My in-laws, bless them, are technologically illiterate. They babysit the kids every week, and I'll be damned if every week I don't get a text saying "The movie won't play."
Since my daughter insisted on scratching all her DVDs I was proactive and ripped them all to my Hard Drive. The problem is finding an idiotproof way to play them on my Television.
Right now I connect the PC to TV by HDMI and just use a wireless mouse to control the computer. But that's a continual source of problems for them. I've also looked into a streaming service like PLEX, but they can't figure out Chromecast. This is with me setting it up in the morning for them and everything.
What I'm considering is converting the MKV files I have now into files like MP4 so iTunes can recognize them. Then I would get an AppleTV with the nice idiotproof (I hope) Siri remote, and it could just load them up for them.
Any input?
I use a Rpi2 w/ Kodi(XBMC) for that exact thing. It is pretty idiot proof... once you set it up. It connects to the movie & tv databases for Art, descriptions, etc. just like PLEX which is kinda nice.
I do think AppleTV would be the hardest to get confused by.
+1 for Kodi. Set up an account on the computer that will launch it on login. A USB wireless keyboard like this one might help:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/2-4G-Rii-Mini-i8-Wireless-Keyboard-with-Touchpad-for-PC-Pad-Google-Andriod-TV-Box/701252_523788942.html
I got that same model for my own HTPC a while ago.
I might try Kodi.
The only thing making me think about the Apple TV is the new Siri remote. The old folks love the Siri. Another plus is that I could move the PC back to my workstation.
Seriously, a Raspberry Pi and a wireless remote running OpenElec w/Kodi.
Seem less boot up, no login issues, just hook up your hard drive and add the files to the repository.
I use a USB Miceosoft Media Center remote plugged into the Raspberry Pi along with a wireless adapter. Cheap and easy with no moving parts to fail. Powered by USB so I actually power one off the USB port on the back of one of my TVs.
In-laws just choose the movie with the remote and click Play.
You could even build a play list to let it go all day, etc.
Of course Kodi runs on Windows and Linux and has nearly the same look/feel and of course the Media Centet remote plugs in and the drivers are basically native to Windows and Linux.
I use Plex with Rokus. Downside is that you need a server running where all the movies are stored, but the Roku remote/interface is easy as pie.
Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote:
Seriously, a Raspberry Pi and a wireless remote running OpenElec w/Kodi.
Seem less boot up, no login issues, just hook up your hard drive and add the files to the repository.
I use a USB Miceosoft Media Center remote plugged into the Raspberry Pi along with a wireless adapter. Cheap and easy with no moving parts to fail. Powered by USB so I actually power one off the USB port on the back of one of my TVs.
FWIW, I have no remote for mine. If your TV supports HDMI-CEC (it probably does), the TV remote will control it through the HDMI cable. Not a full range of controls, but all the navigation, movie start/stop/pause/ffwd/etc. is all there.
Our TV remote controls PS3, Chromecast & Kodi all with the same buttons. Its nice. Except I haven't figured out how to turn the PS3 off with it.
Buy a new blue ray player with a USB port and plug an external drive in to it? That's all I do on the tv that doesn't have a USB port.
I recommend an external hard drive with it's own power cord, though, in case the tv or player goes into sleep mode and kills power to the port.
