Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?
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My dad has a big TV but he is about as technical as a house cat. At least the cat can walk across a keyboard and make things happen! (ps my cat once selected all my desktop icons and sent them to recycle bin)
He had a bluray player with apps on it for Netflix and such but it was always buggy, lost login info, disconnected often, lost wifi settings, etc.
I personally have a Roku and that's cool and all but has a ton of apps and not all are free and some require accounts, monthly payments, or pay-as-you-go etc etc.
What I'm looking for is a type of Roku where I am in control of it and I just put a big giant icon on there for netflix and one for youtube and one for physically stored music, videos, and pictures. If the stored files can come from built-in storage would be good, or like a USB drive.
And then I want every other option stripped out and gone. No confusing menus, no extra icons, ads, apps he doesn't own and so on.
What can make this happen?
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@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
What can make this happen?
$2 million and a dev team..... seriously, the best option is to get an actual Roku and strip as much as you can in the current app. Then you'll have to just teach him not to do anything but click on the icons you left behind.
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Android TV will solve this easily. Choose your own custom launcher from the Google Play store and only put the apps you want on your custom home screen. You can have 1 or 2 apps on your homescreen and that is it if you wanted.
You can also auto kill tasks in the background and free memory with Android in case he opens apps by accident.
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I use Smart Launcher for this. It works great!
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@irj said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Android TV will solve this easily. Choose your own custom launcher from the Google Play store and only put the apps you want on your custom home screen. You can have 1 or 2 apps on your homescreen and that is it if you wanted.
You can also auto kill tasks in the background and free memory with Android in case he opens apps by accident.
I plan on getting one of these sooner or later..
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Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.And then I can stick in a custom launcher entirely and just add the icons he needs?
I didn't see Pandora in the Android TV appstore though. He does like radio sometimes.
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@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.I have that and love it.
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@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.I have that and love it.
So can I set it up so that dad turns it on and basically just has his 4 or 5 icons and that's it?
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@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.I have that and love it.
So can I set it up so that dad turns it on and basically just has his 4 or 5 icons and that's it?
No, I've not tried to simplify it. It's not bad, though.
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@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.I have that and love it.
So can I set it up so that dad turns it on and basically just has his 4 or 5 icons and that's it?
No, I've not tried to simplify it. It's not bad, though.
Others here said you can simply change the launcher, but on the Shield I don't know, maybe you can't change launcher from default system.
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it might be worth noting that the newer roku remotes have a button each for hulu netflix slingtv and hbogo with the logos on them.
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@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.I have that and love it.
So can I set it up so that dad turns it on and basically just has his 4 or 5 icons and that's it?
No, I've not tried to simplify it. It's not bad, though.
Others here said you can simply change the launcher, but on the Shield I don't know, maybe you can't change launcher from default system.
Maybe not by default. The Shield tends to be a rather open device in general, though.
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@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.And then I can stick in a custom launcher entirely and just add the icons he needs?
I didn't see Pandora in the Android TV appstore though. He does like radio sometimes.
I am not a fan of having to have the TV on to listen to Pandora... It just seems like a huge waste. However the Echo DOT does decently, and can connect to external speakers.
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@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@guyinpv said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
Ok so Android TV.
Seems like Nvidia Shield is most popular for connecting that.I have that and love it.
So can I set it up so that dad turns it on and basically just has his 4 or 5 icons and that's it?
No, I've not tried to simplify it. It's not bad, though.
Others here said you can simply change the launcher, but on the Shield I don't know, maybe you can't change launcher from default system.
I have used stock android which gives you the option to run any Android app including any custom launcher.
My main media TV only has 4 icons on homescreen and I made the icon 4x in size so they cover a good portion of screen.
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I would give him something like this....
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DId a two year old name that?
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@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
DId a two year old name that?
Lol It probably means something in Chinese?
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@irj said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
DId a two year old name that?
Lol It probably means something in Chinese?
Yes, it means "I can't come up with a name and used toddler sounds" in Chinese.
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@irj said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
DId a two year old name that?
Lol It probably means something in Chinese?
Sadly, no excuse for shit naming.
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@jaredbusch said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@irj said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
@scottalanmiller said in Any options for a highly customized Roku-type device for daddy?:
DId a two year old name that?
Lol It probably means something in Chinese?
Sadly, no excuse for shit naming.
Lol!
