Supports NTSC/PAL composite video
- HDMI 720P, 1080P video output
- Supports USB flash drive, Plug & Play
- Supports SD card up to 32GB
- Supported video formats: RMVB/RM(RV8/9). H.263, H.264(MOV/MP4/M4V), MPEG1/2(VOB), MPEG4(XVID/DIVX), WMV7/VC-1, MKV, AVI, TS/TP, VOB, PMP, FLV
- Supported audio formats: MP3/WMA/AFE/FLAC/OGG/APE/AAC/AC3/DTS
- Image formats: JPEG/GIF/BMP/PNG (supports picture zoom out/rotation and auto-play)
- Interface: SD/MMC + USB + YPbPr + AV + HDMI + VGA
 
A bit ago we rented a 3 bedroom log cabin in the middle of nowhere which was nice.  It had a large fireplace and large 4 person hot tub inside plus a 60" LCD TV.  While we didn't really watch much TV; I did bring the Patriot Media tank and it worked just fine with the LCD TV.

Plex is probably the easiest to use interface i've seen, and I think it can play local content through it's android app.  Maybe there is something out there that can make use of that, maybe that NVidia Shield?

I have a RPi3 setup in that i take with us when we visit our Texas house. I use a old Media Center IR usb receiver and Windows Media Center remote. No setup just plug and play and it just works.

Basic confluence screen is about as simple as it gets and has good WAF so far.


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Bear in mind there's also the goal of powering this through the USB port on the projector.  It claims to be capable of 2A output.  But any drain there is also drain against the same batteries used for projection.  So the stingier the device used here, the better.
 
The one I ordered should be in later today, I'll give it a try and report back.