My wife wanted MTV back, so I 'Vibe-Coded' her a 24/7 linear time machine for her birthday
Hey Product Hunters! 👋
When my wife Noa and I heard that MTV was officially shutting down, it felt like the end of an era. As 90s kids, we missed that specific "linear" experience—the joy of just turning on the TV and being surprised by a music video without an algorithm getting in the way.
She joked that "someone needs to bring it back," and with her birthday coming up, I decided that someone would be me.
The "Vibe Coding" Journey:
The development was a mix of "manual labor" and AI assistance. I started by brainstorming features and broadcast logic with ChatGPT. For the initial POC, I used Base44 and Lovable to get a feel for the product.
However, I wanted to be more "hands-on" with the code, so I moved to VS Code with Copilot. Once Google's Antigravity (Gemini 3 Pro) was launched, I used it heavily for UI/UX—it absolutely blew everything else out of the water when it came to designing the retro remote interface.
The Tech Specs:
Linear Broadcasting: I built a backend that generates random broadcast slots from a database of 8,000+ clips.
The "Aha!" Moment: I discovered that using the YouTube IFrame API under specific conditions allows for an ad-free, continuous stream, which was crucial for the vibe.
Customization: Users can even inject their own YouTube playlists into specific channels to personalize their rotation.
The Challenges: It wasn't all magic prompts. I had to deal with classic dev hurdles: edge cases in broadcast logic, performance issues, and moments where the AI suggested inefficient solutions that required my experience to optimize.
Now, I’m finalizing an Android TV APK so we can zap through channels from the couch with a real remote.
I’d love to hear your thoughts:
Do you miss linear TV, or are you strictly "On-Demand" now?
For the devs here—how are you balancing "hands-on" coding with AI-generated components?
Check out the time machine: http://nmtv.online/ 🤘
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