Is there a media player box that can do this?

[_BAZ]

What’s the best way to achieve the requirement for a piece of hardware that can be plugged into a TV or big screen and it will automatically play an infinite number of videos, on shuffle and in a continuous loop, without any need for user interaction beyond plugging it in? It’s for promotional videos at work. Basically, slideshows converted to videos to run on multiple screens in a venue during certain workshops and conventions. Here is a breakdown of what I’m after:

• A media player that can easily be plugged in to practically any television.
• When I say ‘media player’ I don’t mean software like VLC or Quicktime, I mean a physical box or drive that can be used to play videos.
• The media player will contain an infinite amount of video files. There could be 10, there could be 10,000.
• When the media player is plugged into the television, one of the videos needs to play automatically. It should be a different video everytime it is switched on.
• The videos need to be in a completely random order and play repeatedly forever.
• Preferably the same video won’t play again until the entire playlist has been played.
• For example when the media player is switched on, it will create a randomised playlist of all the videos on there. It will play through them one by one. When they’ve all played, the playlist order will randomise again and the cycle will continue.

For ease, let’s say there are 10 videos, titled numerically 00001 to 00010. When the media player is plugged in it will generate a random playlist:

1. 00001
2. 00009
3. 00003
4. 00005
5. 00004
6. 00010
7. 00007
8. 00008
9. 00006
10. 00002

The videos will play in that order. When video 00002 has finished, a new randomised playlist will be created:

1. 00009
2. 00001
3. 00007
4. 00003
5. 00005
6. 00010
7. 00002
8. 00006
9. 00008
10. 00004

Video 00009 will play first and again they will all play in turn, until 00004 and then the process will be repeated.

Failing that, a standard “shuffle” is acceptable. The problem I’ve found with shuffle on certain platforms in the past is it often plays the same song/video a second time, before all the other songs/videos have been played. However, if this is the only way, it will suffice.

The videos will all be of the same filetype and codec. However this is still TBC, so a media player that can play as many filetypes and codec as possible is preferable.

If a media player/drive/box/whatever can do all this, please help me accomplish it. I will need more than one identical unit. The ability to clone and redistribute what’s on each media player would be preferable, but if it can only be done manually I will do so. I will need multiple units of the media player so I hope this can all be achieved with as little cost as possible.

Hopefully together we can come up with a perfect solution. :)

 

[Willo3092]

You can set an E2 box to automatically play the next video. Not sure about randomly but there are lots of options.
Can't check at the moment because I'm at work but just press MENU > SETTINGS when in File List.

Shouldn't be too difficult to have a script or python plugin to rename the files randomly at a preset time.

 

[teddybloat]

Android box can do this with MX player. But I whilst you can shuffle, it is random, so you will see videos being played more than once before others have played

 

[_BAZ]

Android box can do this with MX player. But I whilst you can shuffle, it is random, so you will see videos being played more than once before others have played

I could probably tolerate that. Chances are there will be a lot (hundreds) of videos so hopefully it won’t be noticeable.

Is it easy to have it load on boot and autoplay on shuffle, and to never stop?

 

[teddybloat]

I imagine not without some coding.

But look into an apps called ifttt (if this then that) or tasker which automate things in android. They might be able to handle what you are after

 

[Willo3092]

There is a shuffle option in the 'sort by' section of the menu in Enigma2



and an option to 'play next'