I've just had to upgrade my father's TV from analogue to Freesat. He has Alzheimer's disease and is having a huge problem mastering the new remote control. The simple act of keying in 101 for BBC1 instead of 1 is totally beyond him and usually when I go to his house he's managed to get stuck on some audio only channel and doesn't know what to do. I've tried everything, including taping over most of the buttons on the remote except the + and - channel buttons, but he still gets into trouble. The Grundig GUFSAT01HD box the installer supplied doesn't offer a solution.

What I want is basically pretty simple - to be able to set up a list of favourites so that only the channels he wants to watch can be accessed via the + and - buttons. Does anyone know of a more dementia-friendly box that I could buy? Surely I can't be the only one who has this problem.

It is an unfortunate problem, but all the boxes would be very similar in that regard.

The only thing can think of is changing a freesat box for a free to air box. My FTA box channels start at 1 and go up to 300+.

You could delete all the channels you don't want from it (after the initial setup) and he could simply use the + & - buttons for channels and volume buttons. A simple box could be bought for around £30.

These guys seem to havea good reputation: www.satshop.co.uk

Perhaps a call to them might give you other options.

MJ

This won't help much with dementia but may be of interest to other elderly people. http://www.jointhebiggerpicture.com/...olRelease.aspx

Deleting channels and making sure they stayed deleted would be a good solution, but I don't think you can do it with this box. You can delete from a list of favourites, but not from the full list of available channels. This is what it says in the manual:

"The TV listings menu shows you all of your available channels. This list is updated automatically each time you open the menu, so there is no need to re-tune your freesat receiver when new channels become available."

Why not learn him to only use the favourites button.

I'm not familiar with Freesat as yet but presume the blue button has the same function.

Scan or take a photo of the remote control and Print out the pic, under or next to it write instructions like a list of channels BBC1 = 101 and so on and anything else that may be helpful I had to do that for my Dad and Gran both now departed
Printing it and setting the Font to a largish size is also helpful

The problem with Alzheimer's is that the sufferer has difficulty hard-wiring new information in the brain, and as the disease progresses can't do it all. Getting my dad to use the favourites would be ideal, and might seem simple enough, but to get to the favourites you have to press the Channel List button and then the Yellow Button before you can even start. It's beyond my dad to learn how to do this. You can show him how to do it, and five minutes later he'll have forgotten again. Not only that, he'll ask questions like "What's a Channel List button?" or even "What's a Yellow Button?" That's the level I have to operate at and I was hoping someone out there might have a solution......

Like said above print out a map for him keep a couple of spare copy's and plastic file cover helps keep the coffee off it

keep it simple favorites is adding things he never had and long winded

The other option would be to buy him a new Freeview or Freesat TV it would work as he’s used to BBC would be on channel 1 he would just have lots of new channels

Can you not get a universal remote control that accepts macros and program 1 as 101, 2 as 102 etc?

He can't "learn" him...only his father can learn...he can try to "teach" him.

Alan, I appreciate that it worked for your dad and gran but anything involving keying in numbers like "101" doesn't work for my dad. It's too complex an operation. Buying a new Freesat set is a possibility, though an expensive one, and TBH experience to date suggests a different set of problems would probably emerge - my dad seems to have an unerring knack of finding new ways of ending up without a picture.

The best answer would be a simple remote that restricts access to the channels my dad likes, and allows him to use only 2 buttons, i.e. + and - channel buttons. I can achieve the latter by taping over most of the buttons, but the former has so far defeated me. I've tried putting a parental block on the channels he doesn't want, but instead of bypassing them completely you get asked for an access code, which only makes things worse.

Does anyone have any idea where I might look for a remote that would do this?

Oooooooh sorry.......that's correct but it's a regional figure of speech around where I live.

there used to be a universal remote that had big numbers for the number buttons

so the number '1' was a big number '1'


dont know if its still around

Being "In the middle" i cant see the language problem

I take it your dad has a carer or someone maybe a family member that checks he’s up and dressed and ok at least once a day it sounds like his Alzheimer's is advanced

Could that person not set his box up to show the programs he wants to watch from the guide this is possible on my Freesat PVR or change channels for him

When you select a reservation you get the option to record or watch I think the box changes channels (I have not tried) at least on my Humax box I do then all he would have to do is turn the tv on

I know how difficult Alzheimer's is as I was driving 70 miles each week with dads shopping and having neighbour across the street checking his hall light came on each evening until the Dads heath worker said Dad had to go into 24 hour care where he was looked after for his last 18 months

But the Freesat TV sounds a eazyer option for him or a Freeview if he gets a signal

Sorry to hear about you father,with my tv if i switch it to standby then when i want the channel i was last watching i press the standby button again it brings up the last chanel i was wathing.Then you can press the + or - buttons,i hope this will help you solve the problem.

Alan, I know it sounds as if my dad's Alzheimer's is pretty advanced, but actually he's still capable of independent living as long as I or one of my sibs keeps an eye on things. With the odd exception, one of us visits him every day and he's never without a TV picture for very long, we're just looking for a way to help him feel he still has some control. He can still do most of the things he always used to, though more slowly, but he never learned anything more than the very basics about audio/video equipment because my mum always handled that side of things - she died a few months ago.

Barmy, what you describe is pretty much how we've set things up. The problem arises when my dad presses the + button too often and ends up on a channel that's blocked or audio only. Then he gets confused and doesn't know what to do - he forgets that we've told him to press the - button until he gets back to a watchable channel....

@armadiddle

I do think the only way, and perhaps the easiest way you are going to succeed is to buy a FTA box as I mentione din my previous post.

Channels will be numbered from 1 to whatever and in which ever order you want.

My own FTA receiver ( a Strong 6355) also turns on and off the tv when the power button is pressed on the remote. I also have the channels in the order I want. FTA boxes are far more configurable than Freesat or Sky boxes.

http://www.sateuropa.co.uk/product_o...tid=1&subcat=1

MJ

That does sound like the right track MJ, I will look into it. We tried Freeview and couldn't get a good enough signal, and wouldn't a dedicated Freesat TV have the same configuration limitations as a Freesat box?

Do you think the Technomate box your link goes to has particular merit?

It does sound like a Freesat Tv would be a lot easyer but would cost more could you take the Freesat box back for a refund as its clearly not suitable
Why not pop into a local TV store and take a look i think LG have just bought a range out that may be cheaper than those below

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_G...712/index.html

You could try using macros on a Universal Remote.

i.e. you teach the remote to send a series of multiple commands (e.g. "1-0-1") on a single press of a single button (e.g. "1").

The setup is complicated but the end result might be easier to follow.

It could be easier to teach a new remote to function more like the old remote, rather than try to teach your dad a new routine.

This one MIGHT do it, I'm not 100% sure ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-all-URC7.../dp/B000CEU4GE

http://www.oneforall-int.com/downloa...UN_POL_CZE.pdf

This would be possible with a Pronto or Marantz touch screen remote. They are designed to be completely customisable.

The earliest versions from 8 years ago come up second hand quite regularly. They don't fetch much - generally £20 to £40, but they are still really powerful pieces of technology when programmed correctly.

Here's an example of what a layout might look like for your Dad. [LINK]

The remotes have programmable hard buttons with channel +/-, volume +/-, mute and two soft keys. All of this is programmable. Then there's the touch screen area itself. Again this is completely customisable. This means that not only can I put buttons on there but I can also include some very simple written instructions to remind your Dad what to do, if required.

The power of the Pronto is in the programming. For your Dad's use the onscreen buttons could cycle through the favourite channels one step up or down at a time. One press = the next favourite channel, and on an on until you get back to the beginning. Alternatively we could have the same channel numbers that he remembers from the TV before the Freeview box was added, but pressing 1 on screen sends out 1-0-1 to the box.

If you get hold of a Pronto 890, 940 or a Marantz RC5000 or RC5000i then I'll do the program for you.

Thanks for all the suggestions, particularly your kind offer of help Chris. I'll give it some further thought and discuss it with the sibs before doing anything else....

@armadiddle

FTA boxes are different from Freesat boxes in that you can position channels in whatever order you want and the numbering starts at 1 and goes on up...

So, for example, if you had BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CH4, CH5 as your example, you could set the channels as 1,2,3,4 and 5.

On my own FTA box (Strong 6355), if I push button 1, I get BBC1. If I push button 2, I get BBC2 and so on and so forth. Favourtites lists can also be set up, but that could confuse the issue so I would stay away from them.

The Technomate I posted is no better or worse than any other in its price range from reviews. I was just posting it as an example of a FTA box.

If you were in Ireland I could give you the names of 1 or 2 good suppliers for FTA boxes, but by all accounts, www.satshop.co.uk are quite good (I have nothing whatsoever to do with them). All it would cost is the price of a call and you could explain your needs to them and see if they have a simple FTA box that would suit your needs. Perhaps they could even configure the channels for you if you ask nicely

MJ