Raspberry Pi 3B+ / native composite A/V

Old television.
One simple job.

A ready-to-flash Raspberry Pi image that boots directly into a looping MP4 playlist through the Pi’s built-in composite output.

Download image Quick start ↓

COMPOSITE PLAYBACK SYSTEM · AV-03

AUTOPLAY ON BOOTOFFLINE LOOPINGUSB NUMPAD CONTROL720 × 480 READY AUTOPLAY ON BOOTOFFLINE LOOPINGUSB NUMPAD CONTROL720 × 480 READY

The idea

Less computer.
More appliance.

The project removes the usual desktop ritual. Flash the SD card, connect a TRRS-to-RCA cable, power the Pi, and the video begins.

Everything in /home/mediaplayer/media loops in ascending filename order. No streaming account, no launcher, no operator.

01MP4 FILESSD card

02PI 3B+autoplay

03CRTcomposite A/V

Quick start

Five moves from download to picture.

1Download
Get the prepared disk image.
2Uncompress
Expand the downloaded image file.
3Flash
Write it to an 8 GB or larger SD card.
4Connect
Insert the card and attach composite A/V.
5Power on
The demo starts and loops automatically.

Where it belongs

A tiny source deck for old screens.

Gallery loop

Reliable unattended playback for video art and museum installations.

CRT sculpture

Hide the Pi inside a kiosk, shrine, prop terminal, or custom cabinet.

Fake channel

Sequence IDs, ads, shorts, weather, interruptions, and station breaks.

Analog source

Feed VCRs, mixers, glitch devices, feedback chains, and capture decks.

Archive station

Present VHS transfers, oral histories, home movies, or local television.

Video edition

Distribute a Pi, SD card, cable, and playlist as a physical media work.

Prepare the picture

Encode for the screen you actually have.

Pre-scaling avoids runtime resizing and helps the Pi deliver smoother, more predictable composite playback.

Canvas: 720 × 480
Frame rate: 29.97 fps
Video: H.264 Baseline
Bitrate: 1–1.5 Mbps

ffmpeg / composite preset

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
  -vf "scale=720:480:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,\
pad=720:480:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2" \
  -r 30000/1001 \
  -pix_fmt yuv420p \
  -c:v libx264 -profile:v baseline -level 3.0 \
  -b:v 1500k \
  -c:a aac -ar 44100 -ac 2 -b:a 128k \
  output_pi_crt.mp4

Optional control

A numpad is enough.

Connect any USB keyboard or numeric keypad at any time. Playback works without one, and the control service recovers after disconnects.

KP 5Pause / resume

KP 4Seek backward

KP 6Seek forward

KP 7Previous video

KP 9Next video

Simple and boring on purpose

Give the old TV one job.

Download image Read documentation ↗

Old television.One simple job.

Less computer.More appliance.