Truck stop movie theater setup

[Jerrythomas]

OK I work a Petro truck stop in north Baltimore and we have a movie theater in our building that is hooked up to a DVDs player that is in the office.  I would like to upgrade it to where the customer can select a movie from a kiosk in the movie theater  using a tablet.  But here is the trick.  Using the existing wiring we have I would like to have a media server like kodi or plex in the office.  So customer select the movie on tablet kiosk and it sends the command to the media server to play the movie. I don't want anything to stream to the tablet except for the movie info and posters.  But I need to do it as cheap be possible  in

[AbsoluteFool]

On 1/25/2019 at 9:34 AM, Jerrythomas said:

OK I work a Petro truck stop in north Baltimore and we have a movie theater in our building that is hooked up to a DVDs player that is in the office.  I would like to upgrade it to where the customer can select a movie from a kiosk in the movie theater  using a tablet.  But here is the trick.  Using the existing wiring we have I would like to have a media server like kodi or plex in the office.  So customer select the movie on tablet kiosk and it sends the command to the media server to play the movie. I don't want anything to stream to the tablet except for the movie info and posters.  But I need to do it as cheap be possible  in

Many ways to do this. You don't even really need plex or kodi. To my knowledge they all require login someothing i dobpt you want to share with all the trcukers.

However, you could get a computer with nginx/apache2 (any webserver) and use Red5 or something. Write a simple website to select the movies and play them back from VOD. This way you wont need any login + you'll have the full source code for the website you wrote, so you can easily add custom branding.

[dalekphalm]

3 hours ago, AbsoluteFool said:

Many ways to do this. You don't even really need plex or kodi. To my knowledge they all require login someothing i dobpt you want to share with all the trcukers.

However, you could get a computer with nginx/apache2 (any webserver) and use Red5 or something. Write a simple website to select the movies and play them back from VOD. This way you wont need any login + you'll have the full source code for the website you wrote, so you can easily add custom branding.

Plex doesn't require login locally (you can force this on or off).

 

Plus, the OP could simply save the login info and auto-login to to the PC controlling everything.

 

On 1/25/2019 at 3:34 AM, Jerrythomas said:

OK I work a Petro truck stop in north Baltimore and we have a movie theater in our building that is hooked up to a DVDs player that is in the office.  I would like to upgrade it to where the customer can select a movie from a kiosk in the movie theater  using a tablet.  But here is the trick.  Using the existing wiring we have I would like to have a media server like kodi or plex in the office.  So customer select the movie on tablet kiosk and it sends the command to the media server to play the movie. I don't want anything to stream to the tablet except for the movie info and posters.  But I need to do it as cheap be possible  in

There are 3 ways to handle this:

1. The "simple" way:

A. Create a Plex Server (this can be a separate server, or can also be the media playback device). 

B. Create a Media PC to playback Plex (or, as stated above, use the server for this task too - though not advised)

C. Have dual video out from the Media PC. One connection to the projector, another connection to a Monitor on a publicly accessible desk (w/ KB + Mouse, or just a touchscreen monitor).

D. Have people go up and select the movie, and since this is directly connected to the projector, it'll "just work" - downside, movie will also playback on the monitor too.

 

2. The "still kinda simple" way:

A. Get a tablet - iOS or Android

B. Download the "Plex Remote" app, and install/configure it to connect to your server and your Media PC

C. Use the "Plex Remote" app to browse content, and playback on the projector

 

3. The "not at all simple" way:

Write a custom application that can browse Plex and issue a playback command to the Plex client.

 

I would opt for #2 - using Plex Remote - or even just the Plex App (Since the App can "cast" to a locally connected Media Device such as a PC or a Shield, Roku, etc).

[GuruOfNothing]

I realize this is not a hardware suggestion response post here but I gotta chime in and give you a word of warning. The MPAA LOVES these kinds of situations. LOVES! You are in a commercial environment and by all the laws that these putz's have gotten into place, you are in direct violation of their rebroadcast laws. Technically, you are not allowed to play any movie in a public forum in any commercial establishment without first paying the MPAA a nice little fee and getting a permit to do so. I fell afoul of this and let me tell you, it' gets ugly in a hurry. Playing a DVD from a player in a remote space to a TV in a common area is a violation but a minor one and they will leave you alone but if you build a system of any kind that has multiple movies stored in which they can select them and watch in a public forum, you COULD be handed a multi-thousand dollar bill for broadcasting movies without paying them for the "per view" fees. This includes streaming movies from an account like Netflix or Amazon Prime to the same space. Commercial versus residential viewing is a totally different world. All about the money.

 

The other side to the issue I see (I am a realist, not a pessimist) is that people are tweekers and they won't leave crap alone. Especially truck drivers. If you put a computer in their hands that allows them to have any level of control over a master TV screen, you will have them closing out the PLEX screen and pulling up YouTube and possibly worse just because they want to watch something else. This is not my area of expertise so take this with a grain of salt but I don't know of any way short of creating a web script that will allow selective playback and disallow any other stuff to be accessed. Plex requires internet access even if it isn't streaming from online sources. There may be ways to block ALL other internet traffic via a router and uninstall ALL other programs like internet browsers and CTRL+ALT+DELETE functions so they can't strong arm their way into the computer functions. I just would highly suggest that you make it impossible for them to screw with ANY of the setting on the computer... because they will. Seen it. I worked at a Flying J in maintenance. Give them a tool and they will jack it up just because it exists.

[Mikensan]

Building off of @dalekphalm's idea - install your plex media server, then on a desktop connected to your projector install plex media player. Plex Media Player gives you the "roku" experience where you have a GUI on the actual screen to browse through. This prevents the truckers from casting to the projector from various sources (3am and some alone time leads to some interesting things). There is a setting in the player you need to make sure is turned off - allow casting or something like that.

 

Only problem with any solution is having more than 1 trucker who wants to watch something at the same time (assuming it is a shared screen).

 

One other alternative is if you're going to have staff available, just install some sort of chatting software where truckers can chat to this employee and request movies. Seems like somebody is already inserting DVDs for them to watch, so maybe they can be available for this?

 

 

As @GuruOfNothing points out, the law isn't going to be on your side. Even hotels having basic cable in each room pay an additional premium since they are a business. Normally at home you just pay a rental fee for each box. It would be your luck some trucker with a family member working for the MPAA stops by and is eager to cash in $5 for reporting you.

[dalekphalm]

7 hours ago, Mikensan said:

Building off of @dalekphalm's idea - install your plex media server, then on a desktop connected to your projector install plex media player. Plex Media Player gives you the "roku" experience where you have a GUI on the actual screen to browse through. This prevents the truckers from casting to the projector from various sources (3am and some alone time leads to some interesting things). There is a setting in the player you need to make sure is turned off - allow casting or something like that.

 

Only problem with any solution is having more than 1 trucker who wants to watch something at the same time (assuming it is a shared screen).

 

One other alternative is if you're going to have staff available, just install some sort of chatting software where truckers can chat to this employee and request movies. Seems like somebody is already inserting DVDs for them to watch, so maybe they can be available for this?

 

 

As @GuruOfNothing points out, the law isn't going to be on your side. Even hotels having basic cable in each room pay an additional premium since they are a business. Normally at home you just pay a rental fee for each box. It would be your luck some trucker with a family member working for the MPAA stops by and is eager to cash in $5 for reporting you.

All good points.

 

You can take this a step further and customize Windows (or whatever OS) to launch Plex directly upon startup on the Media PC. Then, you can actually disable the desktop and lock down the machine to disable CTRL ALT DEL, etc. Run Plex on a Limited Account.

 

You can even go a step further and setup a process watch task that will re-launch Plex if it is somehow bypassed. This is getting kind of advanced though so not for the faint of heart.

[Mikensan]

16 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

All good points.

 

You can take this a step further and customize Windows (or whatever OS) to launch Plex directly upon startup on the Media PC. Then, you can actually disable the desktop and lock down the machine to disable CTRL ALT DEL, etc. Run Plex on a Limited Account.

 

You can even go a step further and setup a process watch task that will re-launch Plex if it is somehow bypassed. This is getting kind of advanced though so not for the faint of heart.

that hits all my IT soft points