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An NFC movie library for my kids

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Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#271
I discovered how cheap NFC tags and readers were a few years ago and now I have completed several hobby projects based on that concept.

When we buy books for our younger nieces and nephews we buy companion stuffed animals and then sew an NFC tag (the small quarter size ones) into them with the YouTube read-along url encoded on it.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#272
It's funny to think that 20 years ago at an IBM austin office there was a demo of a similar thing (early 2000s) - before streaming was a thing yet, before YouTube, where Home Theatre PCs were around but more of a homebrew niche.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#273
post #200
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have learned that doing just weekends for TV is much better for small kids so they don't get used to TV watching.

Even for not so small kids. With my 7 and 9 yo we do one ~30/40min session during the weekend, and a family movie on the 1st weekend of the month. No TV or screen time outside of these. I can't imagine having a 3yo watching TV 1 hour a day, especially the movies shown on this video. That being said, to focus on the technical project, that's very cool!

We only do TV on the weekends (Miss Rachel mostly, sometimes a movie), but 1 hour a day seems like nothing considering they're in daycare learning and playing for 8+ hours among the many other things they're doing throughout the day. For me the issue is when it becomes a dependency for them.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#274

Amazing write up and work in general putting this together - this is such an ideal form of the word "hack" in its incredibly low cost, durability, and usefulness. I was staggered when I saw your build cost list - I know ESPs are in the realm of "Cheap AF" but all of those NFC cards also for $9?! This is one of the few reasons I would shop Alibaba! We're talking around $15 total for the full NFC setup if you can print…

The author himself pointed out in the end of the article that blurays are cheap- in my view they provide a close enough physical experience. I would probably stick with Blu-ray approach?

I for one don't own a blu-ray anymore and really don't want to - they feel to me like LaserDiscs or BetaMax at this point! :)

Plus, to fathom a three-year-old-destroyer-of-property handling your blu-ray disc collection, I shudder! They are great frisbees, and coasters, and etc.

If I even still owned blu-rays I might consider ripping them and then converting to this just to avoid the above mentioned pain.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#276
post #92

I have an extremely similar setup for my 3yr old. He has his NFC cards and select from stuff we find suitable. The TV comes on, one episode runs, TV goes off. He's not fighting over the remote and he has agency. And he's certainly not stumbling his way through YouTube on a tablet. No ads. Very nice for him. It's not yet necessary to track his usage. But I'm well prepared for it. Home Assistant works very well for the…

This is a really cool project, but also way beyond the skills of an average person. I don’t know If I am becoming old fashioned, but I feel things were simpler when I was a kid, we had DVD player and we would come over to a friends house and watch a movie. We even found someone’s porn collection! I feel this issue is endemic through all of society - you have to spend more and more of your IQ points figuring out basic…

Is it not expected for people (or generations) to learn new things (and not learn obsolete things)?

My kids learned how to navigate Apple TV and the Apple TV remote at age 3 to go to Infuse or PBS kids app. And I tell them to turn off the TV after x episode of y time limit, and they know how to do that.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#277
post #92

I have an extremely similar setup for my 3yr old. He has his NFC cards and select from stuff we find suitable. The TV comes on, one episode runs, TV goes off. He's not fighting over the remote and he has agency. And he's certainly not stumbling his way through YouTube on a tablet. No ads. Very nice for him. It's not yet necessary to track his usage. But I'm well prepared for it. Home Assistant works very well for the…

This is a really cool project, but also way beyond the skills of an average person. I don’t know If I am becoming old fashioned, but I feel things were simpler when I was a kid, we had DVD player and we would come over to a friends house and watch a movie. We even found someone’s porn collection! I feel this issue is endemic through all of society - you have to spend more and more of your IQ points figuring out basic…

We went back to DVDs for my kid, actually. My wife and I really like the idea of a hard start and end to a video (with no chance for algorithmic tendrils to reach you) and we like the idea of having to put in some amount of effort to start the video. It's on demand, but not as on demand as scrolling through a streaming service is.

I can't quite articulate why this feels like an improvement to me. Maybe it's because I have experienced decision paralysis on streaming services so many times.

Tons of DVD collections being given away for almost nothing on FB marketplace right now, too.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#278
We bought an off-the-shelf product like this (though, audio only) for our toddler. "Yoto Player." She can self-serve some stories or songs using cards to select a collection and it works great.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#279
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What app do you have on your phone to do this?

I use "NFC Tools" to write the URL, which I copy the album/song URL from Spotify and embed it. When I hold my phone near it, the URL appears in the notifications, and clicking it opens it in Spotify, which then starts playing it. I have a bag of 100 tags I got from a friend so no shortage there.

I have NFC Tools Pro from these guys, https://www.wakdev.com/en/ (but affiliated); I'm assuming you're referring to them. They're on Google Play store too.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really cool project, but also way beyond the skills of an average person. I don’t know If I am becoming old fashioned, but I feel things were simpler when I was a kid, we had DVD player and we would come over to a friends house and watch a movie. We even found someone’s porn collection! I feel this issue is endemic through all of society - you have to spend more and more of your IQ points figuring out basic…

Is it not expected for people (or generations) to learn new things (and not learn obsolete things)? My kids learned how to navigate Apple TV and the Apple TV remote at age 3 to go to Infuse or PBS kids app. And I tell them to turn off the TV after x episode of y time limit, and they know how to do that.

I think this ignores that marketing is essentially insidious. The goal is to get you to do more of x. We spend a lot of life building up the mental tools and energy and math skills to understand whether we actually want to do x or whether someone has simply suggested it very strongly.

Asking a 3 year old to develop that mental faculty just because we are a new generation learning new things feels incorrect.

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