Most of us want the best visual quality and spectacular sound when watching a movie or series. But there are other ways to play the same content that go completely against those goals. What about a movie shown at a handful of frames per hour on an e-ink screen? Bryan Boyer explored this idea in late 2018, and today we have Tom Whitwell's version, which received a few modifications.
A Different Kind of Video Player
The concept of a digital frame isn't new. For about 50 euros you can get models that play images and video, behaving almost like a tablet. But nothing stops us from taking the essence of a digital frame, entering DIY territory, and creating something... different. It might not be practical, but it will be special and quite original compared with what the market offers.
The Very Slow Movie Player
In other words, the plan is to build a video player that doesn't prioritize image quality or storage capacity. Quite the opposite: its screen is e-ink, with the resolution and refresh rate limits we know. The final step is to load a movie and let it run... very slowly. One of the pioneers behind this project was Bryan Boyer, who decided to play "2001: A Space Odyssey" at 24 frames per hour... about 8,200 hours to see the entire movie.
Tom Whitwell's Build
Today we come across Tom Whitwell's version, who decided to make some adjustments. The e-ink screen (7.5 inches, 800x480) costs just under 55 dollars, but it already includes the interface to connect to a Raspberry Pi via GPIO. Alternatively, you can reduce the investment to about 30-35 dollars if you choose a 4.5-inch screen. The Raspberry Pi Zero is still too slow for this task. At the time, Boyer used the 3B model, and Whitwell opted for a Raspberry Pi 4 with 2 GB of RAM.
Whitwell's tutorial contains all the steps to configure the Raspberry Pi properly and install the screen drivers. It's so thin that it can be installed in an IKEA frame or similar without modifications, and that brings us to one of the most interesting details: all connections are direct, and there's no soldering needed. Protecting the Raspberry Pi and the screen is a matter of creativity. Which movie did Whitwell choose? None other than "Psycho", with updates every two minutes, skipping four frames at a time. The famous shower scene lasts a day and a half...
Access the tutorial: Click here
https://old.neoteo.com/el-pc-gamer-mas-pequeno-del-mundo-con-un-raspberry-pi/
