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Looking for some hacks, tips regarding TV Remote setup for Dad. He loves pressing every button on the remote and winding up in lunar orbit. 😊

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My Mom was doing this with her cable remote: the "set-up" button was a tiny black button right under the main power button. She wasn't using her reading glasses when pressing buttons, plus she has neuropathy and arthritis in her fingers, so couldn't tell what she was pressing. Every time (and I mean literally every time) she'd accidentally press that set-up button it deprogrammed her cable and required a tech call to the cable company because they had to reset it at their end (don't get me started... there was no way around this). It began happening every day, sometimes twice a day.

Finally, we epoxied that button so that now it can't be pressed. She hasn't deprogrammed it since.
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Reply to Geaton777
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My Daddy had ALZ and could not figure it out. I bought a plain on/off, channel up/down, volume up/down. It had big enough buttons for his fingers and he could actually read the buttons. I had previously purchased the universal big remote -- not useful! Also you can google ALZ products and that could help you too.
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Reply to Ohwow323
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Tigerose Jul 24, 2024
Ohwow323,
1. Please provide more information about the plain on/off, channel up/down, volume up/down that you found helpful.
2. Also, I would like to be armed with the brand of the universal big remote that was not helpful for your daddy; I would know to avoid that item.

Totally correct is one comment when someone said, "Modern TVs are made to be complicated." Even with "clear as a bell mind," I have difficulties with the new modern remotes. I would appreciate hearing more from you, Ohwow323.
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We had this issue with my father-in-law. Moved to memory care, and we wanted him to have a TV but he could not operate any remote whatsoever. (we’re not sure this worked out, but that was the goal at the time)

we ended up using the flipper big button (having tried several) this worked quite well. It only has channel , volume, and power.

we didn’t happen to have a cable box, this was over the air TV to keep it simple, but as I understand it, it can turn on both cable box and TV with “power” and what device the “channel “ button controls is set by you. So it should work for a cable box plus TV set up.

there is access to the configuration panel under a slide out cover, so he could get at the configuration buttons, but you need to enter a four digit unlock code for any of the configuration buttons to do anything so it’s pretty safe from being messed up. These buttons control what remote it is “simulating “– TV model, etc.

The one thing we learned the hard way was this: modern TVs are made to be complicated. When you first turn them on, they often go to some kind of menu screen from which you can select 1 million options and apps, plus advertisements, which aren’t appropriate here. And the flipper remote can’t control anyway with its limited buttons.

Solution: We did find that the TV itself had a setting where you can have it automatically start on the last input it was on before it was turned off, instead of starting on the main menu. Then, once we had it set to TV input (using the real factory remote, then hidden away carefully) it could never be changed off TV. It would always come on that way each time.
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Reply to Rumbletown
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You could put tape on all the buttons you don't want him to push and leave the buttons to push exposed

Or you could get colored sharpies, or finger nail polish on the buttons with a color coated list on paper

Like blue for on, and on the paper color 🔵 next to the on word.

Red ♥️ for off. .
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Reply to Anxietynacy
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This is a tough one! I recently bought my Dad a Samsung Smart TV because our SSTV in the living room turns back on to the channel it was last on. So we dumped Dad's old TV for the new one and I turn the tv on when he's in the room and off when he gets up. He's only interested in one channel (cowboys, westerns, etc.), so it makes it easy because it will stay on that one channel until I change it or he has a lapse and presses all the buttons. I told him not to push all the buttons but it's like telling water not to come out of the faucet lolol. Gosh! He has a hissy fit if I take the remote away (remote = power I guess lol), so I also added a parental lock so he can't order apps & extra channels. The other big issue is that the remote for the new TV is tiny, and Dad has arthritis and stiff fingers for it's very hard for him to press certain buttons. Doesn't stop him from trying though! It's a journey for sure! Good Luck!
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Reply to Mamacrow
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Rumbletown Jul 24, 2024
This feature (comes back to where it was when you turned it off) is critical. Glad to heat Samsung does this. I should’ve mentioned below in earlier that our LG would do this, but only after changing a obscure setting. And occasionally this fails (we’re not sure quite why) and it comes back to menu instead of channel.
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I'm not sure if it's possible to use parental control to block so many stations but I'd look into that. Create a code only you can access. One thing I do know is it prohibits the ability to order/rent movies on cable! I couldn't believe my mothers cable bill,she rented the same movie about 5 times because she kept falling asleep! I think her cable bill was about $240 that month, blocked!!
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Reply to JuliaH
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I missing the olden days when one could just walk up to the TV and turn it on. Spin the dial to the channel and find a really good program.



Now a days, it takes two remotes and a sequence of different buttons. Gone are the days of Madge calling saying "quick, turn on the TV". Half the time when we push the buttons to change channel, the software messes it up or it is human error.


I can't imagine what TV on/off/channels will be 20 years from now, when all of us are much older. Not all of us have a 12 year old grandchild or neighbor's child to help us out :P
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Reply to freqflyer
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I've been seeing a lot of ads for Jubilee TV lately. I have no connection to the company and don't know how it works or everything it does, but it looks interesting. You get a set-top box for their TV and you get an app for your phone that you can control it for them over the internet. It also does video phone calls that you can directly connect through to them. It would be worth investigating if I still had elderly parents.
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Reply to TopsailJanet
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geolama: Get a simplier television.
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Reply to Llamalover47
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Amazon has very simple remotes for seniors. Check there.
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Reply to RLWG54
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The Flipper brand remote is good, I think it's on Amazon. It just has all of the basic stuff.
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Reply to nmiller3
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