Smarter than a Smart TV! (Raspberry Pi Inside)

this is not a tv

hey that's my line

anyways it's actually a display powered

by a raspberry pi

usually when someone says raspberry pi

display you probably think about

something like this it's a five inch

touch screen for the pi but this this is

the nec multi-sync ma551 but it's not a

tv it's a display and it's a lot smarter

than any of the terrible smart tvs

you'll find in a store why because it's

running linux heck there's a pie in here

so i could run kodi or retropie right on

the display for the ultimate living room

tv just you know without the tv part the

funny thing is even though this isn't

considered a tv it's probably the best

tv i've ever used and that's because nec

makes this display for the commercial

market oh i'm sorry sharp nec display

solutions of america i'll just call them

sharp nec for the rest of this video

instead of installing spyware or tons of

buggy apps on their tv they build these

displays to run all day every day and

they also make versions for outdoor use

they even include cool features like

automatic failover to different inputs

if one fails power schedules and

complete remote control either over the

network through the pi or even this

built-in rs-232 serial port now a

display like this one costs a lot more

than the typical tv you'll find at the

electronics store but why well take a

closer look next time you visit a mall i

walked around one of the malls in st

louis and almost every other store had

at least one or two of these displays i

found a video wall at bath and body

works then across the way another one at

sunglass hut then i found another

sunglass hut i guess it was two stores

for one at the galleria but that one

only had a couple displays and they

weren't synchronized some restaurants in

the food court had video menus which

lets them change their menu without

having to reprint menu signs and of

course an eyeglass store has to have a

display just to show a picture of a lady

in prada glasses and lush was using a

display for some inspirational quotes

heck even our favorite fruity store gets

in on the action with four synced

displays at the genius bar i don't think

those are studio displays back there

when i was walking out i noticed they

even had a giant touch screen display on

the zumeru kidkart rental these signs

are everywhere and a lot of them have an

embedded computer like a pi running some

software that plays back video and that

software allows them to be managed over

a network not all these displays run on

a pi but nowadays with how tiny and

powerful the compute module 4 is

integrating it into a public display or

even a full display wall is easier and

cheaper than ever and to show that i put

this display together last week you know

what the easiest part was sliding in the

compute module 4. all i had to do was

unscrew this cover slide in the pi board

and screw it back in that's it now this

slot is special it looks similar to

intel's sdm standard or smart display

module but it's not you can actually run

it alongside certain intel sdms for

redundant media sources in case one

breaks but a compute module is what

really makes this display smarter than a

smart tv smart tvs usually run a slow

embedded processor running a proprietary

operating system the compute module is

literally a raspberry pi you can install

whatever you want on it but sharp nec

maintains a custom os called media

player and that's what they shipped with

this tv media player is a basic display

os that lets you play videos from usb

internal storage or over the network or

even run a browser window full screen so

you can have your website display some

animation if you want the os is meant as

a simple interface for mom and pop shops

or smaller installations where you might

have a few displays on a local network

you can even manage the display over the

network by enabling the browser client

setting though it looks like the browser

client is meant to be run on a browser

window a bit larger than the one i was

using to record this

anyways media player worked great though

i did notice a couple quirks because of

the pi's processor you can only play

back hd footage not 4k the pi's just not

fast enough to play back in 4k without

some highly specialized formats so media

player doesn't allow it also the manual

stated i could use a keyboard for

navigation and usb flash drives but i

found out i actually had to restart the

compute module to get the keyboard to

work and usb flash drives currently have

to use fat32 or i think ntfs the exfat

formatted one i tried wasn't recognized

but playback worked great and i'll give

you a little demo of how the speakers

sound too

i also copied some files to internal

storage and they play back fine there

too media player remembers what you

played last time and if there's a power

outage or you restart the tv it'll pick

right back up playing those clips again

and updating media player was painless

though the process did result in a bunch

of restarts i just had to make sure the

pi was connected to the internet and it

downloaded and installed the latest

version but media player is just a

lightweight way to get the display up

and running if you're running hundreds

or thousands of these things in multiple

locations you'd probably spring for a

cloud signage service like one of the

many vendors listed in the apps section

of media player but like i said earlier

you can run anything on the pi i flashed

retropie to this compute module and i

just pulled out the carrier board

swapped pi's and look at that retropie

built straight into this thing one thing

to note is their carrier board only

supports emmc versions of the compute

module 4. most boards have a separate

microsd card slot so you can use light

compute modules like this one but this

board doesn't work with those and if

retro gaming isn't your thing and media

players display oriented features aren't

what you're looking for what about a

media player like libra elec i flash

that to another compute module and

replace the media player module with it

and it worked right away too the coolest

part is it looks like the team at sharp

nec put everything on the default gpio

pins and usb internally meaning the

display's remote worked with cody out of

the box i didn't have to configure

anything you could probably also use

osmc or even plex if you want but i was

able to connect my jellyfin library to

cody so i could watch any of my movies

or tv episodes from my nas straight

through the pie but wait the pi is a

computer can it just boot linux

well yeah of course i flashed pios on

here and it boots right up into the

desktop you know and love and what's

cool about running pios is i can plug a

keyboard and mouse into this thing and

manage the display settings right from

the pi through its built-in serial

connection and i can do that over ssh

too so the display is running on its own

os and network and the pi's on its own

os and can connect to another network

but wait what if something locks up well

that's another reason displays like

these cost more this display has

features like failover settings so you

can have multiple inputs and if one dies

it'll switch to another it can be

managed either by sirobus or ethernet it

can be rotated 90 degrees and be used in

portrait orientation like some of those

signs at the mall but the biggest

difference between a commercial display

like this one and a cheaper consumer

display this one is built to run forever

well at least for years 24 7 365. the

lcd is more robust it has fans and

temperature sensors to prevent

overheating and it has scheduling so you

can have it off for times like when your

business is closed you can even daisy

chain multiple displays together which

is how i could record some of the

display's output for this video to my

little external recorder the thing also

has giant carrying handles to make

moving it easier and there are even

little details like a set of ada

compliant mounting brackets for the

speakers so they're in the proper

position but this is not the best

display money can buy there are consumer

oleds with more color saturation and

brightness just for fun i plugged in my

gaming pc and played some halo infinite

it looks great certainly usable for me

since i'm not a pro or anything but

there are gaming panels with faster

refresh and response times this display

maxes out at 60 hertz with an 8

millisecond response time but this

display isn't built to be the best

gaming or living room tv it's built to

render colors in places where color

matters a lot provide helpful

information like departure schedules

menus and more and do it all day every

day and the compute module 4 isn't all

rainbows and butterflies either the

silicon inside can't handle 4k streams

cleanly so even though the pi 4 can

output 4k resolution natively it can't

do much at that resolution so sharp nec

decided to keep it running at 1080p in

media player not that it makes much of a

difference if you're more than like 2

feet away now if you want to plug your

raspberry pi into a tv you can do that

heck there are even industrial pie

manufacturers who make vesa mount

compatible carrier boards like this one

from lincoln bins i'll be talking about

industrial pies like this in a future

video so subscribe but this display

isn't meant for a home users media

center it's a workhorse it can be used

in a variety of situations and with its

built-in redundancy scheduling and

rugged design it should last a long time

doing it there are also other built-in

computer options like this intel atom

model but the pi option costs a little

less and uses a little less energy which

is great for a device that's going to be

running pretty much all day every day

next time you go to a museum or a

shopping mall take a look around i bet

you'll find at least one display running

a raspberry pi until next time i'm jeff

gearling