Elderly People LOVE Emby

[TechStuff 1]

Everyone uses emby for home media and sharing with family, no one in their right mind uses plex malware to allow family members to watch movies home videos family pictures tv shows and more. 

Why not advertise for the elderly  all my older family members love emby and they can use it easily is the big selling point. My point is advertising for the elderly anyone who loves their grandparents gladly has gave them a client to use one would hope  I'm getting to my point here in a second, so what I think and surely many people will agree is to make a kiosk mode with once set there is no left panel you can't change options it's just emby with everything else locked down. Why has this not been done yet guys like damn ..

[Neminem 1518]

So you need a locked down client.

Great project, I guess.

But why not create it your self "Emby Picture Kiosk" 

The API is there for your usage.

[pwhodges 2012]

In my family it is me (a 79yo great grandparent) who runs an Emby server and gives the younger family members access to it.  They seem to cope without a kiosk mode...

Paul

[TechStuff 1]

Yeah i need something locked down if its cool ?

[TechStuff 1]

Your picture kiosk wont cut it unfortunately i just need a basic for clients  something that has no features no options no nothing.

[TechStuff 1]

Just like collecting tv shows 

 

[pwhodges 2012]

Which of the multitude of platforms would this run on?

"No features"?  Like, for instance being able to select subtitles - something the elderly often find handy.  Maybe choice of language ("original" vs "dub") for foreign media?  At what point do you stop adding things which your users might still like, even in a simplified client.

I suspect this simple project will be a lot less so once an actual detailed specification has been worked out.

Paul

[TechStuff 1]

2 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

Which of the multitude of platforms would this run on?

"No features"?  Like, for instance being able to select subtitles - something the elderly often find handy.  Maybe choice of language ("original" vs "dub") for foreign media?  At what point do you stop adding things which your users might still like, even in a simplified client.

I suspect this simple project will be a lot less so once an actual detailed specification has been worked out.

Paul

For now just the older emby works fine, having 2 options works for me. I use the new one I like it but older family nah I use the older emby without that stupid left side bar.

[pwhodges 2012]

"The older Emby" - I presume you mean the old Windows client based on Electron, which is no longer supported?  There are other "old" clients though, like Emby for Android TV. 

In the new Windows client I only see the side bar if I call it up, and it's hardly difficult to dismiss it.

Paul

[ebr 16169]

A "Grandparent Mode" would probably be pretty close to the same as this:

 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

I really do not like stereotypes and this thread is stereotyping older people. Almost all my present friends are in the age group that most people consider elderly but they have the same range of abilities and limits as most everyone else. I have a "young" friend that is 91 but her "elderly" granddaughter, at 27. is much more backward in technology that the 91 year old. 

If a need is real for some kind of intelligence limiting mode. something I strongly disagree with, the call it "Emby's mode for stupid people"  or "The dumb person's interface" or something like that that is truly descriptive but do not label age as being automatically stupid. I am 77 but my mind is as sharp as ever just, sometimes. a bit "sleepy." 

But more on topic I see many of the clients and servers and I see no need for a simple mode, except, maybe, for young kids. 
There is NOTHING complex about using Emby except for setup and even that is pretty simple for the basics.

I believe it is a waste of Emby's limited development time to try to dumb their software down so the stupid can use it. 

Edited August 13, 2025 by Gilgamesh_48

[Q-Droid 989]

Hmmm. A locked down UI sure would be great for those paying "elderly" and paying "family members".

 

 

[speechles 2055]

23 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

Hmmm. A locked down UI sure would be great for those paying "elderly" and paying "family members".

 

 

You understand the motivation.

The "scene ftp" needs some moar space. Gotta charge leechers a bit more for the access. Who is this guy?

 

That part made me almost fall over laughing. The sad emoticon is awesome.

Edited August 13, 2025 by speechles

[brothom 177]

I'm going to go on a limb here, but wouldn't it be great if we could just toggle something like basic mode, which takes the current setup and options and just removes options and settings like. Next to that we could also hide the stats for nerds behind a "debug mode".

I like all the functionalities we have now, but some of them aren't (or barely) used by my users at least.

Nobody is keeping up with a "Favorites" list.

I think the "Mark played/unplayed" is too prominent. Someone would only use this button every so often right?

Dumbing it down would make for a better user experience in general I suppose.

[ebr 16169]

The above suggested "Kids Mode" could easily just be called "Basic Mode" or something similar.

Anyway, that topic is where this should be discussed.

[TMCsw 249]

19 hours ago, brothom said:

Dumbing it down would make for a better user experience in general I suppose.

Maybe for you young whippersnapper's...

[brothom 177]

6 hours ago, TMCsw said:

Maybe for you young whippersnapper's...

I'm confused. How does removing complex or sometimes even unnecesary features add to the complexity? 

To avoid confusion, I'm talking about a version for people who have less experience with digital devices or are simply digitally illiterate. 

Just adding a cog-icon somewhere just isn't enough sometimes.

18 hours ago, ebr said:

The above suggested "Kids Mode" could easily just be called "Basic Mode" or something similar.

Anyway, that topic is where this should be discussed.

 I agree, but that thread has been dead since 2017, that's 8 years now. 

Maybe merge all these comments into that thread to try to spring it back to life?