Simple player to play videos on a loop
December 24, 2024 12:10 PM Subscribe
My mother-in-law misses being able to watch old tv shows. She’s suffering from dementia and is living in a group home (which is wonderful) but there’s a single shared tv, and she misses watching old westerns.
I want to gift her a simple portable player that has old episodes playing on a loop. Ideally there’d be no controls beyond volume, just turn it on and it starts playing. If that’s not a possibility, the simpler the controls the better. She can still remember how to do simple things, but I couldn’t pre-load on a tablet as that interface would overwhelm her.
Best idea so far is a portable dvd player made for children, is there anything else I should be looking at?
I want to gift her a simple portable player that has old episodes playing on a loop. Ideally there’d be no controls beyond volume, just turn it on and it starts playing. If that’s not a possibility, the simpler the controls the better. She can still remember how to do simple things, but I couldn’t pre-load on a tablet as that interface would overwhelm her.
Best idea so far is a portable dvd player made for children, is there anything else I should be looking at?
Best answer: I wonder if you could put something together with a digital signage player and a small tv. Load movies/shows on an SD card, set the player to play on a loop, and then use a simple tv remote to turn the TV off and on /adjust volume. If you get the shows from the high seas they'll have all the menu cruft of a dvd removed. As long as the player had power it would keep looping.
posted by Mitheral at 1:41 PM on December 24
posted by Mitheral at 1:41 PM on December 24
Best answer: They definitely still make portable and otherwise dvd players. Even a small TV with a media player and thumb drive might work, as long as it has a USB port.
Put a few ripped shows on a disk as mp4s and she's set.
posted by fiercekitten at 4:38 PM on December 24 [5 favorites]
Put a few ripped shows on a disk as mp4s and she's set.
posted by fiercekitten at 4:38 PM on December 24 [5 favorites]
A little Android TV box with VLC set to loop play a playlist and some MP4s on a USB stick.
posted by kschang at 5:54 PM on December 25
posted by kschang at 5:54 PM on December 25
A tablet with no login, the resolution and text has been set high.
The only icons on the screen are the rerun shows, and you've changed the icons so it's clear what they are.
There's a big label on the tablet with her name and room number so it can be returned when another resident wanders off with it.
There's three power cords, which are also labelled and one of them preferably taped to the power socket in her room.
There's a bag to put it that can hang from the chair she sits in usually.
You've shown all the staff that it literally just needs to be charged and turned on.
I think a few of the tablet apps let you make playlists, if so, make a shortcut to them, but again, just have it literally all things you click from the first screen of the tablet, nothing you navigate too etc.
posted by Elysum at 3:05 AM on December 26
The only icons on the screen are the rerun shows, and you've changed the icons so it's clear what they are.
There's a big label on the tablet with her name and room number so it can be returned when another resident wanders off with it.
There's three power cords, which are also labelled and one of them preferably taped to the power socket in her room.
There's a bag to put it that can hang from the chair she sits in usually.
You've shown all the staff that it literally just needs to be charged and turned on.
I think a few of the tablet apps let you make playlists, if so, make a shortcut to them, but again, just have it literally all things you click from the first screen of the tablet, nothing you navigate too etc.
posted by Elysum at 3:05 AM on December 26
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posted by sexyrobot at 1:25 PM on December 24