[lug] (Raspberry Pi) media center control?

[MIchael J. Hammel]

On Fri, 2021-06-11 at 21:17 -0600, Davide Del Vento wrote:
> I'd like to have some sort of computer attached to my stereo for
> playing some music, mostly audio files which my piano teacher sends
> me, but also an occasional youtube and perhaps even a more occasional
> video (if I find a suitable way to see it, e.g. a mini projector such
> as https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B089W4YNTV/
> 
> I thought to use a Raspberry Pi for the purpose, 

I built my own distro (PiBox) for the RPi that I use to play videos
using a mini-projector displayed against the side of our travel trailer
when camping (we have an external "room" we can hide in so it doesn't
bother other campers).

One thing about HDMI is it carries audio too.  So if you connect a Pi
to your stereo via HDMI then your problem is essentially solved. 
omxplayer (which I find more lightweight than VLC and doesn't require a
UI - it can be run with dbus scripts) can play both videos and audio
files for you out the HDMI port.

> Questions before I spend too much time on dead ends:
> 
> 1) is a  Raspberry Pi 3 adequate for this?

Yes, if you're not an audiophile.  If you are you might need an audio
HAT of some kind.  Could probably still work in that case.  I use the
onboard audio port connected to a y-cable for earphones for my wife and
I when using in the trailer.  I do this simply so I can use headphones
instead of playing on the mini-projectors tinny speaker.

> 2) is there an Android app which decently works as an ssh client,
> including X-tunneling?

I had one that I setup an ssh tunnel, then used a browser to connect to
a squid server at home to view some webcams I setup (also running on my
PiBox disro and a RPi3). I think it's called ConnectBot.  Don't know if
it supports X-tunneling.

> 3) would it be perhaps better to use an old Android device

Can't help you here.  I have an android phone but it's mostly useless
to me since the only people who contact me on it are my wife and
daughter, the former of which still lives with me (thankfully). 
Useless other than when I use the webcams and am away from home.  I'm
actually considering getting a PinePhone to see if I can drop PiBox on
it - I already had a phone project in progress but my hardware building
talent is a bit limited.

> 4) other ideas which I may not have considered? (e.g. using the phone
> with bluetooth audio, but are there inexpensive and small receivers
> which can be hooked to a regular, old-fashioned stereo system? how
> about video? I guess HDMI cable is ok, since I don't need much video
> from the piano and phone itself can be ok).

While I don't control it with the Pi, I have an old stereo with cheap
(but very good quality) speakers I bought on Amazon for watching TV. 
Turned out the stereo is better than any of the now-popular soundbar
solutions.  I bought an expensive soundbar and ended up returning it
because it sounded terrible compared to the cheap speakers hooked to
the stereo.  I should note:  I'm definitely not an audiophile.  I'm not
even sure my hearing still works right.  But my stereo is old and
doesn't do hdmi.

The Pi solution is probably not a bad idea.  I find that most problems
with this solution is the heavy weight of off-the-shelf distros built
for the Pi.  Most still try to be desktops.  I built PiBox to be an
embedded, consumer-device-like distro for the Pi so it's very
lightweight - no browsers, for example (all my apps are written in C,
GTK+ and Cairo).  You can squeeze a lot of performance out of the Pi,
but not really with an off-the-self desktop distro.  Not without a bit
of work.  

That said, you might find it easier to have a desktop distro so that it
will have all the common apps you might want for video and audio
playback.  

Not sure if that helps, but hope so.

-- 
MIchael J. Hammel <mjhammel at graphics-muse.org>