[TriLUG] mostly OT: movies on the go?

[Joseph S. Tate via TriLUG]

I'll endorse the Android tablet solution, but add the following: I have
more than 2 kids, so shuffling micro-sd cards around is too much work.
Instead I bought a g-Inet 16MB mifi router: A cheap Wifi hotspot device
that comes preloaded with OpenWRT. I then installed the prebuilt mini-dlna
package and use that to share a 128GB usb stick over the WLAN. The tablets
all run a no-frills uPNP browser from the play store that can browse the
dlna server, and play the movies directly streaming them 4 at a time as we
barrel down the highway. The hockeypuck sized micro-usb powered Mi-Fi
router costs less than $30 at newegg, and I can sync movies to one flash
drive. The 128GB flash drive is proving to be too small for our movie
collection, despite resampling everything to DVD resolution, so I'm looking
for a cheap external SSD to use instead.

At home all my movies are served over mini-dlna, so tablets can stream at
home or away without configuration changes (just connect to a different
WLAN and DLNA server). Everything charges on 5V DC, so I don't have to
listen to the whine of my inverter (unless I've got my laptop plugged in to
top it off).

We've been on several roadtrips, short and long, and this system works
great!

I had brainstormed using a raspberry pi to connect to the existing drop
down dvd player, but couldn't get a mounting position that I liked, and it
didn't solve any of my syncing problems anyway. The mifi just sits in the
center console hidden away.