Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

Post by nazgul17 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:43 AM UTC

fourneau wrote: post #232

palmotea wrote: post #32

There are some off-the-shelf products that work similarly in the audio space: https://us.yotoplay.com/ https://us.tonies.com/ I had plans to build something that for the TV, but having kids means I never had the time. And honestly, that might not have been such a bad thing since it made setting limits easier. I was able to teach my kid to turn the TV off when she was fairly young (and pause more recently), which seem…

I -have- built something like this for the TV using NFC cards, which was a great first-electronics-project for myself. That said, the most frustrating part is not the actual hardware itself but getting whatever streamer you're using to play the content you want. For example, this project required the author to WireShark and reverse engineer how Chromecast managed things. If you do go down this route, I found that Ple…

Post by neltnerb » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:43 AM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #137

arrozconcosas wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to look for a 'dumb' tv for a long time to get to a setup like this. The ultimate setup would be 1) a totally dumb and stupid tv + 2) a streaming box like Apple TV or whatever. I just want the audio/visual aspect of the screen, nothing else.

Dumb TVs really don’t exist anymore. You just have to buy a smart one and treat it like it’s dumb. Over Christmas my mom was complaining about her TV and I found a setting to have it start up with the last used input, which meant no more dealing with the smart interface and motion remote. I have an LG as well, but I wasn’t able to find the same setting available, unfortunately. Thought the automatic selection seems t…

Post by wirelessguy » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:59 AM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #177

al_borland wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m using an AppleTV HD with Peacock and it’s pretty bad. I wouldn’t consider NBC a niche service. After an episode ends, I need to wait for the new one to start to be sure it marks the last one as watched. When going back to the main screen, it can take upwards of 30 seconds, maybe more (it feels like an eternity), for the “watch next” to update. If I don’t wait for it to update, it will start playing an old episode…

If you think Peackock is bad, try Paramount+, it's an impressively bad app that, along with being very laggy, will crash fairly regularly too.

Post by ares623 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:02 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #285

01100011 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't overthink it. Some of us were raised on Looney Tunes and MTV and somehow still figure out normal social interactions and do quite well in life. 40 years ago my parents had a close friend with a young and irresponsible wife who raised their child in front of a TV. At 4 years old the child could barely speak. My parents began babysitting and helping socialize her. Now she's a successful businessperson herself and…

After watching some looney tune episodes recently... maybe the world would be a better place if we weren't raised on it.

Post by tfvlrue » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 3:18 AM UTC

herodoturtle wrote: post #216

Cool idea! Is the terminology correct though? Looking at the showcased disks, in my youth we called these “stiffy disks” - owing to their stiff plastic casing. We also had “floppy disks” - but these were larger (in size, albeit with less storage capacity) and floppier (the plastic case would bend easily). I treasured my burgundy Dysan stiffy disk boxes!