TV, how are you managing it?

[PrizedPickledPopcorn]

I am being driven potty by the broadband and tv situation. It’s so complicated for her, she can’t find her programmes, she wants to be able to watch everything but the tv doesn’t work the way they used to- signing into apps etc.
Has anyone resolved it?

We just go round in circles swapping supplier, getting a different router, a different tv box, all the time.

Would just freeview/freesat help - some TVs seem set up for streaming rather than terrestrial TV these days, with a home page which is consequently bewildering if you don’t understand apps; but Freeview/sat is just a nice TV guide when you press the ‘guide’ button

I just gave mine Freeview, nothing else. She didn’t really need anything else and couldn’t work anything more complicated, so stuck with that.

My mother (85) can cope with Freeview channels with a guide. But it was a long, long path to getting her to understand her remote control. We taped up most buttons with only ON/OFF, UP/DOWN and VOLUME showing.

Signing into apps like BBC iPlayer is beyond her - neither she nor her friends understand the concept of TV on demand or rewind/pause live TV.

Mine has no internet so freeview only. They know the on/off and volume up/down button, and the numbers of favourite channels are written down, and that’s enough for them.

My parents got rid of sky they couldn't work out the channels, get your parent a TV license and just let them have freeview, if they are struggling.

Tbh chopping and changing lots doesn’t help. Forget the apps and router, bog standard tv with an aerial and a remote so press ‘1’ gets BBC1, ‘2’ BBC2 which she’ll have used for years.

Written instructions,possibly with some illustrations?

I’ve found that Freely makes it easier to watch TV in the normal way but also access apps like iPlayer without it getting complicated but I don’t know if all TVs can get Freely yet.

Not my parent but when my grandad died my nan didn’t know how to work the TV. We did try and teach her but honestly she was in her 90s so it didn’t go well. We got her a DVD player and just got her a bunch of box sets (really cheap) of all her shows. She was very happy with it and even happier when she realised she could watch as much CSI as she wanted now without grandad moaning.

I agree, there is no way she will cope with apps and streaming services. She needs Freeview which is so much simpler and more like TV as she remembers it.

Yep, Freeview.

Also, Samsung does a TV that you can control remotely, if that might help anyone.

Thank you! I’ll look properly at your suggestions when she gives me a moment! She’s a bit intense!

This is a problem I am having too.

DP have an expensive SKY subscription mainly so DF can watch golf when it is on. It is complicated to operate and they often accidentally press the wrong button and can't get back to where they needed to go.

I have heard SKY glass is simpler to use as everything is on one feed. Can anyone confirm if that's their experience?

I would put the tv on and then she would try to use the remote as a phone or vice versa so she would change the tv channel, not be able to make the call she wanted and would then use the emergency fall alarm to call me so I could go and reset the tv and dial the telephone number she wanted. And yet I was shocked when I was told she had dementia!

Could you set up the required apps on Firestick. She could use the voice request option on there.

Just use broadcast channels on freeview and get a simple remote. You can get universal remotes that just have on/off and up/down for both the volume and the channel or ones with number buttons for the channel if that’s more familiar.

Saturday Daily Mirror
Has a magazine inside which is like TV Times, it shows TV info for various channels

Eg

BBC1
Time
Programmes

It is essentially what is on the TV guide on the TV, but in paper form

£3.30 per week

This is what my elderly relative uses (despite having Sky TV & a million channels)

Highly recommend getting one of the simple large button remote controls from Amazon (or other!) and just sticking with Freeview

Late to the party and going to ask a stupid question.
Would a basic TV with Freeview also be a smart TV ?
Do you just not connect it to the internet and then it doesn't display all this confusing apps ?
Might it have an error message saying it's lost the internet signal?
Would it need an aerial ?

I tried just unplugging the smart tv from the Virgin media box and connecting it to the aerial, but i then lost internet. As i stay here with them for days at a time it's not viable to not have internet, my phone doesn't work well without it as no good signal etc. They do seem to ha e gor back to being able to switch it on and get bbc1, my mother guards the zappers as my father (the one with dementia) tends to just start pressing random buttons and buggers it up. I did look at just buying another tv bit the 'non smart' ones are expensive and as i found out, lead to other problems like no internet. I do t have a tv myself, never have, so im not the best person to be trying to sort out theirs really. We shamble on.

Thank you @FridaInstead .
You are the best person as brother has never had a TV either.
Ah yes,shambling .
Know it well!

Its very frustrating as its the end of the world if the TV has been messed up for them. There isnt one answer to this. We printed out a one pager and laminated it for Mum with her favourite channels on by number rather than a bit of paper which is likely to get lost.

She didnt really understand the scrolling up and down Sky Channels and with two remotes it was really too much. Never managed the recording element so it was game shows and Blue Bloods.

Que the phone calls, the crying etc when a button was pressed incorrectly. We also had to tape up the phone connection as she had a habit of unplugging the phone every night. The first time she did it I thought she had fallen as she wasnt answering but no - just unplugged the phone.

Not really part of this thread but its becoming more and more clear that we have a sandwich generation whereby people in their 60's are looking and supporting people in their 80+ and the older people making the rules, living in houses far too big for them, doing all sorts of reckless things and just covering it up, refusing POA. I was very very firm with both parents. Any nonsense and I would take a step back. It worked but I guess not for everyone.

Definitely been there done that and got the T shirt with this one. My 87 year old dad loves sport so has BT TV (had a right palaver getting his internet connection improved after several hideous years with TalkTalk) Often presses incorrect buttons and “loses” everything. He’s only 5 mins away from me so it’s relatively easy to go round and sort things but he does tend to catastrophise and everything is the end of the world. Also he’s managed to turn on audio description twice (Lord knows how) and I’ve had to go round and sort because “some woman’s telling me what’s happening on the telly and I don’t want her to!” He’s also been accidentally recording things..had a lengthy spell deleting about 800 episodes of Heartbeat, a gazillion golf tournaments, many episodes of Strictly and somewhat randomly, Naked Attraction and Love Island!! (I’m certain this is accidental..even if he did choose to record it he’s got absolutely no idea how to access any recordings!) He lives his life as if it’s still 1990..refers to my phone as “that machine of yours” 😳

My mum has Sky, which does have some obscure stuff that she actually wants to watch.

Having trouble with the ordinary catch up now because everything is buried behind an app and you have to give an email address to use it

I don’t want to sort her out an email address that I have to monitor every time she wants to watch TV or whatever and it would be me giving the apps that email address

So she has to watch out for things she does actually want to see, because there’s a fairly good chance that I won’t be able to get it for her after the fact

I have told her that I don’t think it’s worth paying for Sky but she feels strongly that she is used to the system and can’t get used to another one.

if they change their interface, I think she might give up on TV altogether

I appreciate it’s really frustrating, I don’t want to deal with it so what it must be like dealing with it at 87, I really don’t know.

does old style TV still exist in any form? I’m dreading what happens when it finally defeats her. I don’t have normal TV, I only have apps so I don’t know what other people have. But I actually don’t know what normal TV is anymore because I don’t have a TV aerial or TV license. (Or BBC or live TV before anyone shouts at me)