AV remote question

Legume

Father in law has direct tv with a nice tv and bunch of components and streaming services…but he’s 84 and it’s getting harder for him to navigate sources, find programming, etc.  He’s getting older and the technology and navigation passes us all by eventually.

I’ve looked at universal remotes for seniors, but those are super simplified remotes that only do a couple of things, what I want to find is something that can handle a more complex system but with a programmable interface to simplify it.

Any thoughts forum brain?

Photo Egg

Most newer TVs will connect to home WiFi and will host most streaming Apps. If not, think about getting a Roku streaming device.
This should help with all the Apps.
“bunch of components”, can you further explain?

Legume

Photo Egg said:

Most newer TVs will connect to home WiFi and will host most streaming Apps. If not, think about getting a Roku streaming device.
This should help with all the Apps.
“bunch of components”, can you further explain?

Thank you.  I believe he already has an Apple TV box, satellite box and I can’t recall what else - definitely a surround amp and probably laser disc or who know what that he won’t give up and probably doesn’t use. I guess said more clearly, multiple inputs and sources.  What I’m looking for is something that can give him one touch switching inputs and sources.  Like a Netflix button on a smart tv remote.

danhoo

Logitech harmony hub. 

The one with a simpler remote. 

Legume

Thanks @danhoo.  I did find those, but apparently they’re discontinued now and marked waaaaay up.

danhoo

Or not. 

danhoo

Legume said:

Thanks @danhoo.  I did find those, but apparently they’re discontinued now and marked waaaaay up.

Yeah I tried to find the one I have and found it's discontinued. 

To bad. It works great. 

HeavyG

Legume said:

Photo Egg said:

Most newer TVs will connect to home WiFi and will host most streaming Apps. If not, think about getting a Roku streaming device.
This should help with all the Apps.
“bunch of components”, can you further explain?

Thank you.  I believe he already has an Apple TV box, satellite box and I can’t recall what else - definitely a surround amp and probably laser disc or who know what that he won’t give up and probably doesn’t use. I guess said more clearly, multiple inputs and sources.  What I’m looking for is something that can give him one touch switching inputs and sources.  Like a Netflix button on a smart tv remote.

A lot of recent (most?) smart tvs have a remote that you can speak to and do lots of thing with such as change inputs to say an Xbox or DVD (or Laserdisc), go to Netflix or whatever other apps are on the tv. I've found that it works pretty well to find movies and such.
I don't know anything about DirectTv really but I'll assume that their control box can also be spoken to (but probably only with its own remote). A lot of things can also be controlled via an Amazon Echo/Alexa so that might be an option to investigate.

Lowcountrygamecock

Harmony remotes work great. I set one up with customizable buttons on the remote screen for my wife and kids since they couldn’t ever figure out the button combinations. Buttons for watch tv, watch movie and play wii(yes it was that long ago).  

Buckwoody Egger

I agree trying the voice command route.  It’s not perfect but that’s where the user interface development has been focused for a while now.  It’s almost as if they abandoned evaluating the scrolling, clicking etc experience as it is slow and laborious. 

dannys

I used one of these:

MX-450 Remote

Very customizable and easy to operate.

I bought it a few years ago, so there may be a newer or updated model

dbCooper

@Legume

AVSforum may be of use to you...

https://www.avsforum.com/forums/remote-control-area.93/

alaskanassasin

Omg when my dad was down here last year he made my tv do things I had no idea it was capable of. One if which was audible closed caption where someone not only reads the lines but also describes the scene.

Leopoldstoch

I would look into URC remotes as they are a great future proof and customizable option.  Not crazy cheap, but less expensive than options like savant.

Legume

Thanks all - just what I needed, some good places to start.

@alaskanassasin was that on purpose or accidental just mashing buttons?

alaskanassasin

Legume said:

Thanks all - just what I needed, some good places to start.

@alaskanassasin was that on purpose or accidental just mashing buttons?

 Just mashing buttons. He couldn’t seem to get the correct hdmi going. It would be nice if the remote had a individual button for each input source. 

Legume

alaskanassasin said:

Legume said:

Thanks all - just what I needed, some good places to start.

@alaskanassasin was that on purpose or accidental just mashing buttons?

 Just mashing buttons. He couldn’t seem to get the correct hdmi going. It would be nice if the remote had a individual button for each input source. 

Exactly. One button for each source.