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An NFC movie library for my kids

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Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#291

Post by maweki »

richardlblair wrote: post #227
maweki wrote: 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…

> The TV comes on, one episode runs, TV goes off. I'm curious how you track that? I don't have HA connected to plex yet, but I will. I suppose there might be an event when the 'track' changes?

I play the single media file. Once the player is in "idle" or "stopped" instead of "playing" or "paused" the TV is turned off.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#292

Post by maweki »

rtkwe wrote: post #244
maweki wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So whenever the card is held to the reader a script starts and plays the media and shuts down the TV after the episode has run. It's easy enough to measure the accumulated script runtime and disable the reader once a daily allowance has been reached. Though I am not a fan of an allowance like that. Nevertheless, tracking the script runtime is easy enough. It's a family TV, but a private TV can easily be tracked via p…

Do you have episode run time just baked into each script or does it track via some other HA event to know when to turn off?

As I only play a single media file every time the script waits for the player going from "playing" to "stopped".

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#293

Post by rmnclmnt »

edu wrote: post #228
niedbalski wrote: post #110

We realised that even a lot less cool than nfc, just put an inexpensive blueray reader + disc movies next to the tv and no internet connection was the best option for us.

I'm going this way, also our local library has a very nice selection of movies in DVD so we can expand the experience to going there and picking up.

This! We also discovered out teeny tiny local library has a movie section. Each time I feel like a kid in a video store from the 90’s! You can even book a title on their webapp and pick it up when available, it really feels great.

Having offline and finite media consumption feels much more satisfying than the modern endless scrolling IMHO.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#294

Post by fullstop »

boredtofears wrote: post #277
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #267

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…

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…

I ripped a lot of my kids' DVDs because far too many of them had unskippable ads before the title screen. They wouldn't even let you fast forward!

> 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.

Amazon recently changed their Android TV app such that it auto-plays previews if you leave a title selected for more than a few seconds. I hate this feature and it gives me both decision paralysis and anxiety over finding something interesting to watch before the preview starts. I'd sooner turn the TV off than deal with that. If the setting for this can be changed, it is not available in the app itself.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#295

Post by eks391 »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #256
Aeolun wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Junk like hackernews?

HN is more than entertainment, though. It's apparently also a hangout spot for (self-awarded) gold star internet parents who love the smell of their own farts and think anyone else wants to smell them.

My figurative farts aren't that cool but I do appreciate the inspiration I get from all y'all's gold-star farting

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#296

Post by fullstop »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #268
bigfatfrock wrote: post #204

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 would probably stick with Blu-ray approach?

Kids, little ones especially, are quite rough on discs. That's if they even make it back into the case!

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#297

Post by hinkley »

adamrezich wrote: post #288
hinkley wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a product opportunity here? What are the risks?

Licensing.

Of what? I wouldn’t presume doing a Spotify here but linking to existing services or just your movie library. The movie poster art?

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#298

Post by fullstop »

MBCook wrote: post #55

Awesome. Reminded me of Yoto, an internet radio style thing for kids that uses little NFC cards. https://us.yotoplay.com/ Techmoan reviewed it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mQECKOkkqk Less directly was Tonies, an audio player for kids that uses NFC on Skyrim style figures to trigger stories. https://us.tonies.com/ Techmoan did a video on that too (it’s how I know about both): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=…

> Less directly was Tonies, an audio player for kids that uses NFC on Skyrim style figures to trigger stories.

My youngest, at 16, still loves the Tonie Box. She uploads random stuff to their web portal and plays it quietly at night. Her sister, in the top bunk, had a string / pulley connected to the figurine so that she could restart the music from her bed by lifting it just a little bit and putting it back down.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#299

Post by 76SlashDolphin »

bigfatfrock wrote: post #274
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think that the fragility of Blu-Rays is a great way to teach a kid responsibility. You only let your kid have access to their Blu-Rays and if they scratch them or break them it's over - no more movie. They'll learn after they break a few.

Re: An NFC movie library for my kids

#300

Post by RGamma »

croisillon wrote: post #78

i found the “thanks to Hans Wurst” part funny: it is a common way to stay anonym while inputting a real sounding name, like John Doe, but nobody really has this name

It's also the name of one of those old "web fun communities", like CollegeHumor, and it's even still operational: https://www.hans-wurst.net/
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