Easiest way to use TV & Catchup

Justin Passing

Justin Passing

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Mother is 90+ and not good if she has to use two remotes, or similar.

Current TV isn't smart.. She has a BT Freeview box (I think it is) but she finds it almost mindblowing to have to sleect the HDMI channel from the TV, to watch it.

I saw the thread at https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/catchup-tv.548086/ which was useful, but not watching TV much myself I'm way out of date.

If she buys a smart tv & gets it connected to her BT broadband, it looks like she'll still need something like YouView (£10/month - fine). That allows recording too, which I assume TVs don't. Is that right?
If she wants to watch some rerun of last century Corrie or Vera or whatever, would it be simple to access?


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Just looking at TVs. They're much cheaper than I thought at say <£3-400 for 40"ish.

But I don't know what it means by "with" -
WITH
Smart Android TV /with Freeview Play/ Prime Video/Netflix/YouTube/Google Chromecast etc etc etc.
Do any of those mean you don't have to pay to get stuff which you wouldn't get on another TV?
 
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I have no knowledge of YouView, but I do have a LG smart big screen TV....

It has inputs for Freeview and Freesat antennas, 3x HDMI ports, two USB ports, a soundbar port, wifi and wired LAN. Into one of the USB ports I have a 500Gb USB powered HDD - that allows me to record either whilst I watch, or whilst the TV is off for watching later. Record options are once only, or record a whole series. Whilst watching (if I set it to record all the time - I do), I can pause live programs and wind back, play again or just pause it when the phone rings. That means I can start watching something on a commercial channel which started at 20:00, I start watching it at 20:10, and I can then skip through the ad-breaks at 16x speed. I also have access to all of the online 'Catchup services' of BBCi, ITV Hub, 4, My5 and UKTVplay.

All/most of the BBC channels include a green button, where if you have missed the beginning of a program which say started at 19:00, and it is 19:25, press the green button and it restarts the program from 19:00.

The remote can recognise speech, so I can just tell it what I want it to do, what to search for, rather than pushing buttons.

It does have a major restriction, in that it only has one tuner. It can only watch, or watch and record the one channel. I cannot watch BBC1 and record something on BBC2.

It also includes buttons to access Netflix and PrimeVideo.

So the smart TV needs an Internet connection and a HDD, plus an antenna to get full benefit out of it.
 
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If she wants to watch things up to a week old, I’d suggest getting a Smart TV with 'Freeview play' built in. On any smart TV she should be able to access ITV and BBC catchup but that will involve some learning of the system. For a cost, you can add Netflix and Prime TV etc (or share someone else’s account) to the smart TV and still just the one remote. Personally, for ease of use, I’d advise her to stay away from extra boxes.
 
Most tv’s support recording, I Have a 64gb usb stick in mine and copes with the little I record, also have a Freesat box with hard drive which also allows recording, though all the soaps and most programs are available on iPlayer etc but are a challenge to use for the elderly.
 
foxhole said:
Most tv’s support recording, I Have a 64gb usb stick in mine and copes with the little I record, also have a Freesat box with hard drive which also allows recording, though all the soaps and most programs are available on iPlayer etc but are a challenge to use for the elderly.
Click to expand...
The wife’s in her 60’s and I still have to show her how to operate the tv and play recorded programs, despite having the same kit for a few years.
 
foxhole said:
I Have a 64gb usb stick in mine and copes with the little I record,
Click to expand...

My LG will use a stick for record / play, but not for live pause/ delayed play. Maybe something to do with a stick not being able to read and write fast enough/ out of sequence. It just greys out the enable option in the menu, if a stick is plugged in. If enabled, the HDD spins the entire time the TV is on, recording constantly, just so I can rewind.
 
Harry Bloomfield said:
My LG will use a stick for record / play, but not for live pause/ delayed play. Maybe something to do with a stick not being able to read and write fast enough/ out of sequence. It just greys out the enable option in the menu, if a stick is plugged in. If enabled, the HDD spins the entire time the TV is on, recording constantly, just so I can rewind.
Click to expand...
Should have bought a Samsung.
 
foxhole said:
The wife’s in her 60’s and I still have to show her how to operate the tv and play recorded programs, despite having the same kit for a few years.
Click to expand...

I'm 73 and will admit to forgetting my way around the LG I have had for 18 months. I remember when TV's just had the one, take it or leave it channel and a regular appearance of a 'potters wheel' :-)
 
foxhole said:
We have nine but wife can’t operate any without help, but she’s better on the sewing machine than me.
Click to expand...

I run the sewing machining around here :-) But I will own up to giving an ancient Singer away, because I could not get it to sew and buying another. All I had done was put the needle in the wrong way.
 
"I cannot watch BBC1 and record something on BBC2."

That's a bit of a bummer.
Are there any systems where you can add a tuner?!
I have Virgin cable at home & sometimes record 2 channels which watching a third. (Not that I get round to watching the recordings.)
 
It may be able to allow watching of BBC1 Freeview tuner, whilst recording say BBC2 via the sat tuner - I have never tried that.
 
I got a special remote for my mother seem to remember called flipper, and it can be programmed to work a set bottom box and TV with 20 present channels, there is a slide to use as standard remote, but with slide In then up/down channel, up/down volume on/off, and mute, very simple to use.

However for catch-up, loads of channels, ease to use, likely the SkyQ is the best, wife picks it up, presses mic button, and says "call the midwife" and she gets call the midwife. Can anything be simpler? Press but say ITV 3 and that's what she gets. Want U-tube and SkyQ sorts out all signing in, it simply works. But will not hide fact it is expensive.
 
ericmark said:
I got a special remote for my mother seem to remember called flipper, and it can be programmed to work a set bottom box and TV with 20 present channels, there is a slide to use as standard remote, but with slide In then up/down channel, up/down volume on/off, and mute, very simple to use.

However for catch-up, loads of channels, ease to use, likely the SkyQ is the best, wife picks it up, presses mic button, and says "call the midwife" and she gets call the midwife. Can anything be simpler? Press but say ITV 3 and that's what she gets. Want U-tube and SkyQ sorts out all signing in, it simply works. But will not hide fact it is expensive.
Click to expand...
Sounds ideal - will see how much it is. At least she doesn't watch $port$ !
 
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