Recommendations for media player for Jensen cube

CanadianTabber · July 2021

Hi all!
Anyone have any recommendations for a media player that will plug into the HDMI front socket of the Jensen cube, have the ability to
play various files on a usb stick and to plug into the Jensen cubes usb socket to power it?
Unfortunately the Jensen cube and tv only plays pictures or MP3 audio when a usb stick is used on them.

Many thanks!
Brent

Marceline · July 2021

CanadianTabber said:

Hi all!
Anyone have any recommendations for a media player that will plug into the HDMI front socket of the Jensen cube, have the ability to
play various files on a usb stick and to plug into the Jensen cubes usb socket to power it?
Unfortunately the Jensen cube and tv only plays pictures or MP3 audio when a usb stick is used on them.

Many thanks!
Brent

Can you be more specific. What kind of media are you wanting to stream/play?

Also, FWIW, this is from the manual:
"Warning: Using the front USB input for powering your HDMI streaming stick is not recommended. We suggest using a wall adapter power supply to power your HDMI streaming stick."

CanadianTabber · July 2021

I am looking for a media player that will handle formats like MKV, WMV (H.264, H.263, WMV9/VC-1, MPEG1/2/4) H.264 mp4 ..have a ton of movies on a small harddrive and would be nice to watch on those rainy days.

ChrisFix · July 2021

@CanadianTabber
I think finding a media player that will run off USB power from the Jensen will be the tricky part. Lots of options out there that require a wall-wart power adapter.

bergger · July 2021

We do two things with our Jensen cube. We either plug in a tiny sony dvd player or the computer via hdmi and watch hulu tv when we are on wifi. I suppose you could plug your laptop into the cube via hdmi then just plug your media stick into your computer. That should work.

Marceline · July 2021

CanadianTabber said:

I am looking for a media player that will handle formats like MKV, WMV (H.264, H.263, WMV9/VC-1, MPEG1/2/4) H.264 mp4 ..have a ton of movies on a small harddrive and would be nice to watch on those rainy days.

You could try something like this and see if it works.
Or you could try contacting Jensen to see if they have any suggestions.
But I don't think that you're going to be able to power it from the USB port.

CanadianTabber · July 2021

Agreed...i could power it from the dedicated usb/12v plug at the back of the trailer.
Thanks for responding 🙂

tabiphile · July 2021

CanadianTabber · July 2021

Wont fit in the Tab 😂😂😂

85Redwood · July 2021

We use a Roku stick in the Jensen HDMI port and powered by the Jensen USB port...works perfectly. We watch YouTube TV and utilize a low def. resolution to conserve our cell hot spot data.

Alt_Tab · July 2021

Those are some tough formats to handle. I would recommend just a laptop with hdmi out into the Jensen or possibly a Samsung tablet with a USB C to hdmi cable. That is what I use.

If you have internet I would recommend a Google Chrome cast that plugs directly into the hdmi and then unplug the microwave for power. It will scale better to the TV and you can use streaming services. To access your own files I run a Plex server at home. Plex will transcode the files for the bandwidth and device.

justdoit70 · July 2021

Wow that reel to reel was a great memory maker for me . Any Jimi Hendrix on it. LOL

tabiphile · July 2021

justdoit70 said:

Wow that reel to reel was a great memory maker for me . Any Jimi Hendrix on it. LOL

You betcha....you would certainly find Red House

Grumpy_G · July 2021

Warning, geek alert !

My solution is a Raspberry Pi zero W running Libreelec. I have it velcro-ed to the back of the TV but I don't see why it wouldn't work via a different HDMI input.

Details: The Raspberry Pi zero W is a $10 all in one computer board with (micro) HDMI out, WiFi and Bluetooth. It has two micro USB ports, one for power in only and one for general use. Power in connects to the TV USB port and the other USB port has a memory stick connected. Note that the device boots off a micro SD card and can store video files there as well however putting files on it is time consuming so a regular USB stick prepared on a PC/Mac is recommended.

Libreelec is a pre-packaged Linux and Kodi media player distribution. When connected to the T@b Jensen TV it talks to it via CEC and you can use the TV remote to control most of the functions. The setup is all through the user GUI but it does require a fair amount of knowledge about how computer things generally work.

CanadianTabber · July 2021

Great setup!...i went with a 50 buck media player from Amazon..will report back when i get it setup🙂

MarkAl · July 2021

I've jury rigged changed the 120v wall wart to a 12 car jack to power an older Sony BDP-S1700 Blu-ray player. It has a USB input FOR movies in addition to playing all the earlier standards I care about. The output is HDMI so plugs directly into the 2021 Jenson. It's a bit bigger than the stand-alone USB ones but fits beside the Jenson. My plan is to use it awhile longer and decide if I want to dedicate the space then wire it into the trailer. It's simpler than our current "plug in the output of a pad through a HDMI converter". I was surprised to find how few options there are for a small HDMI output player. I do like the USB movie option also. I also have available a Chromecast but i'm so rarely in a wifi or phone reception area it's use is very limited.

Kevin@7 · September 2021

@Grumpy_G I did a similar thing after my Jensen DVD player bit the dust and highly recommend.

For those interested in taking the plunge, I would say there is plenty of very user friendly tutorials on how to do this so it reduces the geek factor to some degree but there's still a bit of a setup process. It was much easier that I was expecting and didn't need to pull from my geek database very much.

Here's a nice video to help detail what you need to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7h8FcNyF9U&t=320s

I used a Raspberry pi 3 I had around but if I didn't I might have gone with the zero since you can pick those up these days @<$5. I fiddled with a Roku and a USB hard drive and it was so particular about video formats that it made it basically useless and led me to this solution which was really perfect for me. I wish I had seen this post before all my research.

I have a tab 400 so placed my setup in the pocket by the bed and moved the HDMI from the radio (since it was no longer doing anything) down to the bed shelf through a hole I made. Will post pictures when I polish the setup a bit more. I love the fact I can use the tab TV remote to control which was a nice surprise I wasn't expecting. No extra remotes/apps to deal with = happier camper. I really like Kodi (the media interface) as it seems very user friendly. Next I need to see if there is a way to watch streaming content offline with my setup. I'm rarely in areas where there is good wifi or 5G+.

On the topic of Jenson DVD players...when I had my tab 320 the same thing happened where it just stopped working. I was luckily under warranty but I wasn't as fortunate with my 400. Seems like the Jensen DVD players are very prone to failure so it's no surprise you are seeing many RV's exclude that option.

For those curious what a Raspberry pi is...it's basically a full computer in a cheap tiny package. They do good things for access to computers in low income countries. Raspberrypi.org.

JeffroNC · September 2021

@Kevin@7 what did you do for audio? I have my Pi plugged in at the tele.

Marceline · September 2021

Grumpy_G said:

Warning, geek alert !

My solution is a Raspberry Pi zero W running Libreelec. I have it velcro-ed to the back of the TV but I don't see why it wouldn't work via a different HDMI input.

Details: The Raspberry Pi zero W is a $10 all in one computer board with (micro) HDMI out, WiFi and Bluetooth. It has two micro USB ports, one for power in only and one for general use. Power in connects to the TV USB port and the other USB port has a memory stick connected. Note that the device boots off a micro SD card and can store video files there as well however putting files on it is time consuming so a regular USB stick prepared on a PC/Mac is recommended.

Libreelec is a pre-packaged Linux and Kodi media player distribution. When connected to the T@b Jensen TV it talks to it via CEC and you can use the TV remote to control most of the functions. The setup is all through the user GUI but it does require a fair amount of knowledge about how computer things generally work.

I'm intrigued. I have an older Jensen (AWM975) with a USB thumb drive with 999 tracks plugged into the front port (the Jensen chokes on 4 digits). I can scroll and select tracks using the Jensen remote and the Jensen TV. But it's kind of laggy - not the best interface. I was going to see if I could resuscitate an old iPod to plug into the front of the head unit but the Raspberry Pi looks interesting. The TV supplies enough power? I'm not sure if the older Jensen TV has HDMI ARC, though.

JeffroNC · September 2021

The TV supplies enough power for my Pi 3+ but not a spinning hard drive. The Pi itself barely supports one and it is recommended to use a powered hub. I added a 5 volt converter to the 12 volt supply to the TV.

CanadianTabber · September 2021

I ended up purchasing this media prayer from Amazon,and it plays all types of files seemlessly.
I bring a usb filled with movies/shows for those rainy days...and its footprint is minimal...very happy with this.

Brent

Kevin@7 · September 2021

JeffroNC said:

@Kevin@7 what did you do for audio? I have my Pi plugged in at the tele.

@jeffroNC currently use audio through the TV. Tried to get my BT earphones to connect but it wasn't pairing. Need to do some more problem solving on that one. I would assume similar issues trying to connect to the Jenson but really the bump in audio quality you get doing that isn't the greatest.

I found the TV + Pi +USB hard drive was pulling about 3A for me. Further study will show how that breaks out between the three. Every Amp counts when you're boondocking.

AnOldUR · September 2021

@JeffroNC ... Consider a HDMI audio extractor and a small sound bar mounted below the monitor. Works for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BIQER0E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/zk/a6zdzd5ppwar.jpg

edit to add:
I replaced the Jensen radio (shown in the picture above) with a 12V LG Blue-ray player. It has built in streaming (Netflix, Prime...) and a USB port on the front. I'm guessing that I could download content onto a USB drive and play it from there, but so far haven't tried. Using my phone as a hot spot when no Wi-Fi is available has worked well. There's also a HDMI splitter in the first picture. The second HDMI port is used to connect a laptop or mirror the screen on a smartphone.

One other thing. There's a small Fosi Bluetooth amplifier above the LG. It's wired to the rear speakers for streaming music.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/b9/550oevz5wvc7.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/pe/038f4c1f5jlo.jpg

Tped · March 2022

That was a VERY HELPFUL picture @Grumpy_G, thanks!

I had my RPi2/KODI/SSD contraption connected to the HDMI port on the Jensen Stereo last year - it was cumbersome. This looks like a much better spot to plug in and mount the RPi0. TV should also be a great power source. I've been testing the RPi0 w/ an old 5v/55mA usb charger, it runs 1080p movies fine, no studders and no throttling on the RPi0 - quite amazing!

My setup will be a little different this year, I used RetroPie as a base instead of LibreELEC. It has a Kodi 'Port' that works fine for my movies & music but will also allow me to revisit a bunch of fun old arcade/video/dos games on rainy days. Managed to get re-hooked on Doom, Adventure & Zork while I was building the thing.

RetroPie is @ https://retropie.org.uk/

I also keep recipes for my Pi gizmos in case I need to rebuild or whatnot - may be useful to others. This one is @ https://tech.tpedersen.net/raspberry-pi/pi-recipes/camperpi-offgrid-play.

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