Recreating the Old School Cable TV Experience
Miss channel surfing? Irish Craic Party recreated that experienced by building their own virtual cable TV network and a retro-style TV.
I "cut the cord" around 15 years ago, so I'm as anti-cable TV as they come. But even I enjoy channel surfing when I stay in hotels. There is something to be said for lessening the paradox of choice and passively consuming television. Maybe kids who grew up in the streaming era feel differently, but there is comfort in letting the networks decide what to beam into your eyeballs. To bring that experience into the modern era with the desired content, Irish Craic Party built their own virtual cable TV network and a retro-style TV to work with it.
From the user perspective, this is a small TV that looks like a vintage CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube) model from the '80s. It operates like a TV connected to cable in that era. The viewer can flip between channels and then watch the show or movie of their choice—though the selection is limited, just like the real deal. That authenticity extends across the entire experience. There are commercials, some networks go dark late at night, and R-rated movies won't air until late in the evening after the kids have gone to bed.
The vast majority of this functionality was achieved in software and the hardware is pretty simple. The primary components are a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and an LCD screen connected via an HDMI adapter. There is also a volume knob, a channel knob, a tiny screen to show the current network logo, and an infrared receiver for a remote control. Those reside inside of an enclosure made with plywood and 3D-printed plastic parts. It looks just like the TVs that many of us grew up with.
The software is complicated, but the basic idea is easy to understand. A bunch of media from DVDs stored locally plays according to a selection algorithm, which tries to show a variety. It automatically inserts different commercials at the appropriate times and will even sometimes pop in breaking news reports, like the infamous OJ Simpson Bronco chase.
There is a lot more to this project and you should watch the video to see all the fun details. But there is one more feature that will please the gamers: switching to channel 3 lets users play connected consoles. The HDMI adapter has a splitter and selecting that "channel" switches the input to accept the video from whatever console is connected. That attention to detail makes this one of the most fun projects we've come across recently.
