Kodi Community Forum

Hi Everyone,

If this is not the right place, I apologize and understand if its quickly deleted!!  Looking not so much for an add-on but some dev work on a complete system.

Our company has a small private plane and the media system to watch movies is so bad...its like 8 years old and barely works on any device or laptop.  Updating content is terrible.  So we are looking to replace it and the systems are like 20K.  This is not some fancy jet, just a small prop plane.

That got us thinking that are Kodi systems we all run at home kick these things butts.  

Which got me thinking I'd be willing to sponsor some development for say 10K if it would work.  Not sure if that is worth someones time or not.  It would save me 50% and give me a much better system.
Here is what I think it would take.  Some of this I'm listing just to put my thoughts down on paper. 

1. Small Linux system to run Kodi that is battery powered (easy enough..a laptop without sleep mode)
2. Said linux machine will broadcast an SSID for the passenger to connect  (again basic linux stuff)
3. A process where, when its at the home base, it can connect to another SSID at the hanger, and get new content remotely over the web....maybe from an FTP site or S3 bucket. Might need a second Wireless adapter ? 
4. A simple webgui to maybe control some of the above so basic settings can be changed without pulling it from the plane and connecting a console.
5. I would like integrate a basic GPS and moving map.  I think there are some OSS programs to do this.  Perhaps a main page with links for movies (that launches Kodi) etc.
6. Possible to include some way to present digital magazines we can download when on the ground?  

Basically building a simple web front-end and some automation to update content and make it a bit appliance like.

If anyone is interested, ping me.

Anyways, would love to give back to the dev community if anyone is intrested.

@tmbm50,
I run something similar in my minivan. Not as robust as a 20K system but I can share my setup which could act as a starting point.

I run LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi 4. I use a regular power brick to power it so that it doesn't reboot each time I start the van. I use the van's entertainment system to watch videos and listen to music. Anybody in the van can connect and watch on their own device using Kodi or a browser with Kodi's web interface.
I use the builtin Raspberry Pi WiFi to share wifi to the van for media access and remote control.

Settings>LibreELEC>Network>Wireless Networks

• Active - Enabled
  
• Enable 'tethered' Wireless Access Point - Enabled
  
• SSID -  InFlightEnt
  
• Passphrase - password
  
• Wireless Regulatory Domain - NOT SET(DEFAULT)
  

To connect to the home network, I added a usb wifi adapter

Settings>LibreELEC>Network>Connections

• Find your network at the hanger and connect to it.
  

You can manage media files using smb shares on the libreELEC box from any PC on the network at the hanger. That should meet 1,2,3 and 4.
You can choose to use Kodi to handle the media or run a media server. LibreELEC has Jellyfin, Emby and Plex addons available.
Settings>Addons>Install from Repository>LibreELEC Addons>Services
Emby is native, you need to use Docker for the other two.

I mention those servers because one can just watch or listen from the web client on a tablet of phone. No need to install any client even though those are available.
With regards to magazines, Jellyfin support ebooks to some extent. I haven't tried it so cannot comment. The others might too. Calibre  is often mentioned as the gold standard for e-books. Right now I go with audiobooks but I might just look into calibre myself.

Of course you could just run your media server and calibre on raspbian, ubuntu or some other linux distro. I just thought I would share my setup since no one has responded yet. Try it. Testing would just cost maybe less than $200 bucks

Quick question, doesn't Plex require Internet connectivity for licensing or some form of authentication ?  I am not a Plex user but thought I had seen that somewhere from folks who are Plex users.


Jeff

Plex and Emby requires some connectivity. The times it returns to the hanger maybe enough, assuming that is also an internet connection. I am not sure. However,  Jellyfin doesn't need any. Thanks for pointing that out.

Cheers,
LongMan

You are welcome to use Kodi for $free as long as you respect the GPL license of the project, but I doubt you will have anyone competent volunteer to build an in-flight system for $10K. The complication is, by engaging someone to develop a solution for you they become partly liable for how it works, and aviation authorities (worldwide) have lots of regulations to ensure safe operation of electronics in the hazardous environment they (and you) are responsible for. The need to mitigate liabiity by meeting safety standards puts you in a different game. To properly develop what you are thinking about with hardware + OS + maps and a range of media sources is probably $150K to reach a basic prototype and $500K+ for an initial certified product without any legally acquired media content.

TL/DR; $20K for new hardware and regularly updated legal content is a cheap upgrade. Plan B; buy some iPads with Netflix subscriptions and make the execs responsible for downloading movies and any series they want to binge on in advance of their flight. I used to (pre-Covid) fly frequently on Tier1 international airlines with award winning in-flight entertainment systems; but if you travel often enough you quickly run out of new movies to watch and BYOD is the best (legal, reliable, and safest) option.

(2021-02-21, 00:19)LongMan Wrote: [ -> ]Plex and Emby requires some connectivity. The times it returns to the hanger maybe enough, assuming that is also an internet connection. I am not sure. However,  Jellyfin doesn't need any. Thanks for pointing that out.

Cheers,
LongMan

Thanks.  Another option is to run Mezzmo on an Intel NUC (running Windows) as your media server.  Doesn't have a Linux or Docker container yet.  It has a web GUI interface, Samsung, Kodi, Android, Roku and more clients.  Doesn't require Internet connectivity.  It's cheap, you'll avoid licensing issues and you'll get support.  Similar to the Plex option without the Internet requirement.  With the Intel NUC you can put a huge SSD drive inside for media storage or it has a number of USB ports for external USB types of drives.  Mezzo can be setup to check for new content on a user defined schedule and you can schedule database maintenance to delete old content you've removed.


Jeff