Simple audio/video streaming arrangement (for old people)?

[Oro_O]

The 20-ish year old Yamaha A/V receiver in my parents’ house gave out finally. Won’t pass video signal, and has been wonky on some other issues for a little while. I am looking for a simple and cost effective solution for them. I took a picture of the existing system (below) and will describe it:

A) Fast 5G wireless to a Fire Cube (Yellow arrow), controlling Prime Video, Netflix, YouTubeTV, PBS, etc.
B) HDMI from cube to older Yamaha A/V receiver (red arrow)
C) HDMI from receiver to modern-ish 49” 4k Samsung TV (2016 I think; originally mine).
D) Audio optical out from TV to headphones, often used (either side/around the Cube in the picture).
E) Mom uses a DVD/Blu Ray player (above receiver, not visible) to do Tai Chi.

The receiver is not passing a video signal and clipping the audio now. I can plug the cube straight into the TV and the cube and TV work as they should. This then means losing the audio power for all the speakers and the switch-in for the DVD/Blu Ray.

What is the most efficient way to replace the old A/V receiver to power the audio speakers and make switching in the DVD/Blue Ray? Or should we bother? My parents are older (mid 70s) and not incompetent, but anything that reduces complexity is valued. The multiple surround speakers are not a high priority. They could be sacrificied to reduce amplifier power needs. My dad has hearing issues and usually uses the headphones, negating that need unlike in the past.

They are not audiophiles and music is not routinely fed through this system. Maybe I just feed the DVD into the TV, skip powering all the speakers. May not really bother anyone at this point, Make the TV the controller vs. the A/V receiver.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Malo83]

How about getting a soundbar, got rid of all my speakers and receiver and went with JBL, works great with my 75" Sony TV.

BAR 500

The JBL Bar 500 brings your movies to life with MultiBeam™, Dolby Atmos® 3D surround sound, PureVoice technology, and a thrilling bass from a wireless 10" subwoofer.

www.jbl.com

 

[spackard]

Toss it all and buy a all-in-one TV.
I tried what you’ve trying with my dad, and realized I couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks.
He barely managed the all-in-one. The remotes confused him. I had to drive down a few times to get the remotes switched to the correct inputs.

Volume and subtitles are the most important things.

 

[Oro_O]

Toss it all and buy a all-in-one TV.
I tried what you’ve trying with my dad, and realized I couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks.
He barely managed the all-in-one. The remotes confused him. I had to drive down a few times to get the remotes switched to the correct inputs.

Volume and subtitles are the most important things.

This sounds reasonable, but how is the integrated and existing Samsung not an “all in one” TV? I can feed it all into that and they just switch it there. Or is that what you meant?

My instinct is to toss (or rather store) all the speakers, just feed everything through the existing TV. The Fire Cube selects and controls all incoming, and then the TV is only selected for Mom’s Tai Chi video.

 

[spackard]

My idea of all-in-one is the TV, amp, speakers, streaming app, and wireless radio are all in the same physical box controlled with one remote.
I think you could keep the separate DVD player and use an HDMI IN cable and teach them to step through the input select. But my dad got the remotes confused, couldn’t really understand just use one for power on/off and the other for everything else.

I don’t know. They (dad and brother) never understood signal paths, RF, how two wires can carry a full-duplex phone conversation.
The power? I didn’t put much thought into it. I just made a solution to fit the problem.
I tried coding the one remote to power on both boxes, but occasionally one missed the “on” signal, so now two boxes were either on/off
or off/on, and I’d have to drive down to fix it.

 

[Cropduster172]

A soundbar is the answer.

 

[Oro_O]

He went and picked up an LG soundbar today at Costco. We just installed it and it seems to work great. The cost ($240) was not unreasonable for what it is.

 

[benjy]

i am lo tech but needed a sound bar because modern TV sound is weak!! had a panasonic but it would not work at times so replaced it with a better Denon as i listen to music a LOT, plug + play with a remote, just my style with a wired connection!!