Someone made an Arduino-powered NFC scanner that treats physical movies like cartridges

Published Sep 18, 2026, 1:46 AM EDT Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary This Arduino NFC slot scans a DVD case sticker, pairs it with a hard-drive file, and plays the movie at a button press. Use genre-labelled cases to pick movies randomly; press again to skip to another pick. The project uses an Arduino, an NFC/RFID module, a Python script, and a lookup file; a simple DIY to bridge physical and digital. Sometimes, you want the convenience of a digital film without sacrificing all the benefits that come with owning the movie physically. Fortunately, you don't need to pick between one or the other; you can go for both at the same time. Someone has designed a smart Arduino-powered NFC scanner that lets you slot in a movie case as if it were a cartridge, and it'll play the movie with the press of a button. This Arduino movie player turns your physical collection into a digital one It can also help you pick a movie when you're not sure what you want to watch On the Arduino subreddit, Redditor JackIrishJack posted a video showing their NFC scanning project. It consists of a slot with an NFC reader in it, and a big red button. Put a DVD case into the slot, hit the button, and the Arduino will pair the movie with a digital version stored on a hard drive and automatically play it. Here's how JackIrishJack describes the process: NFC Sticker on the back of the DVD box; the box gets put into 3d housing NFC/RFID module scans the sticker with the Arduino and sends the code to the laptop On the laptop, there is a Python file that runs on startup. The Python file checks a txt file (in the image) and finds the code that has been scanned in the txt, and looks at the movie that is next to it. it searches for this file name in the movies folder i have on the hard drive and plays the movie file inside it. If you're feeling indecisive, you can skip picking a specific movie and instead reach for boxes labelled with different genres. When you slot one of these cases, it will randomly pick a movie based on that genre and start playing it immediately. If you're not feeling the movie it chose, you can hit the button again for a new one. JackIrishJack didn't make their project open-source, but hopefully their description is enough to inspire anyone who wants to make something similar.