Putting together a audio/video library for my parents

My parents are in their 80s and they have an extensive collection of music and videos on reel-to-reel tape, cassettes, 33 and 78 records, video cassettes, etc.

I am in the process of digitizing them and I would like to give them the whole collection in a way that they could use. At their age, I have two constraints: a) I don't want this to be too complicated and b) I don't want the form factor to be too small, like an iPOD or mp3 player as fine motor skills and eyesight decline significantly at their age.

I was thinking of copying all the music into mp3s and the videos into mp4 or avi and putting them all on a micro-SD card or two. The question is then - what electronic device would be the best for them to use? I was considering a cheap Android tablet that has a SD or micro-SD slot. The reasoning is that the form factor is large enough they can manipulate it easily, and I can get hardware that they can easily hook it up to their stereo and TV to play the music or watch the video.

Any better ideas on how to do this?

Thanks!

Hrm,

Maybe a Rasberry Pi 3 running Kodi? No fooling with batteries and recharging, like a tablet. Already hooked up to TV so they can look at images, video, play music etc. Pulls data from large capacity SD card or a USB hard drive. Small. Can dictate the controller if you wish or just use a media player remote.

Otherwise, I actually use a standard Sony Bluray player, they're like $50~60, and I can put a large capacity USB flash drive in the port and it plays my AVI files, shows JPG and plays MP3 just fine. Standard remote. Makes it very easy. Not flashy or daunting to use. No different honestly than an old VCR.

Very best,

The bluray is a good idea. So, can they scroll through the music or video files with the remote, have it display on the screen and select what they want to play? My biggest worry is for them to be able to easily find what they want to listen to or watch. I don't want them to get frustrated with the process. They are ok with operating their VCR/CD player, TV, etc. and I want to keep it at that same level of ease, if you know what I mean.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #18208142
The bluray is a good idea. So, can they scroll through the music or video files with the remote, have it display on the screen and select what they want to play? My biggest worry is for them to be able to easily find what they want to listen to or watch. I don't want them to get frustrated with the process. They are ok with operating their VCR/CD player, TV, etc. and I want to keep it at that same level of ease, if you know what I mean.

Heya,

Yes, the bluray player just shows sources: DVD, Bluray, USB, etc. You select USB and it just opens it up and it looks like a typical directory file folder structure so you see folders (if you have them on the flash drive) full of files. They just select the folder, with say, "Videos" and then look at the file names for which video they want to watch and they're all listed in descending order alphabetically. Or they can select folder "Pictures" and go through that, etc.

I went to this setup myself, because my mother is 60 and I wanted it to be easier for her to deal with her 1300+ DVD library and music and pictures. I just load them on a USB hard drive and plug it into a cheap blurray player (I got a Sony one for $38 refurb on Amazon). Works great. Totally silly easy remote control with up down arrows, OK, etc. Makes navigating very simple. Imagine a big windows folder view, with folders or files, you just see it like that, simple, so name everything long and appropriate and it's super easy to get through.

The blurray player can power the flash drives (like a big 128gb usb 3 flash stick). But if you want 1TB+ capacity, get an external drive with external power supply as the player cannot power a moving disk hard drive.

Here's some options:

Sony BluRay with Wifi ($63)
Sony BluRay (refurb) Wired only ($38) - I use this one as I don't need wifi.

Here's how it looks:

Thanks, Martin! I think that sounds like a good idea!

I do this for my 3 year old's cartoons even. That way I can just stick a USB flash stick in and all her cartoons are ready to go, no finding discs, no messing around, and a child can navigate this.

And again, I do it for my 60 year old mother's DVDs and music too.

The screens & GUI are a little different on each model, but you get the idea above, it's a directory structure with names. So if you name everything obvious and long, it will show it and they can read it and figure it out very easy.

I stopped using HTPC and all that jazz, etc, because this is just so simple, fast, and CHEAP, yet works.

Very best,

Hey, I haven't delved into all of this, so I don't know what's "best", maybe BlueRay, but the name "Kodi" came up, and this has recently come to my attention, and specifically with the "Exodus" plug-in, as a way of getting access to/watching some stuff that is out there, presumably without "pirating". This came up in a conversation about the HBO series Westworld. Since I don't have HBO, I was missing out, and someone suggested Kodi with the Exodus plug-in. So, any feedback on that, and would it be a valuable addition for those who are technologically "short"?