Re: I'm a bit confused . . .

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message <IJqdnZt6mIpsiwjQnZ2dnUVZ8g-dnZ2d@xxxxxx>, carolet
<chez_carolet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Serena Blanchflower wrote:
[]
Do you know what conclusions, if any, they came to? A friend of
mine is worrying about what to do for an elderly outlaw. So far, it
looks as though the best option will be to get her a new digital TV
(she doesn't have a DVD or anything), so that it's as similar to her
current system as possible. If there are any better solutions, it
would be very good to hear of them.

Does she have a video machine? It _might_ be easier to connect a box
via that, if she has - but there again, it might not.
[]
She would accidentally put them onto analogue and only get snow (she
tended to push buttons at random if it didn't do what was expected).
Are they making digital only televisions yet, where this can't
happen?

They are certainly making digital-only tellies - Maplin (in-store,
though there aren't many of them, or online) do quite a few of them,
though it tends to be the smaller sizes (very small, I mean) that
don't have the analogue side.

The shops that I tried last year didn't know of any, but perhaps they meant
in the size range that I was interested in.


She didn't understand the menus that seem to be the normal way of
finding a channel on digital televisions/receivers. Pressing 1 did
get her to BBC1, so that was good, but it didn't react as fast as
her old television, so she would often press something else while
waiting. Sometimes I got the

The main reason they don't respond as fast is that they're waiting for
the other digits - if you type 001 instead of 1, they'll respond
faster (though not _as_ fast as they used to). If that's too
complicated, does the remote have "up and down channels" buttons?
Those usually respond as quickly as typing 001 ...

Yes, so if you press 1, then think "oh it didn't work" and press 1 again,
you end up with station 11.

We are talking about people who are losing their ability to learn new
things. Even pressing up/down channel rather than pressing number 1, 2, 3 or
4 is something that has to be learned, and so is beyond some of them. I did
suggest it to my Mother but it wasn't a concept that she could absorb.


impression that she been watching the same channel since I was last
there, as she didn't remember how to turn over. She never got the
hang of the new channels, and stuck to the basic four that we'd had
before, so she had no

... and I suspected that might be the case. Possibly one of the simple
replacement remotes that has _only_ six buttons - up and down volume,
up and down channel, mute, and off/on - might be of use.

I did look for simpler remotes, I didn't see one that worked like that. I
think I would have rejected it, on the grounds that it had no number
buttons. It might be worth naming such a device for the benefit of Serena's
friend.

(I also looked for simpler telephones when I had to replace hers, and failed
with that too.)


benefit from the change. Turning it on and off was also slow, so she
might press the button again before it reacted, putting it back into
its original state. And none of these new televisions seem to have
proper on/off knobs, you can only put them on standby. So she took
to turning it off at the wall, then it didn't work the next day, as
she'd forgotten that it needed switching on again.

Ah, the standby light bothers her. You can get - free in some cases,
I've seen them being handed out in a shopping centre (Eldon Square in
Newcastle), and I got mine sent free from British Gas I think - these
things that go between the wall and the mains plug of a device, and
have a remote eye you can teach to recognise the remote of the telly
(or whatever), and they actually do cut off the mains to the device
(and anything else plugged into them). To some extent a con - these
devices obviously consume some power as they're waiting to be turned
back on again, and I question whether that's any less than (a modern)
telly itself - but at least they have no tell-tale light. Only any
good if the telly in question will come back in the "on" state if you
cut off and restore its mains; if it comes back in standby, that
would just confuse.

Yes, I think it was the light that bothered her and that might have helped.
Now that I have inherited one of these televisions, though, I must say that
I find it irritating that I can't turn it off more easily.


The other thing that confused her was the red button logo that comes
up in the corner saying "press red". She took it to say "press
here". So she did as she was told and went and pressed the corner of
the screen, and nothing happened. Every few days she'd ask why they
wanted her to press this button in the corner of the screen and why
it didn't do anything. And I explain and she'd thank me and say that
she understood now. All this fingering didn't do the screen any
good. I eventually discovered that you could turn these messages
off, though this option severely restricted what the television
could do, but then she wasn't going to use these clever features
anyway.

Indeed. I can't remember when _I_ last "pressed the red button"; do
anyrats use it much? (Except perhaps for sport?)

I use it to get the weather forecast occasionally.


The changeover also meant that she lost the ability to record
programs and watch them later. She'd been able to use her video
recorder up till then, but it just became too complicated.

Hmm. Modern FreeView recorders are actually, IMO, easier to prog. than
old VCRs - you just find the prog. you want in the electronic
programme guide and select it; however, getting to and navigating the
EPG is something new that would have to be learnt, and I sympathise.

I agree, I now have the one that we thought that she could use and I think
it is great, the only drawback being that you have to watch the program in
the place that it was recorded. I can't choose to watch it in the other
room, as I can with my faithful old videos.

But again, we are talking about someone losing the ability to learn new
skills and, if they are used to selecting TV channels by pressing a number
on the remote, setting something to record using videoplus, and playing
these recordings by rewinding and playing, then the process that you
describe is very different.

Anybody who is already used to digital TV equipment before they become ill,
will probably be fine at changeover even if they do need to change some of
their boxes.


I don't suppose any of that helps your friend at all.

)-:.

--

CaroleT


.

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