Minimal media centre setup suggestions needed.

[bgowland]

I'm posting in General Discussion as I'm open to any suggestions which may or may not include NextPVR - I'll explain.

I'm looking into providing a media centre / entertainment system for a family friend who is severely disabled. He's 27 and has cerebral palsy (quadriplegic) and lives in a care home with his own room with TV and DVD player and spends much of his life watching TV or DVDs (mostly the latter). Obviously because of his lack of mobility he has to rely on care workers to switch is TV on, load DVD etc etc

So...cut to the chase...

Funding is available but limited. I've been asked to look into something for a budget Android tablet as a control unit (using wifi) but after that we need the media source and some sort of extender attached to the TV.

The initial idea is to start with ripping his DVDs (or as many as possible) to a NAS box but at that point is where the ideas of how to link that to a TV with a usable touch screen as a remote control are needed. The less "tech" involved is essential as the family and care workers aren't going to want to deal with technical problems if they arise.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful to hear them.

Cheers,
Brian

[imilne]

Maybe something like the WD Live devices (not that I've ever tried one)?

Iain

[psycik]

I'm posting in General Discussion as I'm open to any suggestions which may or may not include NextPVR - I'll explain.

I'm looking into providing a media centre / entertainment system for a family friend who is severely disabled. He's 27 and has cerebral palsy (quadriplegic) and lives in a care home with his own room with TV and DVD player and spends much of his life watching TV or DVDs (mostly the latter). Obviously because of his lack of mobility he has to rely on care workers to switch is TV on, load DVD etc etc

So...cut to the chase...

Funding is available but limited. I've been asked to look into something for a budget Android tablet as a control unit (using wifi) but after that we need the media source and some sort of extender attached to the TV.

The initial idea is to start with ripping his DVDs (or as many as possible) to a NAS box but at that point is where the ideas of how to link that to a TV with a usable touch screen as a remote control are needed. The less "tech" involved is essential as the family and care workers aren't going to want to deal with technical problems if they arise.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful to hear them.

Cheers,
Brian

There is a NAS box that connects directly to a TV (less things to break) I think Synology...or a Raspberry PI with an External Harddrive and XBMC, or WD TV Live + external Harddrive?

I think a single box better rather than complicating thing by Extender + nas....

[bgowland]

Maybe something like the WD Live devices (not that I've ever tried one)?

Iain

See...I knew it was a good idea to come here for suggestions. I'll look closer at those. I know there are a lot of "off the shelf" devices these days but I don't keep up with the trends. I had come across WD Live before but didn't realise you can "get an app for that" (to use the cliched phrase).

Cheers,
Brian

[bgowland]

There is a NAS box that connects directly to a TV (less things to break) I think Synology...or a Raspberry PI with an External Harddrive and XBMC, or WD TV Live + external Harddrive?

I think a single box better rather than complicating thing by Extender + nas....

Thanks for the suggestions - I had considered a RPi as I've already played with a test Android app -> RPi as a UPnP music player system. I'll look into the NAS box directly connected to TV as long as it doesn't need a conventional remote etc. I agree a single box would be ideal - the less tech the better.

Cheers,
Brian

[ACTCMS]

Before deciding on where they would be stored I'd want to know how many DVDs are we talking about...

Also, have you thought about a smart TV with a subscription to a movie streaming site?

Alex

[bgowland]

Before deciding on where they would be stored I'd want to know how many DVDs are we talking about...

Agreed and that's part of the problem (including the time it would take to rip them). I don't know for definite but we're talking several hundred but he tends to have his favourite box-sets which he's happy to watch in rotation.

Also, have you thought about a smart TV with a subscription to a movie streaming site?

That was one option - NetFlix (and the like) came to mind but I've never used any of those systems so don't know what's available. I'm also not sure what networking facilities the care home has - I'm still trying to get info on that. Point-to-point wifi would be easy enough to setup but if he doesn't have decent wired access to the Internet then streaming sites would obviously be out of the question. It would be a nice option though as he wouldn't have to cycle through his DVD collection and would be able to get some new stuff.

Cheers,
Brian

[ACTCMS]

That was one option - NetFlix (and the like) came to mind but I've never used any of those systems so don't know what's available. I'm also not sure what networking facilities the care home has - I'm still trying to get info on that. Point-to-point wifi would be easy enough to setup but if he doesn't have decent wired access to the Internet then streaming sites would obviously be out of the question. It would be a nice option though as he wouldn't have to cycle through his DVD collection and would be able to get some new stuff.

Cheers,
Brian

Yeah - I would think that the care home would have broadband but getting a wired connection to his room might be a problem. If it could be done though, something like Netflix plus the various OD services should certainly give a good range of content. You could even rip his favourite boxed sets to a hard disk as well...

Alex

[steeb]

I'm posting in General Discussion as I'm open to any suggestions which may or may not include NextPVR - I'll explain.

I'm looking into providing a media centre / entertainment system for a family friend who is severely disabled. He's 27 and has cerebral palsy (quadriplegic) and lives in a care home with his own room with TV and DVD player and spends much of his life watching TV or DVDs (mostly the latter). Obviously because of his lack of mobility he has to rely on care workers to switch is TV on, load DVD etc etc

So...cut to the chase...

Funding is available but limited. I've been asked to look into something for a budget Android tablet as a control unit (using wifi) but after that we need the media source and some sort of extender attached to the TV.

The initial idea is to start with ripping his DVDs (or as many as possible) to a NAS box but at that point is where the ideas of how to link that to a TV with a usable touch screen as a remote control are needed. The less "tech" involved is essential as the family and care workers aren't going to want to deal with technical problems if they arise.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful to hear them.

Cheers,
Brian

Hi Brian, first off it always breaks my heart when I hear of human condition stories like this. I am so lucky.

The bit I don't get with your post is about the Android tablet? If he is quadriplegic then what is the purpose of an Android tablet as a control unit?

Just coming at this from another perspective? Obviously makes sense to keep this set up as simple as possible with limited breaking points.

[bgowland]

Hi Brian, first off it always breaks my heart when I hear of human condition stories like this. I am so lucky.

The bit I don't get with your post is about the Android tablet? If he is quadriplegic then what is the purpose of a Android tablet as a control unit?

Just coming at this from another perspective? Obviously makes sense to keep this set up as simple as possible with limited breaking points.

Hi Steeb,

The term quadriplegic refers to a condition where all limbs are affected but doesn't mean all limbs are totally disabled.

He has (limited) control over both his arms and the fingers on one hand and has a "standard issue" touch screen device provided by the health service which he can use as a "talker" as he has no speech.

The original idea which was put to me was to store his favourite movies directly onto an Android device but then I explained even a tablet with a large amount of storage wouldn't hold many. I'd need to write some sort of app with a "chunky" interface anyway in order to cope with slight lack of coordination. At that point I figured we could go one better and give him a full screen entertainment system through his TV.

Cheers,
Brian