Orange Server
Us old grumpies are ruing the day we signed up for multiple media streaming services - the money disappears regularly from the account, but the platforms we pay for are increasingly bereft of good content, and rumour has it that adverts are arriving soon.
It's not unusual for a close collaborator of mine and myself to pine for simpler times of listening to a well known album from a long forgotten CD, or perhaps watching a much loved movie from a DVD. The trouble is - the only working CD/DVD player we have is hooked up to a computer.
There is a "bluray" machine but my collaborator has a visceral reaction to it's tardiness, labelling it "slowray".
I think we might have a few older machines somewhere in the garage, but really we are looking for a cheap, easy (and perhaps more modern) way to access some old content, and thus "streamcast" ourselves adrift of the content provider wars (for the time being).
Enter the Orange Pi PC Plus!
Here we have a cheap and very capable "headless" server that just might be able to deliver over the WiFi network (Australian Invention™) the videos and music of yesteryear to a couple of rusted on fogies intent on sinking back into simpler times. An updated version of Timothy Leary's "Turn on, tune in, drop out".
The "slow" part of the process to date has been digitising the media. To be honest the music part had already mostly been done, and we're now in the process of acquiring and digitising various DVD movies (including all the old home movies which were on, wait for it, Video8 Tape!).
Converter of choice is HandBrake - simple to use, reliable, quick, cross-platform and it seems to be in constant development.
I haven't ripped any CDs for awhile so I'm not so conversant with the landscape in this regard - but a quick search would be in order if you have needs for such music transfer.
Hot tip: the local recycling centre has thousands of movies at around $1 each.
Spoiler Alert! We've seen the movies and listened to the music before.
Second Spoiler Alert! The system works really well and we're much happier (and a bit richer).
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