Hi Ken, I’d love to help you get started with your Raspberry Pi audio player project – it sounds like an exciting venture, especially as your first dive into the Raspberry Pi world! VLC media player is a fantastic choice for this, given its versatility with different media formats. You’re setting yourself up for a system that can play just about anything from movies and music to audiobooks and those nostalgic Radio programs.

You’ll need a Raspberry Pi, and while any recent model will do, the Raspberry Pi 4 (or 5) with a bit more RAM (think 4GB or 8GB) will give you smoother video playback. Grab a high-speed SD card (16GB is the bare minimum, but I’d recommend 32GB or more) for the operating system and your media files. Don’t forget a reliable power supply, a display (a small touchscreen for portability or an HDMI display works), and some form of audio output – speakers or headphones are key (you should also look into the various DACs available for the Pi, they improve the sound immensely),

You’ll start with installing Raspberry Pi OS on your SD card; the Raspberry Pi Imager tool is super handy for this. Once you’ve got the OS up and running, installing VLC is as simple as opening a terminal and typing:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install vlc

This gets VLC ready to play all your media.

If you’ve got your files on a USB drive or an external HDD, you can easily plug it in and play directly from there. Or, if you’re a bit more tech-savvy and have a network-attached storage (NAS), you can stream from your network too.

VLC is pretty flexible – you can dive into your media using its graphical interface or get fancy with command-line commands. And if you’re setting this up as part of a home entertainment system, why not explore controlling VLC remotely? There’s a web interface and even smartphone apps that can turn your phone into a remote control.

If you’re keen on having VLC ready to go as soon as you power on your Raspberry Pi, you can script it to auto-start. Imagine turning on your Raspberry Pi and having it immediately ready to play your favorite playlist or radio show.

Diving into a project like this is a fantastic way to learn, and the Raspberry Pi and VLC communities are incredibly supportive. There’s a wealth of documentation out there, from hardware setup to VLC’s advanced features. And if you hit a snag, forums and community groups are great places to seek advice.

Let us know how you go!

Thanks in advance,
Ken