The lines between Single Board Computers and microcontrollers are starting to blur, especially when it comes to powerful boards like the Teensy 4.1.

While displaying video may be trivial on an SBC like the Raspberry Pi — which has all the facilities of a full Linux operating system — a similar task on a MCU typically requires rolling one’s own firmware and potentially even creating custom codecs. PJRC forum member 1337Misom had a go at rolling their own with the MjpegTFT_t4 Mjpeg-like Video Player for the Teensy 4.1 development Boards.

Encoding a file for MjpegTFT_t4 requires ffmpeg and Python, as well as the Teensy Audio Library and forked versions of the Teensy Audio Codecs and ILI9341_t3n, plus Larry Bank’s JPEGDEC library. Add a simple header and AAC audio, and you have a beautifully performant series of JPEGs on your TFT, just like the video below!