April 01, 2005

• Georbe?
• I have a Zenith tv and it has a "surfing" feature where you program in the channels you want and in surfing mode it only hits those channels.
• How do you get to surfing mode? Is it something you can just set up and rely on? Sounds like it could be a perfect solutionif there aren't too many buttons to push. Except that I'll have to buy a new tv a month or so after I replaced the last one that failed. But, that's ok, It's my mom.
• Similar to the surfing feature which petebest mentions, my mid-90s vcr lets me select whichever channels I "surf" by pressing the channel-up or -down buttons. It's basically a channel blacklist which still allows you to tune in to blacklisted channels by entering the channel number specifically. So if you're not on the newfangled digital cable, you probably have a similar feature on your vcr if you'd bought it within the past decade. Otherwise, you could probably get a new vcr fairly cheaply which would have this capability. Isn't a georbe a fuzzy robot pet rock crystal which will sing to you in its own language?
• what ooga_booga said. On my TV it's a matter of doing a manual tune instead of auto-tune. So you just choose the channels she watches regularly. It would probably be in the setup menu or something.
• Avoid manual tune. If you go that route, then you won't be able to watch that one odd channel you hardly ever watch when they've actually got something really good on. I suggest purchasing a decent universal remote. You can even get one of the GIGANTIC BUTTON units focused at seniors - just be sure to get one that supports the "favorites" feature. A good universal that supports favorites simply allows you to program your favorite channels into the remote and then surf up and down on those channels when you use the "favorites" button/s instead of the regular "channel+/-" buttons.
• It may take a while to set up, but many TV tuners have a lockout feature to exclude channels that may be inappropriate for children, etc. If you use that feature to lock out the channels Mom doesn't watch, it *should* skip over them when surfing with the channel up/down buttons.
• Tivo. Program it for her.
• Some digital cable packages, (Time Warner, for example,) have a "favorites" system built right in. It's a snap to program, and you only need one button to cycle through.
• Thank you for this thread--my mom has Parkinson's and the remote has become completely inscrutable to her (she keeps thinking it's broken and then gets mad when I use it with no problem). I actually went for a simple remote with only six buttons, because she usually leaves it on Animal Planet anyway.
• The complexities of many devices which most of us handle without much thought (remote controls, cell phones, answering machines, ten-thousand function microwave ovens, voice mail and telephione trees -- especailly at the airlines or the doctor's office, etc) often prove frustrating as folk get older and in fact subtract from the quality of their lives, alas. Reminds me, I still haven't made friends with all functions of my new cell phone -- damn thing came with an instruction booklet the size of a paperback book. Literally. Althougn I love to read, technical manuals aren't what I like to read. Too little payoff for too much work! Bitchbitchbitch. Yeah.
• Second the idea of too little payoff. Ever notice how many tech manuals out there are absolute crapola?
• My remote has a little button called "Fav." It's easy to program your favorite channels into it. If your cable co. doesn't give you a remote, I bet a trip to Radio Shack will fix you right up.
• Amen, bees. And, thanks to the rest of you. I'll have my daughter read this to see if any of it works, since I've apparently not paid attention to this stuff in the past few years.
• Some years ago I got my parents a programmable remote for quickly accesing certain channels and automating a sequence for turning off speakers (so my father could watch tv late at night, using wireless headphones without disturbing my mother's sleep). It was a big, multi-buttoned beast, and was a pain to program, but after that, it worked quite nicely. Lately, got for my mom a very simple control, with oversized buttons and just basic functions, as she told me was having problems with the standard tv one with multiple TV-DVD-VCR-LINE IN modes and buttons. My SatTV provider sells a simpler control aimed at kids with dedicated buttons for just a few channels. It's programable, so you can have one-button access to favorites. Maybe your cable operator has something like that?
• A BIG remote with BIG buttons, programmed to exclude the channels she's not interested in, is the ticket. Don't know about your old folks, but mine prefer fewer choices, and since their eyesight isn't so good they don't want to peer at remotes. Also, one grandmother says she can't feel her fingers so much anymore, so big buttons (and keys, light switches, etc) are necessary.
• Unfortunately, large buttons on the remote won't be helpful for the type of vision loss affecting my grandmother. What's going on with her is macular degeneration. It has left a huge black hole in her vision. All she has left is peripheral vision, and that's not the best. For example, she can tell that someone is in the room with her, but she has often been unable to tell whether that person is path or me. She was a very visual person all her life, and has great difficulty doing anything much by touch anymore. So trying to teach her how to use new remotes is difficult. The remote with our digital cable does indeed have a favorites button, and I even started programming it. But she can't find it because it's buried in the middle of a rows of other buttons. However, everyone's suggestions have made me think about trying to find a universal remote that will work with the brand of cable box we have that has the favorites button separated from the other buttons. That could work very well. And it never occurred to me before to look for something like that. So thanks for the suggestions, Monkeys.
• Macular degeneration is what my grandma has also. What we finally did, I mean we the family, is what I suggested upthread. Few BIG buttons and few FAVORITE channels (for my Grandma, that was pretty easy - C-SPAN, some food network, and the local PBS). Adjust the sound to the neighbors.
• But she can't find it because it's buried in the middle of a rows of other buttons Hack time: glue some rubber cement bit to the specific button, so it's easy to find by touch. Some controls I have sport some raised dot or nub on a few buttons, as does the 5 key on cellphones. Or: just dispose off those unneeded buttons. Dependieng on the remote, it's either a big flexible mat (cut the excess ones) or independent plastic keys (completely take those away). Result: a remote full of holes with just a few buttons. Where are the cheap, foolproof voice recognition appliances we were supposed to have come the 21st century, I ask?