BBB as a/v player in museum exhibits

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1

I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction to get a BBB working in a museum exhibit.

I chose the BBB because of it’s support for the low level interfaces I’m familiar with as an experienced microcontroller programmer. However, unless I can get it to replace the A/V players I currently use (Roku/Brightsign), I’ll stick to my microcontrollers and avoid the overhead of an operating system.

My immediate need is to display still images and video files w/ audio. Nothing else should appear on-screen (after an unattended power-on boot). I’d like to use Python to read sensors, either directly from the BBB or via a serial interface with a microcontroller, and then, from within the Python code, trigger changes in the displayed stills or video.

I’m running the standard Angstrom distribution. I’m open to using other operating systems and/or programming languages, if necessary. I’ve gotten my board up and running with cloud9 and the Adafruit WebIDE. My experience with Unix is in the distant past and I’ve only used Linux via the Ubuntu GUI.

I’m sure there is a way to do what I need; I’ve seen references to mplayer, ffmpeg and vlc. I just need to be pointed in a direction that should work. I expect the learning curve to be steep, but I need to narrow the path to the top, rather than wandering all over the hillside as I climb.

Thanks for your time,
Bob Reynolds (bitbangerbob)
Lead Electronics Developer
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

2

Well if you think you know how you can do it on Ubuntu you can look here: http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=Ubuntu_On_BeagleBoard_Black

Your best bet would be to use Raring and then install full Ubuntu mentioned on that page.

The stock angstrom is a good choice too because it does have full HDMI support with audio.

3

What I can suggest is , If you want to used as a A/V player . use IMX6

4

bitbangerbob wrote:

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction to get a BBB
working in a museum exhibit.

I chose the BBB because of it's support for the low level interfaces
I'm familiar with as an experienced microcontroller programmer.
However, unless I can get it to replace the A/V players I currently
use (Roku/Brightsign), I'll stick to my microcontrollers and avoid the
overhead of an operating system.

My immediate need is to display still images and video files w/ audio.
Nothing else should appear on-screen (after an unattended power-on

keep in mind that there is no support for hardware video decoding and that the HDMI interface is connected in 16bit RGR565 mode only, so you cannot decode "HD" content and the quality of displayed video content is not the best...

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I have a similar application. I want to display streamed content. I have seen references to mplayer, ffmpegplayer, omapfbplay, VLC etc… Just looking for a suggestion on which path to take for this OS and platform. Would like a play that will utilize both the CPU and the DSP. I see from the replies so far that no one has really suggested which direction bitbangerbob should take in order to use BBB.

Thanks,
Graham

7

The BeagleBone Black has no DSP in it.

Gerald

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Thanks. Wrong terminology. I should have typed Graphics Engine. Recommendation on player software?

Graham