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Mom and Dad got so confused by the remotes and bad cable service and how things are connected that they gave up watching TV years ago. We cancelled their cable, Antennas didn't help, tried a newer used TV, but it was still too complicated for them. Dad has Alzheimer's, Mom is just flaky.
Recently Mom has expressed interest in getting a NEW TV that would be easier to operate, and possibly trying a different cable company. I would rather stick a fork in my eye than attempt another solution to their TV problems.
So a new TV would be cable ready, right? So they could turn it on and change the channel and not have to switch from the TV remote to the Cable remote?
Then I started thinking: They have wireless internet. What if we just got a Smart TV and set it up so they have ONE channel, which would be Hulu. We would keep their queue full of shows they like, they turn the tv on and watch the next item in the queue.
Dad doesn't care what he watches, and doesn't remember, so he can watch the same thing over and over. He enjoys music and dancing, he'll laugh when the laughtrack does. Mom doesn't care if what she is watching is current, but she will be a bit more interested in some variety. They have NEVER watched TV news (Mom still reads the Washington Post every day.) so Hulu would probably quite enough for both of them.
When he moves to assisted living, he will prob have a TV that they will turn on for him, and she might want to have the TV on for company.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I would not go with a smart TV and internet. Just too many things that can go wrong and frustrate them.
My mother-in-law is 94 and manages just fine with her setup. She has the basic cable package only, and a 32" HDTV but the regular box, so it's all at 720P. All she has to do is click the "all on" button and use the number pad or up/down to change the channel. She rarely even looks at the directory, just flips until she finds something interesting. When we were there the other day she was watching bowling, the time before, an infomercial.
I would not go with a smart TV and internet. Just too many things that can go wrong and frustrate them.
My mother-in-law is 94 and manages just fine with her setup. She has the basic cable package only, and a 32" HDTV but the regular box, so it's all at 720P. All she has to do is click the "all on" button and use the number pad or up/down to change the channel. She rarely even looks at the directory, just flips until she finds something interesting. When we were there the other day she was watching bowling, the time before, an infomercial.
I agree with this as well. My grandmother-in-law is 83 and has a 32" flatscreen and uses the regular cable box. She just presses "all on" on the universal cable remote and then it works everything. If your parents have that much trouble, then while this was done as a joke, it's not a bad idea...
Mom and Dad got so confused by the remotes and bad cable service and how things are connected that they gave up watching TV years ago. We cancelled their cable, Antennas didn't help, tried a newer used TV, but it was still too complicated for them. Dad has Alzheimer's, Mom is just flaky.
Recently Mom has expressed interest in getting a NEW TV that would be easier to operate, and possibly trying a different cable company. I would rather stick a fork in my eye than attempt another solution to their TV problems.
So a new TV would be cable ready, right? So they could turn it on and change the channel and not have to switch from the TV remote to the Cable remote?
Then I started thinking: They have wireless internet. What if we just got a Smart TV and set it up so they have ONE channel, which would be Hulu. We would keep their queue full of shows they like, they turn the tv on and watch the next item in the queue.
Dad doesn't care what he watches, and doesn't remember, so he can watch the same thing over and over. He enjoys music and dancing, he'll laugh when the laughtrack does. Mom doesn't care if what she is watching is current, but she will be a bit more interested in some variety. They have NEVER watched TV news (Mom still reads the Washington Post every day.) so Hulu would probably quite enough for both of them.
When he moves to assisted living, he will prob have a TV that they will turn on for him, and she might want to have the TV on for company.
Am I on the right track?
You might consider approaching this from a different angle. System controllers, such as some of the relatively inexpensive Harmony line, could be set up so simply that pretty much anyone can operate the components without having to actually understand what they're doing.
Regular cable with a regular cable remote should not be confusing to anyone.
Press ALL ON. Use CHANNEL or VOLUME. That's all you need. You don't need a "TV FOR SENIORS".
You said an antenna didn't work? Was it one of these? Did you try placing it in different locations and high up on a wall? Ours works best hanging at the top of the wall in the garage. I was lucky that the TV was just on the other side so I could run the cable through easily.
That antenna and Fire TV makes my wife very happy. We get around 40 channels. Some don't come through that well, but there is a lot of variety. We found George Burns and Jack Benny!
We use the TV remote once it's set up. The Fire TV remote is a bit strange, but not hard to use once you figure it out.
Edit: Put their address here and it will tell you what channels they can receive.
To be useful the TV or box would need to have most of the channels programmed out. Scrolling through 30, 40, 50+ channels would be tedious.
Good advice even for a standard remote if they are having problems remembering things. Find what channels they like and program out the rest. Keep a laminated list of the channels they like handy so they can key in the channel if they want to.
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