Watching movies when cruising offshore

[DazeAtSea]

Originally Posted by masonc

I use a cheap Raspberry Pi with HDMI out, OSMC software, wireless keyboard, 2 x 4TB USB hard drives, cheap and easy solution. I mirror the hard drives using a program on my laptop and only bring one on the boat, hard drives fail. I have a 300W inverter for the media stuff so I don't have to run the big inverter.

You can even find different entertainment set ups for a Pi to fit you're needs. This is a project I am working on at the moment. Probably about 30 days worth of movies and TV shows on a hard drive so far. I am pretty sure if I get stuck in the doldrums I will have plenty of entertainment to keep me sane. As long as I have power....

[Naughty Cat]

You can have a lot of fun with an AV project. The question is whether it will give you the durable result you're looking for?

We wired our boat with hdmi sockets and have not used them. A good spec laptop can be viewed anywhere, and it's nice to watch an episode in the cockpit sometimes. The key is having a tablet or laptop with good speakers, or you will need aux wired speakers. Otherwise you will have sound lag and need to start having a separate player. We are happy with that - replaceable, recharges the next day from solar, leaves the boat with us and, like all good kit on board, serves more than one useful purpose.

We use DVDFab to rip dvd's (you don't really want to carry them) and Bipra Toughdrive as a portable drive (meaning I can sort things out on dry land, in an hotel etc.). If you're British, GetIplayer is excellent as it stores content as MP4. You might want to think about an Ipad pro instead if you want to store Netflix content as that can't be done easily on a laptop, and it can also serve as an excellent plotter.

We find series are better on passage than movies - shorter episodes and longer as a whole series, especially comedies which don't require a whole lot if concentration. If you're doing a night passage on radar you can certainly watch 15 mins at a time if you have a pilot house or raised saloon.

VLC has been consistently the best player.for us over the years.

For audio we leave an old Ipod on board plugged into a Fusion amp, and carry newer stuff, podcasts etc. on our phones to stream via bluetooth over the Fusion. Again, simple, tried and tested. On passage, a good Desert Island Discs episode is hard to beat ( once.you've finished star gazing).

Finally we carry a portable power bank so if we ever need to recharge one of these things and don't have (or want to use) battery capacity, we have a backup.

I would love to have something like I have at home - Chromecast, Sonos etc. but the practicalities soon act as a reality check and, as many have said, you're probably in a wonderful place already so these things become less important.

Good luck with your quest.

[CatNewBee]

It's not that complicated, choose your weapon (computer) and install your favorite OS, then install XBMC / KODI and connect your Harddrive with the movies. It plays anything and also structures for you a catalog with information about your media, fan art, cast... It has categories like movies, tv shows, music, images, live tv.... A complete media center.

It has plugins to most streaming plattforms too, it can attach to any network protocol to access yor library on any NAS or server.

[Sam8989]

Here are my recommendations:
Must watch if you haven't yet - The Shawshank Redemption, Godfather, Seven, Training day, 2001; Space odyssey, Inception, Intersellar. Some pretty underrated and good movies - Shutter Island, The Departed, Tangerines, No man's land (Bosnian film, hellla good), The Grey. I watched all these movies several times. They are available through Software Torrent Sites

[chrisr]

we have a tv with built-in DVD, but only use the DVD if outside internet range. nearly always we can get internet and so stream netflix or similar via laptop and HDMI cable

just power the laptop via a 12v car charger

keep a bunch of DVDs for when no internet is available, and swap these whenever we are near an op shop or such

12v tv is hardwired to house power circuit

simple and works...why complicate life ?

cheers,

[mako]

Originally Posted by rowingdude

While cruising the coast, use a popular tool to break into shore WIFI networks

Use Bittorrent to rip as many movies as possible from the internet using a laptop

Best part is that since you’re on a boat you’re more likely to evade federal law enforcement

[IslaMujeres]

We are planning to install Sonos TV system. Can someone share their experience with it please? Something we should consider?

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by IslaMujeres

We are planning to install Sonos TV system. Can someone share their experience with it please? Something we should consider?

We had a flat screen TV with a DVD player built in to the side of it which worked great. It wasn't 12V but we only used it at the dock anyway.
I think it was a Sonos but cannot be certain.

[Kerryf]

I have Sonos onboard and it seems that it will not work unless it has access to data. I don't think it continually uses data but needs the reassurance!
I also use Plex but that seems to be the same situation. Kodi is the only media platform that will operate without data but it has its limitations too.
Repeatedly I find myself searching for a movie that is on the NAS drive using a file explorer.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by Kerryf

I have Sonos onboard and it seems that it will not work unless it has access to data. I don't think it continually uses data but needs the reassurance!

I also use Plex but that seems to be the same situation. Kodi is the only media platform that will operate without data but it has its limitations too.

Repeatedly I find myself searching for a movie that is on the NAS drive using a file explorer.

XBMC/Kodi are great, they play any format and if you organize your collection a bit they provide a nice UI to find that one movie you are looking for easily.

No Internet access necessary when using it.

[KateMid]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

XBMC/Kodi are great, they play any format and if you organize your collection a bit they provide a nice UI to find that one movie you are looking for easily.

No Internet access necessary when using it.

Yeah, I vote for them. I have them too. Kodi plays almost every kind of media you can find. And agree that it has a great movie collection, but nevertheless, I sometimes watch here the latest Movies and Shows and it's still possible to access through smart TV.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by yayabago

The best digital movie player that is free is called VLC, I suggest you download and try it- however alcohol 120 is only for windows, so you would have to emulate or have a windows pc to convert them to iso or mkv as there are more programs that specify in that alone.

VLC is outstanding, open, free, and powerful - like open CPN.

We never watch movies offshore.

In harbours with decent WiFi, or within our unlimited mobile data zone (all Nordic and Baltic countries), stream like at home - Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. Using Chromecast.

Otherwise, play one of the thousand odd movies on the media server, which is just a portable hard drive connected to a router.

The technology has now matured to the point where it has become quite simple.

[toddster8]

I just finished ripping my entire video library onto a 1Tb SSDD. Tiny little thing that easily slips into a pocket. Whenever I was sitting at the desk all summer, I'd have a disk spinning in the drive. Completely wore out an Apple SuperDrive that I bought for the purpose and probably half of another.

However, I have yet to actually watch a movie on the boat.

[Nibor]

I do not cruise off shore but what I find works very well on a 30 sailboat is a Sony Bluetooth speaker and an iPad and an iPhone. I keep my music on my phone and video one the iPad. I have Amazon Prime and Netflix etc. which allow me to download onto the iPad and iTunes and Spotify for music on the phone. I like good sound so I can enjoy the experience and although it is not surround it is a nice compromise for the space I have. The only issue I really have is how to sit and hold or prop up the iPad when watching video. It is easy on power too.

[NSfooter]

Lots of variables to consider like others have mentioned, including the size of your library & what playing device(s) if any that you have.

We use two set-ups a laptop as I carry one anyway, on which we have PLEX installed. It is connected to an external drive (in our case a 3TB WD My Passport, which can be hard wired or wireless connection to the laptop). PLEX pulls metadata into its presentation and gives a very user-friendly interface (though setting it up is a bit of a learning curve).

If we're feeling up to the work of putting up a screen to watch outside, maybe on a beach, we also carry a battery-powered projector, a Nebula Mars 2. This will either connect to the PLEX server on my laptop, read files off a USB or play Netflix, Amazon etc if connected to Wifi