This setup is perfect for remotely managing media playback on your Raspberry Pi, either individually or across multiple devices, using a straightforward web interface.

Download the Image (~4GB, MD5 57c045c8b147f14469cd145b85cf1239)

It needs to be written to an SD Card with a software like Raspberry Imager, Etcher or dd.

1. Access the Web Interface

• Boot from the SD Card, and it will display the Raspberry Pi’s IP address on the player’s screen at startup. After the screen goes blank, it is ready to play.
• Open this IP address in a web browser with the port 5000 (e.g., http://<your_pi_ip>:5000) to access the interface.

2. Media Storage

• Files are stored on a partition labeled media. This partition is accessible on other computers when the SD card is inserted, making it easy to add or manage files offline.
• Alternatively, you can upload files directly through the web interface while the script is running.

3. Supported File Formats

• The script can handle various media types, including:
  • Videos: .mp4, .avi, .mkv
  • Audio: .mp3, .wav, .ogg
  • Images: .jpg, .png, .bmp

4. Standard Interface ("/")

• Play: Starts playing the selected media file.
• Pause/Play: Toggles between pausing and resuming the playback.
• Stop: Stops the currently playing media.
• Loop: Plays the selected file on a continuous loop until stopped.
• Upload: Allows you to upload new media files from your computer to the media partition.
• Delete: Deletes the selected file from the media partition.
• Multi Player: Opens the multi-player interface to control multiple players on the network (see section 5 below).

5. Multi-Player Interface (“/multi”)

• Scan for Instances: To control multiple players, enter the range of IP addresses for all Raspberry Pi devices on your network. Here’s how to determine the range:
  1. On startup, the IP address of each Raspberry Pi is displayed on its screen (e.g., 10.0.1.3).
  2. Since all devices on your network likely share the same subnet (e.g., 10.0.1.x), you can specify the full range of possible addresses within that subnet.
  3. If one player shows an IP of 10.0.1.3, enter the range for the entire subnet in the IP field as 10.0.1.1-10.0.1.254.
  4. Click the Button “Scan”. This will search and identify all Raspberry Pi devices on the 10.0.1.x subnet, allowing you to control them simultaneously.
• Controls for Each Individual Player Found
  • IP Display:
    • Each player’s IP address is displayed, allowing you to identify each device individually in the interface.
  • File Dropdown List:
    • This dropdown is populated with the media files currently available on the selected player.
    • How to Use: Click on the dropdown to see the list of files stored on that player. Select a file from the list to prepare it for playback. They will be started with the “Play Selected” or “Loop Selected” Button.
  • Buttons Below Each Player:
    • Play: Plays the selected file from the dropdown on that specific player.
    • Loop Play: Continuously loops the selected file on that player until stopped.
    • Stop: Stops any currently playing media on that specific player.
    • Pause: Toggles Pause/Play of the current media playback on that player.
    • Inspect: Opens the standard interface of that player, to control or manage files.
• Controls for All Players That Have Files Selected
  • Play Selected:
    • This button plays the currently selected file (from each player’s dropdown) on all players where a file has been chosen.
    • How to Use: After choosing files for each player from their dropdown lists, click “Play Selected” to start playback on all these players simultaneously.
  • Loop Play Selected:
    • This button loops the currently selected files on all players where a file has been chosen, continuously repeating playback until stopped.
    • How to Use: Select files for each player from the dropdown, then click “Loop Play Selected” to have each file play in a loop across all selected players.
• Global Controls for All Players Found
  • Pause All:
    • Pauses playback on all players simultaneously. Any currently playing media on each player will pause, regardless of which file is playing.
    • How to Use: Simply click “Pause All” to send pause to all players at once. It will toggle the current state.
  • Stop All:
    • Stops playback on all players, clearing any currently playing media across the entire group.
    • How to Use: Click “Stop All” to halt media on every player within the selected IP range.

6. Direct API Endpoints

• You can interact with the player directly through API endpoints if you prefer using command-line tools or scripts.
  • Play: http://<your_pi_ip>:5000/play?file=filename.mp4
  • Pause/Play: http://<your_pi_ip>:5000/pause
  • Stop: http://<your_pi_ip>:5000/stop
  • Loop: http://<your_pi_ip>:5000/loop?file=filename.mp4
• You can call these from any software of making https requests, like wget on unix style terminals:
  • wget “http://<your_pi_ip>:5000/play?file=filename.mp4”

Network Tips:

To make it easier to manage your players, consider configuring your router to assign consistent IP addresses. You can label each player with the last digit of its IP address to easily identify them. Many routers support setting a list of static IP addresses, or you can maximize the “DHCP lease time” to help ensure that each device retains the same IP over time.

For connecting to WiFi:

1. Plug in a keyboard and exit the script by pressing CTRL + C repeatedly.
2. Open the configuration utility by running: sudo raspi-config
3. Go to Localisation Options and set the WiFi Region to enable the WiFi interface.
4. Use the Connect to WiFi dialog to enter your network name and password.
5. After exiting the utility, confirm the reboot.

This will establish the WiFi connection and allow your player to connect to your network on startup.