When we watch a series or a movie, it's most likely being played at 24 or 30 frames per second. High-profile projects like the adaptation of The Hobbit to the big screen already explored the potential of 48 frames per second, but this time the goal is to go in the opposite direction: the Very Slow Movie Player is more of an artistic initiative than a video player. On one hand, it uses a small e-ink display (with all its advantages and limitations), and on the other, the content is played at 24 frames per hour.
There are not a few who believe that e-ink displays have life beyond e-readers. In fact, the technology was chosen by several wearables manufacturers, and then there are smartphones like the Light Phone series, whose second edition is still in development. Now, e-ink does not deliver great performance when it comes to reproducing color or updating the screen content fluidly, but if those details are not a priority, we can do very interesting things. One of them is the Very Slow Movie Player, by Bryan Boyer. It all starts with a 7.4-inch e-ink display and a Raspberry Pi…
In an attempt to rediscover the pleasure of watching things pass more slowly, Boyer created a hardware device whose only purpose is to play a movie, series, or short on the mini computer at a maximum of 24 frames per hour. For example, "2001: A Space Odyssey" lasts just over two hours at 24 FPS, but on the Very Slow Movie Player it exceeds 8,200 hours. Each frame remains static on the screen for two and a half minutes. A Python script is responsible for extracting the frames and performing the conversion for playback in 1 bit.
The natural performance of the Raspberry Pi plays a critical role in the speed of the player. The original text explains that the intention was to try a Raspberry Pi Zero, but that version of the mini computer was too slow. In the end, he opted for a Raspberry Pi 3B, with the consequence that the case is thicker than necessary (I estimate I could avoid this with some modifications). It may be a bit complicated to get an identical e-ink display (the manufacturer declared it EOL), but nothing prevents you from using a similar model, or replacing it with a normal screen.
