Learn How to Build an ESP32 Mini TV

The Espressif ESP32 is a wildly popular microcontroller and the successor to the alsowildly popular ESP8266. Both microcontrollers were developed for IoT applications, which is why they have built-in WiFi adapters. The ESP32 added Bluetooth, too. But the ESP8266 and ESP32 became very common in the maker community because they offer a lot of power at an affordable price. Both are far more capable than many other popular microcontrollers, like the ubiquitous ATmega328. Taylor Galbraith took advantage of that power to build this ESP32 Mini TV and explained how he did it.

A project like this would have been impossible to pull off with something like an ATmega328, which lacks any video hardware and that doesn't have enough power to handle video processing in software. The ESP32, on the other hand, does have enough power to display video. It can't handle 4K or anything like that, but it can generate video for small screens at a watchable frame rate. The length of that video will depend on the microSD card used, but that can't help the ESP32 with the video buffer — the main limiting factor for the video quality.

First, the user needs to convert a video to a format the ESP32 can work with using FFMPEG. Next, the ESP32 needs some additional hardware to make use of the video. Some of this may be included on some development boards, but it requires a display, a microSD card reader module, and an I2S amplifier with an appropriate speakers. Galbraith used a 1.69" full-color TFT LCD with an ST7789 driver and a resolution of 240x280. That particular model has nice rounded corners that look nice, but any display with an ST7789 driver should work.

Galbraith demonstrates how to make this all work on a breadboard. They provide the necessary code, as well as a video clip from Nacho Libre that you can use to test it out. Galbraith did also design a custom PCB for the project and promises to give details on that if there is enough interest.