[DigitalStone]

Hope I got this in the right forum. Saw Helper software.

My Grandmother is in a home and has Alzheimers. I have a spare
PC that I want to Run XBMC off of. Its powerful enough to run Win 7 for dual boot (2.0 Core 2 4 gigs )but would like to just run XBMC on it.
Familiar with linux a bit too if that helps open up options.

I want to be able to have the staff just turn on the computer
and have a choice between a music slide show or randomly play
a HD relaxing movie. If they cannot find the remote just have the system
default with a timeout to music slideshow.

Basically simplify it as much as possible.

Any Suggestions greatly appreciated. I really want to help her.

not to get off topic if anyone has suggestions on a optical out add in card/USBthat works with any version of XBMC or a good video card to play 1080i on a dual core with a small PSU ( 300watt) Thats a low profile would like to hear of any options.

[hogfan]

USB soundcard by Turtle Beach is what I use on my Acer Revo to get Optial audio out. Works great, even for DTS! I think they are about $30 - $40 shipped. Try Amazon for it. As far as the PC slide show thing. I would use windows and put XBMC in the startup folder so it starts when the PC boots. Then customize your skin.....I would stay with Confluence to add Favorites to the main menu. Create smart playlists and add them to the home screen as favorites. Then it's just a matter of choosing either option to kick off the slideshow or the HD Relaxing videos.

-hogfan

[Livin]

You have a few options...

XBMC Live will work fine and so will Windows.

There are several skins that are "simple" (dead obvious navigation, low on screen clutter, etc) and the most recent ones you can enable/disable any of the home menu items (to hide unnecessary ones for your use case) and add Favorites for specific things you want - playlists, etc.

Look at skins like...

Boxee Inspirat
XeeBo
Alaska Revisited