24/7 TV shuffler with mini pcs?

obsoleteman · January 12, 2023 at 5:50 PM

Hi Guys, first of all, I consider myself a newbie. I don't know programing, coding, or much of the lingo. But I'm pretty good at following directions and getting things to work. I followed this youtuber's 24/7 TV shuffler tutorial and I was able to get my raspberry pis working.

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Recently, I noticed in LibreElec image creator that there's an option for "generic amd/intel/nvidia" So I tried turning some mini pcs running windows 10 into a tv shuffler by following the same instructions above for raspberry pi. I knew it was a long shot since that tutorial for raspberry pis. LOL! And of course, it didn't work. Some things were different. I got as far as getting the pc to load into kodi, but the movies didn't start. Some things were not the same when it came to inputting some code in putty. For example nano /flash/config.txt was blank, whereas in the raspberry pi tutorial above, it was populated with lots of codes.

So basically getting the pc to load into kodi was as far as I got. The movies doesn't load, and I didn't see what I normally see in the pi, which is a notice flashing connecting to cec adapter before the movies would start. Just creating this thread in the off chance that someone has already created a tv shuffler using a windows pc and can give me some directions. Thank you in advance.

**chewitt** · January 13, 2023 at 3:46 AM

The TVs in the video are old devices without HDMI connections. The config.txt file on the RPi is only being used to force NTSC vs. PAL output on the Composite video output. That kind of modification in config.txt is supported only on RPi boards and only in LE 9.2 and older. In LE10 and up (LE11 is coming soon) video modes are forced with "video=" kernel boot parameters (params).

On a Raspberry Pi these are set in cmdline.txt, and you would append one of the following:

video=Composite-1:720x576@50ie <= PAL

video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie <= NTSC

Code

RPi4:~ # cat /flash/cmdline.txt 
boot=UUID=0602-0454 disk=UUID=a7ecf32f-d897-4f8e-b760-03d219e31c88 quiet video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie

On x86_64 hardware devices you append it to the APPEND line in the syslinux.cfg file in /flash:

Code

NUC:~ # cat /flash/syslinux.cfg
DEFAULT linux
PROMPT 0

LABEL linux
 KERNEL /KERNEL
 APPEND boot=LABEL=System disk=LABEL=Storage quiet video=Composite-1:720x480@60ie

If you are creating something with an HDMI equipped device and you already have video output there is nothing to do - there is no need to force NTSC vs PAL (the concept doesn't exist with HDMI) and you only need to implement the autoexec.py part of the tutorial.

obsoleteman · January 13, 2023 at 7:30 AM

Chewitt, I am making these shufflers for vintage tvs. Would you be able to show me step by step what to input in putty? Is it pretty much the same as the youtube video? Like I said, I can get the pc to load into Kodi. I can set up my root password, and turn on ssh.

So in putty...

1. root and password

2. cd /var/media/name of usb/Videos

3. cd /storage/.kodi/userdata

4. nano autoexec.py

5. In the autoexec.py I paste....

import xbmc

xbmc.executebuiltin("PlayMedia(/var/media/name of usb/Videos,isdir)")

xbmc.executebuiltin("PlayerControl(RandomOn)")

xbmc.executebuiltin("PlayerControl(RepeatAll)")

So far, do I do everything the same for a windows pc? What would be step 6? The code you provided for syslinux.cfg? Do I open that the same way as config.txt? For example: nano /flash /syslinux.cfg

Like that? I apologize, this is all a foreign language to me. LOL!

**chewitt** · January 13, 2023 at 9:44 AM

If you already have Kodi up and runing all you need to do is create the autoexec.py file.

**mglae** · January 13, 2023 at 4:03 PM

Starting with Kodi Matrix/LE10 you have to create an Autoexec Service yourself: https://kodi.wiki/view/Autoexec_Service

obsoleteman · January 14, 2023 at 4:56 AM

Quote from mglae

Starting with Kodi Matrix/LE10 you have to create an Autoexec Service yourself: https://kodi.wiki/view/Autoexec_Service

I'm using this image, "LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-10.0.3.img." Am I suppose to follow the instructions in that link you gave? I tried following the instructions on that link, but I can't get anywhere. This image is booted from a windows 10 pc, so do I get to the folder from the pc side of things? appdata\roaming\kodi, or from Libreelec /storage/.kodi

Either way, using the file manager in kodi, I cannot find a kodi folder. If you guys don't mind pulling teeth, please continue to show me the way. If you want to give up on me, that's cool too. LOL! I would understand.

**mglae** · January 14, 2023 at 9:06 AM

After enabling ssh in the LibreELEC Settings Addon the device can be accessed from Windows using e.g. putty or WinSCP.

User name is root default password is libreelec.