Don't know what buttons you'd want to keep and which to dispense with. In any event, I doubt you'll find exactly what you want anywhere. Something I've had some luck with at our house with elderly mom with macular degeneration and some dementia. Have a big TV universal remote purchased at Radio Shack. Using card stock and tape, I've blocked out all of the buttons except the ones she knows how to use. For us, that's on/off, volume up/down, and mute. Takes a little skill in construction of the cover because you have to put solid spacers under the surface of the cardboard to prevent pressure from unintentionally triggering a button beneath the cardboard's surface. Otherwise all materials are cheap and principals simple as can be.

Ellie, Go for you. I took the liberty of tagging the other threads here for you. Now members will have a single portal to all four of your same topic threads, and you will only have to keep one alive if need be. One thread is historically the best way to go. First thread: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg0705045516743.html?35 Second thread: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg0713354729000.html?4 Third thread: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg070451503251.html?7 DA

I'd get a TV, as most new ones today will accept a computer output. They'll have better resolution and compatibility for TV as that sounds like what you do most. Some have a USB slot and ethernet ports so you can hook up to the network. An HDMI cable will allow you get High Def content there too. You'll need a switch of some type if you want to use one DVD player on both TV's. Usually cheaper to just get a dedicated DVD player. Best to enlist a local company or someone like Geek Squad to plot out a course of action for you based on your needs a specific equipment and access to run wires.

I used to have a pair of Dish Network duel TV receivers and a 5th (bonus) room TV that was split off one of the other bedrooms that could watch whatever was running on the first bedroom. We have switched to Directv with the Genie system of a main unit and three 'client' mini boxes. I currently have two HDTV receivers and two (+ the fifth now inactive) analog SD sets. The two SD sets are connected to the mini boxes by special cables that I guess are providing digital to analog conversion and go from an apparently proprietary connector on the 'client' to the Video/audio three wire (yellow red white) TV connections. Initially, I thought I might disconnect one client box; move and reconnect it to the fifth room cable; and plug in the 5th set, but it didn't seem to get a signal. Perhaps the split from the first bedroom got disconnected by the installer. In any case, it actually seemed like to much trouble to move back and forth and I thought it might be worth just ordering an extra client box and finding out what happened to the 5th room cable. However, while the nice Directv folks said that could be done, the tech said if I just wanted to watch a duplicate of the first bedroom that I could just put a splitter just before the 1st bedroom (just before the client) and run the split to the 5th room without needing an extra client box. But now that I have thought about it, I don't see how that could work since all the directv cables seem to go to boxes and not directly to sets; especially not analog sets. Were they missing something or is it me?