Portable Media Player
10 May 2025 · Media
Overview
When we go places to stay I like to be able to bring along media we can watch in the evening before bed. The kids are 15 and 8 (at time of writing) so it's often hard to find somehting we all want to watch. I fixed this first world problem with a raspberry pi and an NVMe SSD. As the evening goes on and the kids go to bed we can watch one of our blu ray rips or Netflix without putting my details on a SMART TV I don't trust.
I like the Argon case for the pi4, so got one to fit the pi5. Its ideal as a media player. There's an NVMe slot at the bottom witha 256GB SSD behind it, a chunky aluminum lid to keep the pi cool, USB C power, 2 HDMI ports and an actual power button!
The case is 105x95x45mm and fully loaded weighs about 300gr
You can get an IR remote for the case, but because the pi5 is pretty much a desktop computer, a full keyboard & mouse is the best way to interact with it. The sides fold in and when it's folded it's 150x98x10mm so it's easy to pack, it's got a sliding power switch so it doesn't power up in your bag and a USB C to charge the battery.
Yes, it's got a label on it! Makes it easy to keep track of connections. BT1 connects it to the media pi, BT2 is my phone BT3 isn't in use. There should really be a sticker saying BT2 Dad's phone, but projects very rarely get fully finished!
I've got a small USB connected external SSD that if we're going anywhere for a long time I put a wider selection of media on it. But for upto a week, there's plenty of space on the internal SSD.
Having access to a fully functional computer is often handy in a hotel, and when you're travelling light a laptop & PSU isn't high on the priority list. Most of the devices we use are USB C powered so neither the player nor keyboard require a dedicated PSU.
The pi runs Raspberry Pi OS, I've installed brave browser, Kodi and a few other bits. Kodi is the media interface we use at home, so everyone is familiar with it. Brave blocks adds (even on YouTube) by default so even when I'm not at home, ads are kept to a mimimum.