TV for Mum

[securespark]

One of the reasons I chose YouView was because it had "an award-winning" (and hopefully really intuitive to navigate) interface.

Does anyone have Freeview Play? Is it similar to YouView?

If I could get a version with more than one tuner, that would be ideal.

The situation with two items of equipment and 2 remotes is an awkward one.

She gets very confused when there's two remotes.
When she had an old CRT with a separate Freeview STB, it caused no end of issues. Mainly, "Why am I seeing a snowstorm?" ("Because they've turned off analogue TV and you can only watch it through the new box. At the moment, you're using the TV remote to choose the channel.")

My ideal would be to persuade her to go for a Sony with YouView built-in. This way, there is only one appliance and one remote. But I've always found that Sony seem to have the most complicated way of doing things when operating their equipment which is not at all intuitive.
A Sony YV TV I looked at had a "Sony Mode" and a "YouView Mode" where you only get certain functionalities in one mode or the other. A recipe for disaster if you're looking for something that is intuitive to operate.

So, the ideal would be a new TV with FP built-in. One unit, one remote.

But I'm not sure I can persuade her to go for this. Her TV is still "brand new" and is not broken, so she can't see the point in replacing it.

But I'm worried that she will get confused about which remote to use.

sx......your idea is brilliant, but unless her TV remote is put under lock and key, there will be tears before bedtime!

Mottie, thanks, she has BB, but the router is upstairs. I have to run a Cat 6 down to the lounge.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Mottie, thanks, she has BB, but the router is upstairs. I have to run a Cat 6 down to the lounge.

Most TV's support wifi, if it is usable over the distance.

 

[Mottie]

Does anyone have Freeview Play? Is it similar to YouView?

I have Freeview play on both our TV's. When I got my mum a new TV, I made sure they both had Freeview play on them. So easy to use but you can only go back 7 days though. Anything else and you have to search the apps BBC iPlayer, ITV player etc.
Basically you press the guide on the remote and you will get a screen like this:

You can see, at the moment I am on BBC1. (If I want to search back on other channels I would scroll down to that channel).

Then, instead of pressing the forward button on the remote to see what is coming up next, you press the back button to enter the previous weeks programme so for the past week on BBC1, you would get this screen:

You would simply go back to the day you want, then down to the programme you want and press enter. That’s it, that programme will start.

To access the other apps if you want to check full content, you just press the yellow catch up button on the remote to get this screen:

Then choose the catchup service from the top screen options.

 

[EFLImpudence]

That's probably the problem rather than the solution.

 

[ETAF]

freeviewplay does allow you to go back 7days and if available on catchup it will play.
I have a small panasonic 24" which i have in the Bedroom, and pretty much most things we wanted to watch are on catchup, and very rarely need the PVR
Need to make sure TV is wifi - and you have a good wifi connection, broadband in the home with a good speed, I know some areas still only get 1mb of download speed - which can be an issue with buffering.
you maybe able to use powerline adapters to use the cable - BUT make sure the TV can accept a network cable connection, i don't think my newer panasonic TV (1 year old now) has that network cable connection, which i was surprised to find , but would need to check if that is the case

EDIT , just had a message of more replies, and see most have no covered what i was going to suggest

 

[motorbiking]

https://www.richersounds.com/catalog/product/view/id/121646/s/panasonic-tx40jx800b

 

[Justin Passing]

May be a silly question but as your mum doesn’t have catchup of any kind, does she have internet access? She'll need that for catchup TV or any plug-in sticks or boxes.

It works - she is unable to remember how, and loses paper.

"Press the Home button"
..."What's the Home Button"
"The one with a house on it"
..."The picture's gone. It's all boxes"
"Yes. Do you see where it says iPlayer"
..."Oh yes. Is that what I want?"
"Yes, Press the up /down/ left/ right buttons to get to it"
..." Up and down??"
"The ones with the arrows. Go down to the bottom where those pictures like the iPlayer one are"
..."I'm pressing right and it's whizzing round"
..."I think I've pushed "back", it's all changed"
"Try the Home button. The one with a house"
..."It's adverts now"
..."It says I'm not subscribed to it"
"To what"
..."Netfix"

After the sixtieth demo, and sixth repeat of similar performances, we give up.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

"To what"
..."Netfix"

I do wish those buttons could be disabled on my remote!

 

[securespark]

Most TV's support wifi, if it is usable over the distance.

Thanks but not sure it is a good signal. But generally, I prefer a wired connection as it is more reliable and faster.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thanks but not sure it is a good signal. But generally, I prefer a wired connection as it is more reliable and faster.

I agree, but worth trying. Our bedroom TV, connects via wifi from the router in the opposite corner of the room below and works fine. I am a bit short of wired ports on my two routers, but it would cause a tremendous mess running the wire anyway.

 

[ETAF]

i have a few broadband connections to my TV station - The TV itself, is Cable, the PVR is cabled , then wireless I have the AppleTV and also a Sonos soundbar.
I used a Powerline connector, which has 2 cable connections and a repeating wifi signal.
Although the appletv uses the 5G router wifi signal
We pretty much stream everything through the apple TV , catchup, Netflix, Sky, Amazon , and works fine.

So you may want to consider powerline connectors , if running a cable is going to be a problem.

 

[securespark]

Folk here have mentioned the TV needs connecting to the internet.

You wouldn't need to do that if you have a separate Freeview Play box?

You'd just connect the Freeview Play box to the internet?

 

[ETAF]

ignore - missed the last sentence

 

[sxturbo]

Folk here have mentioned the TV needs connecting to the internet.

You wouldn't need to do that if you have a separate Freeview Play box?

You'd just connect the Freeview Play box to the internet?

Yes the box will need internet.

If you go for new TV instead of box will also need internet

 

[IT Minion]

Stating the bleeding obvious perhaps, but could she borrow yours for a week to see if she gets along with it?