Recommend Free to Air box for elderly people

tubbs26

Firstly apologies if posters feel this issue has been addressed in the nurerous other threads in this forum but the threads are often quite technical and I can’t find the exact information I’m looking for easily.

My situation is as such. My parents are elderly and complexly untech savy. To date they watch saorview channels directly through the tv and free to air uk channels from an old sky box. The sky box has now given up.

The best solution is to move to a free to air box that combines saroview and uk free to air channels.

My request is as follows,
1-Please recommend the most user friendly free to air box? By this I mean if I give them a channel listing and they type in the channel number it will come up. Or pressing Channel up/down will get them to their desired channel

Note features like RTÉ player and recording mean nothing to my parents but with time I may be able to teach them how to use the features.

2-Please recommend someone to provide and install the box. My parents live in north Kildare, on the Dublin border

Note they already have a saorview aerial and sateillte dish.

Thanking you in advance

A2LUE42

If you can do a little setup yourself The image newvlareman created for the tivar box would be perfect for you.

The Cush

https://powercity.ie/product/WPS818C

Irish and UK channels in the one list

Thread on it here - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057898524

dubrov

If all they need is the channels then that is overkill imo.

The Ariva 153 would do the job

tubbs26

A2LUE42 wrote: »

If you can do a little setup yourself The image newvlareman created for the tivar box would be perfect for you.

Excuse my ignorance. Are you proposing I buy the tiviar box personally and then use the instructions from newclaremam thread to set it up?

I’m reasonably tech savy so it could be an option. Thanks

Tigerandahalf

If they watch a lot of satellite channels (bbc etc) you could get them

1. a humax freesat box, maybe one without recording (about €100 on Amazon). This will update the frequency changes automatically, something the free to air combi boxes won't do.

Then combine that with your tv for saorview.
They would need 2 remotes though, so too much hassle perhaps.

2. A simpler option, especially if they don't need recording is to get a freesat tv (I have an LG).
With LG tvs you can programme the buttons to go from saorview to satellite, e.g. long press 1 and rte1 comes up. Long press 2 and bbc 1 comes up. It is an easy process. Just the 1 remote. Frequency changes should be updated automatically.

Just to add with the LG tv remote you could actually program the buttons
1. Rte 1
2. Rte 2
3. Virgin 1
4. Tg 4
5. BBC1

Once on bbc they could just use the up/down button to go between channels on the satellite side.

Johnboy1951

tubbs26 wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance. Are you proposing I buy the tiviar box personally and then use the instructions from newclaremam thread to set it up?

I’m reasonably tech savy so it could be an option. Thanks

I would suggest you should consider this option.

Check required functions against other suggestions, and compare prices.

St Senan

What i find that works best for elderly people is the Walker wps818c combi box https://powercity.ie/product/WPS818C or if you could i would recommend buying either the toshiba,nordmende or Walker range of combi TVs https://powercity.ie/groups/10/12/603 all channels on 1 list with a simple menu. also you could pair either the combi box or 1 of the TVs with a simple big button Remote control https://www.freetv.ie/big-button-remote-control/ . I find that elderly people dont like change so the the main thing is to make it easy for them.

dubrov

Freesat would require messing to switch between Irish and UK channels.

A combi TV might be the way to go if only the channels are required. It will have a single remote and all channels on one list. That's what most elderly people are interested in.

Johnboy1951

I find some of the content of posts in this thread very surprising indeed.

Some here seem to know what older people need or want and what their individual capabilities are.

It is time to wise up folks ...... capability of using devices/products has nothing at all to do with age.

The OP mentioned his parents are not technically savvy so he wanted something to suit them.

I consider it ignorance to bunch all older people in the same 'not technical savvy' category, as has been done by posters in this thread. I know a large number of 'not technical' young people. Yet I do not lump all young people in the same 'not technical savvy' category.


Cop on people!

/rant

Tigerandahalf

@Johnboy

You have posted similar on this before. I don't think there is any issue. Young or old, people want a simple system with 1 remote being the ideal.

In fairness you like your tech and I don't think you are typical of the average person who just want to watch whatever is on.

muffler

tubbs26 wrote: »

My parents are elderly and complexly untech savy. To date they watch saorview channels directly through the tv and free to air uk channels from an old sky box. The sky box has now given up.

Im probably stating the obvious here but if they are happy enough with that arrangement then why not simply buy a second hand Sky box?

€30 or thereabouts should get you a decent one on Adverts / Donedeal.

The Cush

muffler wrote: »

Im probably stating the obvious here but if they are happy enough with that arrangement then why not simply buy a second hand Sky box?

The OP said he wants a box that combines Saorview and the UK free to air channels, obviously more convenient than switching between TV and Sky box.

Speaking from experience here I've upgrade 2 TVs in the house to combi Saorview/satellite models and wouldn't go back to a single tuner model.

NewClareman

tubbs26 wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance. Are you proposing I buy the tiviar box personally and then use the instructions from newclaremam thread to set it up?

I’m reasonably tech savy so it could be an option. Thanks

The setup is very simple + flash the image, input your local transmitter details in ABM, as described a few posts ago - run a scan and you’re good. If you want picons, you can load them from windows, as described in one of the first posts. After that the box automatically updates both Saorview and UK channels. There is a full EPG on all channels, with a far broader list, including +1’s, than you get with Freesat.

Johnboy1951

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

@Johnboy

You have posted similar on this before. I don't think there is any issue. Young or old, people want a simple system with 1 remote being the ideal.

In fairness you like your tech and I don't think you are typical of the average person who just want to watch whatever is on.

Yes indeed I have posted in similar fashion previously, because I thought it warranted.

If there is no issue, young or old, then why do some feel it necessary to group a lot of people, with different capabilities, into an age bracket, and apply some perceived lack of ability to them based on age? That is what I posted about!

It is a parallel to racism ..... bunching people together because of one obvious factor, and applying a general attribute to them. Their technical capabilities, or lack of them, is not related to age.

Yes I am all for a simple system with one remote.
It benefits young, old, middle aged, and those 'in-betweeners' (:)). It benefits those with and without technical ability.
It is part of the reason why I bought a TV with both Sat & Terrestrial tuners ...... but quickly changed to a Set top Box because the TV limitations were annoying, particularly around freedom to organise the channel list in a preferred order.

.

tubbs26

muffler wrote: »

Im probably stating the obvious here but if they are happy enough with that arrangement then why not simply buy a second hand Sky box?

€30 or thereabouts should get you a decent one on Adverts / Donedeal.

I’ve done that already but the previous sky box they had had the English Channel list which included ITV. Looking at a combi now to get that channel and make things easier.

Thanks yo everyone for all the responses. Very helpful. I’ll get something sorted.