Comment by bigfatfrock

1 year ago

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/rig yourself a case! (yes, of course, another $X for screens, sound etc)

I have run into such a crazy amount of cool hacky kid tech in the past couple of days for some reason (this and Makey Makey), and am so lucky to have done so. I can't wait to outfit my kids with this, it is going to blow their minds.

I want to hook it up to Jellyfish because I feel Plex is total marketing trash these days but as soon as I can get time I am all over this.

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bigfatfrock

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rtkwe  1 year ago

You can get loads of NFC tags as stickers extremely cheap. I think using the cards is better here just for durability but if you're willing to put in a bit more DIY and accept a slightly less durable final product you could print it on a heavy card stock and stick one of the innumerable NFC stickers to that then laminate.

ClumsyPilot  1 year ago

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?

  • hinkley  1 year ago

    You don’t have kids do you?

    They leave the last disc laying on the TV cabinet. It never, ever goes back in the box. I found three stacked at one point, and I think one disc just outright disappeared and we had to get a new one. It wasn’t until the discs started skipping that the kids even thought about taking care of them.

  • pfranz  1 year ago

    Sooo many forum postings of parents lamented the loss of VHS when DVDs and Blu rays took over because of the kid factor. I saw a lot of people backing up their discs and giving their kids the duplicates because of the cost of (especially Disney) films. I also think slot-load (rare for disk players) is a lot more durable than tray-load for kids.

  • bigfatfrock  1 year ago

    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.

    • 76SlashDolphin  1 year ago

      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.

      1 reply →

  • fullstop  1 year ago

    > 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!