A Defunct Blu-ray Player Lives Again, Thanks to a LibreELEC Overhaul

Mononymous maker Andus has turned the chassis from a long-deceased Blu-ray player into something a little more useful than scrap metal: a Raspberry Pi-powered media player, dubbed the PioneerPi.

"I had a broken Pioneer Blu-ray player lying around, just taking up space," Andus explains of the project's origins. "Instead of tossing it, I thought it would be fun to rip out the insides and see if I could squeeze something more useful inside. The idea: keep the case, but swap out the guts for modern hardware. While the Blu-Ray Player itself was not good for much anymore, the case was solid and still looked nice alongside the TV."

Andus' work on the project was sped by the decision to drop all of the original electronics, including the Blu-ray drive. In its place is a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B single-board computer — a couple of generations behind the latest Raspberry Pi 5, but having hardware video codecs missing from the newer model to make up for its poorer-performing CPU and GPU — and a slimline DVD drive, adapted to USB with a low-cost off-the-shelf converter.

"To make it all fit, I 3D-printed some custom mounts. These kept the Raspberry Pi and cables stable inside the case instead of just flying around. This was actually the first time I ever designed models myself, so it was a pretty new but fun experience. Once the mounts were in place, the Raspberry Pi sat neatly inside. The DVD drive didn’t quite fit the existing slot at first, so I made it fit by carefully drilling through the top part of the opening to make it bigger."

The Raspberry Pi inside the reclaimed housing runs LibreELEC, which provides a big-screen interface for media streaming and optical disc playback — including support for popular streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and YouTube. While there's no physical remote, an app on the phone provides an equivalent — and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse provides a way to interact directly, and even to play emulated retro games on the big screen.

The full project write-up is available on Andus's blog.