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.

a lot of complains from DM that nothing is on and TV is dreadful,
no internet and luckily has a tv which doesnt require it.
knows the numbers of the channels,
reads the TV guide

This drives me mad (dad with early dementia, loves football so needs Sky). He went to the shops without me and got talked into buying a TV with a display panel like a bloody nuclear power plant — even I have trouble understanding it. No way to customise which (entirely irrelevant) apps appear on the Home Screen — he’s never going to watch sodding YouTube. Options for gamers up the wazoo. The number of times we have to go round and turn off the audio description that he’s somehow activated…

I don’t understand why there aren’t more super-simple products (smartphones, TVs, banking services) for people with cognitive decline. It’s such a huge segment of the population— you’d think there would be profit in catering to them. My dad needs a TV that offers a maximum of three inputs, where we can ‘lock’ the things he doesn’t need (SOD OFF, AUDIO DESCRIPTION) and has a remote control with on/off, up/down and louder/quieter. I genuinely don’t understand why there isn’t one on the market.

My dad watches a lot of TV, it's on all day. However, he refuses to get an internet connection. The changeover is coming for the phone and his TV could do with being replaced but the no internet stance is making this very difficult (for me). He won't cope with too much to navigate on a smart TV and doesn't have email (and wouldn't use it) for apps. There is zero option to live a tech free existence anymore and life does not seem the better for it.

Its all got highly complex. Two remotes, various apps, recordings, internet access, emails, qr codes.

I only want to watch say a drama on ITV. I have freeview in my office which also has SKY News and various apps I have downloaded but bloody hell its painful.

Is Freeview still straightforward?

Not really. All some old people want (and some others!) is a handful of channels to watch. No QR codes, no signing in, no internet anything - just a few channels - with one remote control.

I used different coloured nail polish on the buttons DM needs to turn the TV on using the two remotes that it needs. The sequence of colours takes the guesswork out of it for her.

One problem that came to light during a recent visit was the fact that she turns the TV on, gets to, for example, Wimbledon, and then outs the remotes on the TV stand. Six feet from where she's sitting. After a few hours of tennis the dialogue box asking if she's still watching comes up. She is too far from the screen (tiny tv) to read that and had been bewildered by it. I had to teach her to keep the remote by her side on the couch and how to use the arrow buttons to navigate in the box to Yes, still watching. I also taught her to keep on raising or lowering the volume every half hour.

Would voice control be any use to anyone on this thread? I googled “Sky say it to play it” that I remembered hearing advertised.

Just freeview at mums . The apps are there but she can’t cope with them
I quite often will pop it onto something “nice “ for her that she’s probably missed when I’m leaving and she. Can manage to switch it off and then can switch free view on again
but she couldn’t find anything on an app etc herself.
The TV makers and media companies are missing a trick
Im sure people would pay for an easy to manage tv.

Im sure people would pay for an easy to manage tv.
They absolutely would!

I've just googled it out of curiosity and a company indeed pops up, so someone is trying very hard to profit from this market, but aside from offering big button remotes, which you can buy anyway anywhere (universal remote big button) their actual TVs all look like they have all the pointless extra smart features anyway and nowhere on their website do they explain how their TVs are simpler than others, in fact they are all boasting amazing smart features 🙄

While in my rabbithole I did find that the Manhatten freeview boxes seem to have a really clear programme guide which looks less overwhelming than most modern TVs. (No affiliation/experience with either company).

Given these tvs are so smart, it should be possible to give them a simpler interface. Something you can choose that limits the channels and functions and never asks you to sign into anything.

re the suggestions to use voice commands etc — this is a good idea that will be useful for some people, but with Alzheimer’s it becomes literally impossible for people to learn how to do something new, even if it seems really simple. The brain just can’t make the new memory. It’s extraordinarily frustrating and difficult for everyone (most of all the person with Alzheimer’s).

Not quite a TV issue (although we do have plenty of those) but MiL was not answering FaceTime calls and was claiming she hadn’t received them. SiL visited from the States and discovered that MiL had somehow got her iPad on to “driving” mode. I’m pretty sure she never uses her iPad in the car and it doesn’t have a phone function 😆 How do they always seem to activate stuff like this, when it is actually quite hard to do without going through the steps to deliberately do so?

My grandmother is 96 and no signs at all of dementia - uses email and WhatsApp, manages her own affairs etc and can use her TV but the fact that everything keeps changing and upgrading is definitely getting too much for her. Every time she wants to use her banking app there's some new process she has to sign up to or the layout of the TV homescreen has been updated meaning she has to struggle through. If she tries to call a customer service helpline she goes round in circles (as do we all!) not getting any actual help. And like I said - she is completely switched on, cognitively, she was just born in 1929 and doesn't want to keep having to learn new things or to ask us to do things for her that she should be perfectly caable of doing herself. She just wants to watch the snooker and pay the widow cleaner every now and then!

We are going to have to go down the route of removing sky, buying a free view TV and have one remote. Daily phone calls regarding this. Very draining. Mum has just been diagnosed with Vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s and is going downhill fast.