Simple tv control for old guy
Author
Discussion

Stevemr

Original Poster:

929 posts

185 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
So my father in law is 96 and getting confused. He has a Samsung tv with a humax box and a dvd player.
He has just been in hospital and come out with a lot of confusion.
A month ok he could work the tv fine. Now he pushes random buttons on any of the three controllers and basically can not get it working.
Is there any kind of really simple controller that might help?

bristolracer

5,949 posts

178 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
Does he use the humax and dvd player?

If not some Samsung tvs had a really simple 5 button remote
Or you could get him an Amazon tv which would operate by voice.
Logitech used to do all for one remotes but I think they have stopped now or one for all may still be going but both of these still have a lot of buttons and a lot of potential to confuse the tv
So much stuff nowadays is not simple, technology seems to get more and more complex when really it should make operation easier

AlexC1981

5,775 posts

246 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
If you google "TV remote for eldarly" there are lots of options.

Agent57

2,621 posts

183 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
I'm middle aged and I find multiple remotes confusing.

Sky Plus remote is excellent. We recomended it to my Dad but he ended up with Sky Q which is shockingly bad. Don't know if Sky plus is still available.

If I had a pound for every time I see "No SIgnal" I could have retired long ago and set up my own company making tech that is designed for normal people of every age and not tech geeks.



Edited by Agent57 on Friday 24th July 20:43

TheDrownedApe

1,791 posts

85 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
bristolracer said:
Does he use the humax and dvd player?

If not some Samsung tvs had a really simple 5 button remote
Or you could get him an Amazon tv which would operate by voice.
Logitech used to do all for one remotes but I think they have stopped now or one for all may still be going but both of these still have a lot of buttons and a lot of potential to confuse the tv
So much stuff nowadays is not simple, technology seems to get more and more complex when really it should make operation easier
This. I don't think about 96yo (happy to be proved wrong) is using those devices. Get the original tv controller, stick it on bbc and forget about it. My father is 86 and uses bbc one and classical fm through the TV. He knows two numbers and needs no more.

At 50 odd I had a harmony for 4 devices but the wife had zero clue. Now I've binned sky, firestick and chromecast in favour of stremio app on TV I need nothing other than tv controller....long live stremio!!

Edited by TheDrownedApe on Friday 24th July 20:44

fooman

1,223 posts

93 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
Not really just a remote but I found a Roku Smart TV to be the simplest TV / Freeview / Streaming / Remote eco systems. Basically a TV with one remote, does everything, very simple interface.

InitialDave

15,085 posts

148 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
Possible immediate solution?


monthou

5,349 posts

79 months

Friday 24th July
quotequote all
We got a couple of Doro HandleEasys for my mum (the second for when she mislaid the first).
There may well be something better out there now, but they worked well.

Agent57

2,621 posts

183 months

Saturday 25th July
quotequote all
Seem to recall a Panasonic remote I had 25 years ago had the main buttons as normal but then the remote could be flipped open to reveal all the advanced buttons. So no chance of changing a setting in error or getting confused by a mind-blowing array of buttons.

Are ergonomics getting worse as the years pass?

megaphone

11,653 posts

280 months

Monday 27th July
quotequote all
Agent57 said:
I'm middle aged and I find multiple remotes confusing.

Sky Plus remote is excellent. We recomended it to my Dad but he ended up with Sky Q which is shockingly bad. Don't know if Sky plus is still available.

If I had a pound for every time I see "No SIgnal" I could have retired long ago and set up my own company making tech that is designed for normal people of every age and not tech geeks.



Edited by Agent57 on Friday 24th July 20:43
You can get an old school Sky remote that will work with Sky Q boxes, it is in the Sky Accessibility. There is more than one remote for Q, the touch remote is horrible, the basic Q remote is 'okay'

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/setting-up-q-rem...

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/accessibility-re...


Edited by megaphone on Monday 27th July 07:52

slievenashaska

476 posts

7 months

Monday 27th July
quotequote all
Agent57 said:
Are ergonomics getting worse as the years pass?
No, I think they are getting better, and this is the only control I use for my TV.



Anyway, back to the OP's problem, I would suggest that the biggest issue is having three devices, the TV, recording box, and DVD, and three remote controls.

I would try to establish if the recording box and DVD player are actually being used, before looking for a solution, since if they are not then that makes the choices simpler.