Now I need to see if anyone can come up with any suggestions to help with my problem.

As you may be aware I am caring for my 92 year old father. His main enjoyment is his TV, however with his failing eyesight he cannot manage the remote controls.

Even the "big button" ones, whilst better still occasionally result in him pressing the wrong button and losing his program.

My first answer was DVD's of some of his favourite programs, set all the buttons on the big button remote to "pause" so he can stop for lunch etc.

However that meant several episodes of the same show back to back.

My dads TV is not smart but does have 3 HDMI and a USB socket so my current solution is to put a mixture of programs ripped from DVD onto a USB stick.

(Yes I own all the DVD's currently about £500's worth)

As long as I renumber them 1,2,3 etc I can get the TV to play them in order. The "pause" system still works fine.

So far so good, however a couple of drawbacks, firstly I have to transfer the ripped videos to the stick, currently on a daily basis, then renumber them so they play in a nicely mixed order.

Secondly the USB "pause" is forgotten once the TV is turned off, so when my dad finishes for the night and he pauses the playback in the middle of a 2 hour program. I either have to leave the TV on overnight (not ideal) or sit and work out whereabouts he has got to and make a note to start playback there next day, before I can remove the USB stick.

Putting on more videos is of course a short term answer but putting on say 3 days worth takes a while and if you are not concentrating, as I was not last night, a careless "delete" wiped the stick clean after an hours work.

What I need is a way to remotely stream a "playlist" to the TV. That I can control.

What I want to know is if anyone has a better solution. I have considered getting an Android smart TV stick but have not had much experience with them and am not sure if they would do the job.

My dads TV is only a few feet away from the BT Home Hub so Wi-Fi would not be a problem.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

If it will work on your system, try Kodi, the program remembers where the program/film stops at & asks if you want to restart or resume where it left off.

We don't have a smart tv, either. I've thought about a Roku thingamabob that goes in the Tv's HDMI port, and that would enable internet content to go to the tv, but to set up a customized playlist of your own creation using DVD videos and have it streamed to your set, I would think a different device needs to be connected to make your tv semi-smart. I have no idea what sort of device that might be, but it would be neat to have one!

Your USB thumb drive must have a lot of storage space. Mine is only 128 GB.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Have you considered Apple TV?
The new (4th) generation accept siri commands. He just has to ask for what he wants. It remembers where it left off, can play from several sources including usb sticks and best thing, it's low power. So you turn of the TV but leave the Apple TV running.

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Have you considered Apple TV?
The new (4th) generation accept siri commands. He just has to ask for what he wants. It remembers where it left off, can play from several sources including usb sticks and best thing, it's low power. So you turn of the TV but leave the Apple TV running.

Would you be able to create your own playlists from your own media on the computer and wifi it to the tv through that thing?

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

As you may be aware I am caring for my 92 year old father. His main enjoyment is his TV, however with his failing eyesight he cannot manage the remote controls.

Even the "big button" ones, whilst better still occasionally result in him pressing the wrong button and losing his program.

How is his colour vision?
If he's got no issues there, colouring the 3 or 4 most important buttons (Red, White, Black, Green) and having a cheat sheet with extra large print as a key for which colour corresponds with which button.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Have you considered Apple TV?
The new (4th) generation accept siri commands. He just has to ask for what he wants. It remembers where it left off, can play from several sources including usb sticks and best thing, it's low power. So you turn of the TV but leave the Apple TV running.

Would you be able to create your own playlists from your own media on the computer and wifi it to the tv through that thing?

Yes I can create my own playlist on my computer or iPhone and send it to the Apple TV, but you will need to connect the Apple TV to the TV with an HDMI cable. It does not broadcast the audio video signal. There are transceivers for that, but you will suffer some signal degradation.

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but you will need to connect the Apple TV to the TV with an HDMI cable. It does not broadcast the audio video signal.

I'm pretty sure my satellite DVR box transmits audio through it's HDMI port to the tv.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Thanks for the suggestions so far

Your USB thumb drive must have a lot of storage space. Mine is only 128 GB.

Sorry I din't explain very well. I have brought an new 1TB USB HDD, and a 64GB USB stick

I currently have about 530 GB of videos stored.

I copy the daily videos from the 1TB drive onto the stick. Then arrange them in order.

I am afraid my dads colour vision may be affect by his poor eyesight, it is close up that is the problem, I know he can see distances quite well as he has commented on the squirrels and birds in the garden.

The TV remote has a green ON/OFF button, but he has to hold the remote so close to see it that it tends to be pointing vertically when he presses the button with mixed results.

And no matter how often the guy in the post office tells him to push the green button on the card reader, about 50% of the time he hits the yellow one next door which is "cancel".

As to the Apple TV, it sounds OK but with my dads memory the way it is he probably wouldn't remember the program name!

And "talking" to a machine!! Hmm not sure how he would feel about that!!

Thank you Sirius for the KODI suggestion, it reminded me I had brought an Amazon Fire stick when I first came here, without realising it was a bit restricted and the remote is tiny!

However I did find that there is an unofficial way to get KODI onto the Fire Stick that worked a treat.

After my dad went to bed I have been watching random TV and films on KODI via the Fire Stick, streamed from my PC in the back room onto the TV in the living room.

The playlist function is not "user friendly" and I haven't quite made it work yet.

Also the remote is wireless, so the "big button" remote will not work.

And I cannot find a "big button" Fire TV replacement.

There is a lot of ways to watch a lot of things but for a 92 year old with limited vision it has to be very simple.

I haven't found the perfect solution yet but I have a feeling it's out there somewhere.

Now his memory is a strange thing, names and places often allude him, however with TV he knows what he likes.

He recently told me about a character in a long running TV series that he could not stand, and while totally unable to remember the name he was able to describe the character and her actions so well I had no problem identifying her.

He then said he didn't want to see any episode with her in, so there went 106 episodes I had brought (the series had 372 episodes in total)

Also a couple of days ago I had made a mistake and managed to put the same episode of a program on twice, and he spotted it even with a 2 hour gap between.

Personally while I realise he may well not remember everything he sees I cannot just throw a few videos on a stick and not care. It just isn't me

He may be 92 and sometimes annoying, but I still want to do my best for him.

Personally while I realise he may well not remember everything he sees I cannot just throw a few videos on a stick and not care. It just isn't me

He may be 92 and sometimes annoying, but I still want to do my best for him.

Totally agree. The funny thing about my mother's memory is she always asks, "Didn't we already see this?" even when we haven't!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Totally agree. The funny thing about my mother's memory is she always asks, "Didn't we already see this?" even when we haven't!

Might be the first time that particular episode/show has aired, but it's probably the 15th or 20th time that particular plot line has been used.
:-)

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Grant
Darwin NT

Totally agree. The funny thing about my mother's memory is she always asks, "Didn't we already see this?" even when we haven't!

Might be the first time that particular episode/show has aired, but it's probably the 15th or 20th time that particular plot line has been used.
:-)

Exactly, and shows how sharp my mother still is!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

And here I thought all Bernie had to do was to run roughshod on us posters......
You are a fine man, Bernie, for helping your father so much.
I give you a salute for that.
Sincerely.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Same here, but I guess I would need to be a technician for such a thing.

The flat screen graphics monitor being used here is 23 inch (or 23").

It should be too small for viewing of television, because your chair and table for such a thing should be something else and preferably the living room.

Being larger in size, both a sofa, others chairs, as well as other furniture could be present.

But if I am not wrong, this monitor comes with both DVI and HDMI as hardware connectors and for now I have not tried the latter.

Except for the size perhaps needed, the remaining part of the question probably becomes that of DVD and the recording of playback.

Of course you would need to use the finger on the Remote Control a couple of times, but it probably ends becoming a question of watching a DVD video, rather than doing any recordings.

The difference between a computer and a TV is that a DVD player needs to be purchased separately and for my living room, there is a quite large one such which is not much used.

The DVD player also comes with a recording function, which makes it possible to record either a video from a cassette, or perhaps directly from television.

Here I have always questioned this possibility because of the time needed for recording versus both the speed of playback and possibly transmission.

Using my computer, there is also a CD/DVD player inserted with both playback and recording enabled, or having such a capability.

Next you would perhaps be looking for any DVD recording software in order to perhaps be doing this on behalf of someone.

Here it perhaps becomes the question of either recommendation for such a thing and next it becomes the subject of the market for this.

Should tell that for now this becomes one of the things being lost for now when it comes to doing a couple of things here.

You could perhaps go with WinDVD for such software, or rather the more expensive OrionDVD for such a thing, which happens to be somewhat complex when it comes to its menus.

Really, I can not help too much with either eyesight, or perhaps poor hands, or maybe even more, but in fact I could be having similar problems.

Everyone gets older over time, I guess and you could end up getting blind, but still with a sense of humour.

My guess is that memory could be a good option for certain storage media like a disc, videotape, or a CD/DVD, but next such memory is unable to store any contents.

I have a couple of USB sticks or plugs for RAM or the like lying around, the two most recent ones, still unpacked, are 16 GB each.

But next you do not have any Remote control on such a stick and neither any software for such control either.

It becomes a question of what technology either could do, or perhaps is supposed to do.

Like the small pack of beef sticks (no pun intended), being purchased in the shop, there was no mentioning of these needed the pan first.

Next you could perhaps choose between either rice or potatoes for these beef sticks.

Therefore, perhaps that of either becoming blind when age is becoming a problem, or maybe that of poor fingers instead.

During my computer studies, I spent some 10 days in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

Among a couple of other visits at technologically related businesses, was that of IBM and also at Microsoft, which became two different things for such visits.

For some reason, an almost blind man was guiding us around at Microft, while at IBM it became the rather small conference room and the slides for such a presentation.

In my opinion, the advantage when it comes to Microsoft is that they are thinking about their customers and not only their business.

But next the fact that some of these things do not necessarily come any cheap and you will have to pay for it.

Think of a large personal computer as perhaps clumsy or silly at times when it comes to any hardware and for the rest of it you will need both software and user knowledge.

If I happened to be 92 years old, it would be nice to have someone coming with a labeled folder for each recorded DVD, including possible numbering.

The remaining thing being needed is that of inserting each such DVD into the player for that of playback of contents.

It does not even have to be a recorder either, but next perhaps the question of transferring any contents from a Video Camera Recorder (or VCR), which is something else onto either a computer,
or maybe something similar for rather that of television viewing.

For this, perhaps back to the question of that of a suitable monitor for such a thing as well.

Probably better with a table for the remote control rather than your or even lap for such a thing.

For those of us having insight in that of Projects and similar Management, you probably know that you could start up with one given thing and next end up with something else, or even better.

In between there could be a given way of getting from here to there and also what next could be needed for such a thing.

In fact a DVD could be thought of as both a storage medium, as well as having a playback capability.

The decent photograph of a ship in the sunset could be a still frame, or perhaps such a thing could be "frozen" and next becoming a still frame.

Regardless of other things, such a thing could be for that of entertainment and fun and should therefore come with a similar way of use.

Next, perhaps say "thank you" to the one who came in your door with the complete episode series of your favorite television show.

Except for that, Bernie, I may possibly not be of any much help.

And except for "perhaps" I could end up either repeating myself, or perhaps using the same word more than once.

Probably not easy to get rid of when making such a text, which ends up a little too long.

I should perhaps read the OP (original post) each time completely, before answering back, including the name for the software.