Which multimedia system to choose for a pensioner?

Question

Books

I would like to brighten up my grandfather's leisure in the village. In the past, he is an engineer (and loved the magazines "Science and Life", "Technology of Youth", etc.), but now his leisure time is TV, news and all that. I want him to watch programs from Discovery, other popular science channels and listen to audio books. And
it is not clear how to implement this from the technical side. Buy a DVD player and burn discs? Or VHS is very easy to use, the interface is familiar to him, but it is rather difficult to transfer data to cassettes.
Or all the same to look towards USB players? Very convenient for me, but I'm afraid that even after explanations and instructions, grandfather will not be able to use it.
Maybe I'm missing some device that could solve this problem?

Answer 1

Are there internet in the village? Or does the system have to be offline?

Answer 2

Well, if grandfather is an engineer, maybe everything is not so bad (like mine) . So take usb.
As practice shows, it is best to make detailed instructions for all the main actions with screenshots / diagrams and explanations. Instructions should be as simple and clear as possible. Do in Word and print out in 2-3 copies.

Answer 3

DVD and other perversions are not needed.
I have no idea what a "USB player" is. If you mean a media player that can play content (usually) from external media connected via USB, as well as from SD cards, then yes, this is the solution. They usually have fairly simple remote controls, and you can write down a couple of algorithms for grandfather (turn on - wait for loading 30 seconds - press right x times to go to the desired menu - press down y times to select the desired movie - press play). It's even easier than working with DVD\VM - you have to look for a disc/cassette to insert, rewind, all sorts of idiotic disc menus, scratches on discs, tracking on tapes ... The media player's remote control and use will, perhaps, be easier than these dinosaurs.
Which one depends on the budget, the state of the grandfather, the crime situation in his place of residence. For example, if it’s not scary and the grandfather is quite sane, you can also buy a dune, for example, some Dune Base 3d, fill it with a three-terabyte file filled with films to the eyeballs. But this is 20k + the cost of a three-terabyte. Or Dune 303, it's 14k, but the drive is only 2.5 "+ external (but external media = design complexity = potential problems for the end user). It can be cheaper, some kind of iKonbits or noname, but this is no longer ice.
And if you mean very small players, on android - this is such a buggy bullshit ... I would not wish the enemy.By the
way, if the village, you may need a stabilizer / UPS.
And it is very desirable not to shine, but it will be a shame if local drunks set fire to the hut because of the piece of iron or something worse.