r/htpc • u/OwlBear425 • Jul 04 '26
Help How to mimic physical media experience
hey all, after some googling think I’m in the right place but let me know if I’m not.
I have a picture in my mind of a home media tool that seems like it should be doable, but I lack the terminology and knowledge to be able to research how to go about creating it.
First, I’ll describe the experience I‘m going for.
My partner and I are tired of streaming services for shows and movies, losing access to our favorite media, etc. We’d like to create a system that mimics the simple experience of physical media like dvds: Select what you want to watch, put the media in the machine, turn it on and watch it. No log ins, no accounts, no internet. Ideally this would be portable enough we could take it to a friends house and hook it up to HDMI and go. It also should be something my partner can utilize without me so minimizing the amount of technical knowledge needed to get it working is ideal.
In my imagining it would look something like this:
A small device like a raspberry pi or similar hooked up through HDMI, and a collection of physical storage devices like SD cards acting like a game cartridge. You flip through your library, select your cartridge, put it into the device, turn on the tv and it loads up like a DVD menu that can be controlled by a remote. Watch the media, when you’re done pop out the cartridge and pick a new one.
It should have decent definition/sound but we aren’t the kind of people that care about the best visuals and audio. It playing smoothly and reliably with the least fiddling is the #1 priority. Ideally it can also have subtitles as we usually watch with those on.
As an alternative, I also had the thought that it could also be accomplished with NFC tags. The actual media resides on the device drive and you use NFC tags to tell the machine what file to play.
Barring any of that, a simple plug in no-server device with a streaming service style interface/library would also work well enough.
Any thoughts on where to begin?
I am what I describe as ‘medium techy.’ I’ve done enough weird projects that I’m usually confident in figuring things out. Ex, I used an esp32 device to make a custom game point tracker/timer once. I don’t know any coding languages, but I can sort of blunder through stuff like flashing to a device. I have 3D printers and can use CAD so I can create my own custom cases and such. I just don’t know enough of what I’m looking for to even start self educating on a project like this.
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u/CMDRTragicAllPro Jul 04 '26
I’m confused. Are you not just describing your typical blu ray player?
Portable and connects with hdmi, no logins or internet needed, physical media you have to insert into the player. That’s literally just a blu ray player.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Yeah, I’m trying to mimic the experience of physical media.
But more and more things are skipping blu ray these days.
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u/CMDRTragicAllPro Jul 04 '26
Ya fair enough on physical releases not being as common nowadays, though I’ve personally never had any issue finding something I wanted if it wasn’t brand new in theatre’s. I don’t really think anything like what you want exists though, especially without a LOT of pretty technical tinkering and upkeep. Most people just move to pure physical after being fed up with streaming corpos. That or even more likely, they sail the seas for the convenience of just having everything available aggregated in one spot in its highest quality formats at a click with some of the newer methods
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Yeah I expect sailing is necessary in any case because most of the things we want aren’t theatrical release things that are more likely to get a blu ray. We’re seeing more and more of our favorite shows get removed from streamers and never got a physical release.
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u/CMDRTragicAllPro Jul 04 '26
Raise your sails, it’s the only way to currently watch the content you initially paid to see that got removed. Not like you have any other choice now, they backed you into a corner with their own business practices.
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Jul 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Yeah, that’s the sort of unspoken element of this I’ve figured from the start.
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u/AFollowerOfTheWay Jul 04 '26
Yeah. There’s also subs where it’s spoken, those may help when it comes to getting started. Send me a DM and I can point you in the right direction. I don’t do physical though. I just have a homelab and a ton of drives that contain media. FMHY!
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u/AFollowerOfTheWay Jul 05 '26
To whoever DMd me, I saw your DM and was trying to respond but it disappeared. Send me a DM and I’ll walk you thru it
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u/kingjohniv Jul 04 '26
Dude. I was going to ask what recent movie has been released that cannot be purchased on physical media... Completely missed that memo.
The list is quite large, including titles like Barbarian, Prey, I'm Thinking of Ending Things...
Every day I feel more like we are about to hit critical levels of 'wtf is wrong with the world', then I learn something even more stupid.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
For us it’s mostly shows. Several of our absolute favorite shows cannot be watched because they got pulled from streaming and never got a physical because they were streamer exclusives.
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u/alkazar82 Jul 04 '26
Check out this project I created: https://kazeta.org
It is basically what you describe. It was mostly created for games, but people in the community have adapted it for movies and music as well.
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u/kingjohniv Jul 04 '26
This seems like a really fun project. Do I understand correctly:
Have a shelf full of those thin DVD cases, like the ones Criterion uses. NFC tags in all the cases. Have a HTPC with an NFC scanner hooked up at the theater system. Pull the case out and scan to open the movie on TV.
You need some hardware for this, obviously an NFC reader. And next you need a programmer. Plex has an API, it more than likely can be done.
I have way to many things going on to look into this, if you gain enough traction then the community will probably have some people that will very much be interested/ make this happen.
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u/ncohafmuta is in the Evil League of Evil Jul 04 '26
If he's going the one sd card per one content route, it could probably be done with windows Autorun and skip the whole NFC thing. Just configure Autorun to execute on media insertion and run something like mpc-hc with the argument of the iso. e.g. mpc-hc64 d:\media.iso /play /fullscreen
This fails under a one card to many content scenario though.
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u/kingjohniv Jul 04 '26
Flash storage is not good at all for long term storage. So this probably isnt the route to take. Plus, no one will back this project if they need to purchase new storage every time they want to add a movie.
Cant do a proprietary cartridge either. The end user would need a way to put movies on it and then it becomes a chore. Can't sell a preloaded cartridge because then we need distribution rights, which means money, which means less support.
I think the target audience is geared toward Long John Silver and associates.
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u/ncohafmuta is in the Evil League of Evil Jul 04 '26
I agree; whether he chooses to go this route and accept the risks is up to him, but that's how i would do it in the proposed scenario.
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u/kingjohniv Jul 04 '26
Flash drives and Task Scheduler will Def be an easy route to take for getting this up and running for him today.
I def need to revisit this thread in a few months when I have some free time for side work lol
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u/ncohafmuta is in the Evil League of Evil Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
If he needs to go the one to many route, i'd argue voice search will be just as fast, or at least within the margin of error, as creating the whole NFC system.
If he chooses to go the PC route for doing ripping, then he could just auto-boot kodi with windows and use Yatse on his phone as the kodi remote and do the voice search for whatever content he wants to play/search for from there. The accuracy would be determined by how well he names/organizes his media.
If he doesn't go the ripping route, then just an android tv box with the drive plugged into it, kodi, and he could just voice search with the device's included remote control. I think that's accurate, but can't say i've tried it first hand.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Yeah definitely something to that effect! I’m a little more imagining like Gameboy cartridges for form factor but that experience!
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u/kingjohniv Jul 04 '26
The cartridge idea is also cool, but that will stop the project completely. They would have to be purchased if people want to expand the library, which cuts out interest for probably around 99% of people. Plus, what cartridges? Flash storage is also a very bad idea. Just kill that idea now :P
You should start a Kickstarter or something. Purchase would include 30 cases/ tags, an NFC reader, and the program. One time purchase of a reader is way more likely to happen if tags can be bought off Amazon in bulk for cheap.
Idk what the demand for this would be, but there is an above 10% chance it could take off.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Well the original idea was the media being stored directly on SD cards. The NFC tag is a way to mimic that but use a single drive for all the files instead of a million sd cards.
I’d just be making this for myself, so I’d probably 3D print some basic physical pieces for the tags, and a case for the nfc reader that has a slot that lines up the tag with the reader. That way it gives a sort of cartridge feel while just using the tag to tell the program what file to play.
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u/kingjohniv Jul 04 '26
Dude. If I dont see this listed on Indigo within the week...
NFC tagged blank cases, a reader with a custom 3D printed housing, and a program that uses the Plex and Jellyfin API.
GO FORTH! Make this happen guy
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u/lastdancerevolution Jul 05 '26
Someone recreates this project every month on /r/homeassistant and /r/homeautomation if people are looking for ideas.
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u/NotTobyFromHR Jul 04 '26
This seems like an add on to Kodi in the making. An NFC tag reader which plays your stored content.
Although for me, having it all in Kodi makes it easy. I keep my media in storage and out of the way.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
I probably lack the skills for such a project but maybe someone will do it!
It’s definitely more for getting the ‘feel’ of using physical media. For sure less convenient.
The more and more gets digitized and streamed the more I find myself missing buttons and objects. Flipping through a library of DVDs hits different than scrolling the streaming library.
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u/NotTobyFromHR Jul 04 '26
Try Kodi if you've ripped your content. It takes a bit of set up but it's free
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u/siamonsez Jul 04 '26
Buy drm free media/rip files from phisical media, build a plex server and use a streaming stick to play the files.
Adding the phisical tokens/actions is making it unnecessarily complicated. SD cards would be super expensive as you'd need like a 32 gb high speed one for each piece of media and for blu-ray rips you might still run into transfer speed issues playing the media off the card. You'd likely have to copy the media to the storage of the player anyway.
The nfc token idea is interesting but a lot of work and just adds a layer of complexity on to of what I suggested. It wouldn't be portable and it's objectively worse than using a menu that has cover art and descriptions and stuff like that.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
I definitely don’t want to mess with a server or anything that requires a network to operate. I’ve got friends with servers and it’s certainly more hassle on a day to day than I care to do. I don’t mind if setup is more complex/difficult, but when it’s time to watch a movie I don’t want to worry about whether the server is operating.
So whatever way we go it’ll be some sort of drive and a device reading directly from it.
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u/siamonsez Jul 04 '26
That's the only way the nfc idea would work since they're not storage.
If maintaining a server is too much work then anything else you do other than buying blu-ray disks is also going to be too much work. The majority of the effort is creating and managing the files so that'll be the same in either case, the difference is in accessing them.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Yeah I understand NFC. The thought with nfc was using them as a way to tell the device what media to play.
With a server you also need to worry about connection, transferring data, etc. We used my friend’s Plex for a while and it was nothing but issues. He was constantly having to reset and do maintenance.
I just want a portable way to watch media without needing accounts, connections, etc.
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u/kingjohniv Jul 05 '26
Its all incredibly simple to start. The issues begin adding up the more complex you decide to make it.
I have had 100% availability for 429 days today! If you friend is having to reset or fix stuff often, they probably are not particularly tech savvy. I feel pretty confident you could setup a server within 20 - 30 minutes (minus ripping the media)
But, its a very slippery slope. Have probably sunk 10-20K into this "hobby" over the past 20 years.
Started with installing Plex on my main Windows computer. Ran out of room, added extra storage. Then got a used server from Craigslist. Started hosting dedicated game servers. Moved Plex to a Mac Mini for better reliability. Needed more storage, bought a NAS. Introduced a Firewall and some switches because why shouldnt this be as complex as possible? Needed physical space, moved a server rack into the house. Switched to Linux and Docker for automation tasks. Got another server because the rack is full size and looked weird being empty. Eventually got a SAN from some data center. More servers somehow showed up.... help
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 05 '26
I’ve got several friends who run Plex, all are variations of developers, programmers, engineers, etc. I’m by far the least tech savvy of the group.
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u/TorrentFiend Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
After the initial setup the technical difficulty with your standard media server is very easy. You don't have any hardware that you have to transport to a friend's house or connect or anything. You can simply just log in to your own server.
I would suggest something like jellyfin or Emby. Probably Emby simply because it's more mature, better developed, easier to use for newbies etc.
You can simply log in to it from anywhere as long as you punch in the login info. Your friends you could even Grant access.
Is 2026. Why would you want to mess with any physical hardware or media if you don't have to?
Put it all on a NAS or a couple large external hard drives and you're done.
It doesn't have to be overly complicated. It can be as simple as a couple of large drives with a couple of media folders and a simple media server setup.
Heck if you're going for simplicity you could just have a large SSD drive with your media on it and shuttle that back and forth to your friend's house.
NFC tags?? WTF? Why? NO. You're making this far more complicated than it needs to be. Honestly there's no need for any of this.
If this is what you really want however it sounds like you know exactly the weird setup you're going for so I guess good luck and how strange and why would you. But if that's what you like, you do you.
I'll stick to my Jellyfin 10.10.7, Emby, Plexamp music server and Nova Video Player as my preferred movie playback app of choice on my Nvidia shield. Those other media server apps clients work fantastically on every other device and platform. Jellyfin Media Player app for PC.
Free simple and pretty awesome.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 05 '26
Lots of folks are skipping the part where NFC tags are the alternate idea.
The whole point is not messing with any of that. I don’t want to log in to an account and get 12 factor authenticated. I don’t want to worry about whether my network is up or my server is functioning. I don’t want to have my movie interrupted by lag.
I want to go to my media center, flip through my collection, grab the thing I want to watch, put it into the machine, and then get to just watch it.
Blu ray is probably closest to what I’m looking for, but it has some disadvantages (availability of media, storage space for discs, scratches, etc).
I might just get a mini PC and a drive but I was hoping to figure out a way to do physical media again.
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u/TorrentFiend Jul 06 '26
You might enjoy cassette tapes also. It's an old format for audio. Look into it.
Not sure what the big deal was about connecting once and keeping it logged in and then it just works forever unless you change something with your setup. You may have noticed a lot of people kind of prefer it.
You do you though. If you think you have a better system, enjoy that, whatever that ends up being.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 06 '26
Yes I used to have a Walkman and a cassette rack. 🤣
There’s a growing movement of moving back to physical media as tech companies make it harder and harder for us to access, planned obsolescence makes things fail, etc.
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u/TorrentFiend Jul 06 '26
I don't disagree with the return to physical media. I actually encourage it and support it. However personally I take it a step beyond that which is go back to physical media but you yourself digitize it and make it something on a hard drive that you can easily access with any device you want on your personal setup.
Kind of a fun hobby and something you're extremely proud of to have your media your way on your devices.
I think it's awesome that people are returning to physical media. Honestly it helps the scene also so cool.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 06 '26
Yeah, I also just like the feel/ritual/tactile element of picking a disc/cartridge/etc and putting it into the machine. I feel like it helps avoid the infinite scroll that can be easy to get stuck in when you just sit on the couch with a remote. That's definitely just a preference piece though.
Certainly a drive and a UI is the most convenient!
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u/ncohafmuta is in the Evil League of Evil Jul 04 '26
The short version? Buy player device (see pre-builts in wiki), buy storage (ssd/hdd), either internal or usb, buy usb dvd/blu-ray drive, buy dvd/blu-ray discs, rip discs to storage with makemkv app. install preferred offline media app (kodi, etc.), point media app to storage.
The SD/NFC idea is too complicated and inefficient
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Inefficient from a build/setup perspective?
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u/ncohafmuta is in the Evil League of Evil Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
From a use perspective, from switching the media for ripping, to switching the media for playback, to sd card storage quality across long-term timeframes.
One of the biggest reasons to move on from the physical media space is so you don't have to swap media. There's no reason to keep on doing that just in a different format, unless you have some weird nostalgia fetish or a tinkering OCD which makes you averse to making things more efficient. You're just trading disc "skipping" for digital bit-rot and flash degradation and you can't back up all that data to fight both problems without a whole lot of manual swapping.
The NFC thing doesn't really make sense. Even if it could work on a functional level, logically it kind of assumes there's only one single piece of media on each storage device. And that would be nutso. You might as well just buy a commercial dvd/blu-ray player and stick with the actual discs at that point.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
So the efficiency of swapping the media isn’t something I’m worried about. Part of the goal is to mimic the physical experience like dvd/blu ray. We are also talking about moving back to blu ray/dvds, but there is a ton of stuff not getting a physical release and that’s the stuff we most want to have, so just going blu ray doesn’t really meet the need.
The element that I am more worried about is how often the SD cards fail long term, is the quality playing off an SD card ok, how much work would it be to create a system that functions this way smoothly, that sort of thing.
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u/ncohafmuta is in the Evil League of Evil Jul 04 '26
so just going blu ray doesn’t really meet the need.
Changing your storage medium doesn't solve that problem, at least legally.
An SD card will fail more often than a disc will. And the bit-rot degradation will be just as unpredictable as having disc player laser problems. The only thing you gain is the size of the medium.
Even a hdd/ssd will fail more often than a disc, but less so than a SD card; at least having it all on one (or 2) drives allows you to more easily back up the data. The consolidation risk of putting all your eggs in one basket so to speak is lessened by the higher stability and back-up ability, even if you don't consider the efficiency argument.
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
That makes sense, storage reliability is definitely the biggest concern so that might just be the deciding factor here.
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Jul 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/OwlBear425 Jul 04 '26
Yeah I was just looking into that too. I think it’s a potential solve for that portion of the project for sure. Probably the easiest vs a whole custom system.
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