Today I set up my elderly mother with a 40-inch Toshiba LCD flatscreen and a Comcast HD cable box (Motorola). Everything works great, and the picture is amazingly good considering this is not a high-end Toshiba model.

The problem: Mom is very technology-phobic (I knew this going in). She needs the absolute simplest remote control setup possible. All she wants to do is turn the system on and off, change channels, and adjust the volume. That's it!

She's been using one of these (Sony RM-EZ4) for just the TV alone and she loves it:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e99/barnyardmadness/sonyremote.jpg

Did I mention she has somewhat limited vision and likes the large buttons?

This remote can control 2 devices (TV and cable box), but it can only turn them on and off separately. So to turn the system on she has to press "TV", "Pwr", "Cable/Sat", "Pwr". Shutting everything off is the same process.

The problem is of course if she misses a button or does something out of sequence, the system can wind up in a "non-optimal" state, and she can't figure out how to get it back to normal. I know this is simple to all of us but trust me, we're all gonna get old and decrepit.

Does anyone have a suggestion on a universal programmable remote that 1) Has LARGE buttons; and 2) Has as few buttons and legends as possible. Or is there a way to make this Sony remote turn both devices on and off at the same time, without having to switch back and forth?

Suggestions greatly appreciated!

Which cable box does she have? Most of the motorola boxes have a 110V switched outlet on the back. You may be able to plug the TV into the box and have the box turn the TV on and off. Not all TVs will turn on automatically when they get power back though.

What cable box remote do you have? Most of those can be programmed to turn the TV and cable box on and off at the same time.

Bad Idea beer stalker, you could damage the TV like that. I dont really have any ideas as far as the remote though but stay away from plugging the TV into the switched outlet of the cable box. tsk tsk.:(

Bad Idea beer stalker, you could damage the TV like that. I dont really have any ideas as far as the remote though but stay away from plugging the TV into the switched outlet of the cable box. tsk tsk.:(


Why?

I know it would be a bad idea for a projector that uses a fan to cool the bulb, but he said this is a flatscreen LCD (I assume he means flat panel). Why would this be bad for a flat panel LCD?

Which cable box does she have? Most of the motorola boxes have a 110V switched outlet on the back. You may be able to plug the TV into the box and have the box turn the TV on and off. Not all TVs will turn on automatically when they get power back though.

What cable box remote do you have? Most of those can be programmed to turn the TV and cable box on and off at the same time.

I thought of that! In fact it does have an AC convenience outlet, and in the setup menu it can be set for Switched or Unswitched. HOWEVER I discovered that the outlet is Unswitched, no matter how it's configured. At first I thought the Moto box was defective, but another one behaves the same way and the outlet itself is labeled "UNSWITCHED". So they must have modified the hardware at some point and didn't bother to change the menus. Probably someone plugged a space heater into that outlet and burned the box up (or burned their house down). lol.

In any case I don't think it would work as desired even if the outlet was switched. It would be able to turn the TV off, but not on. Once the TV loses power, I think it can only be turned on again via it's own power switch. Someone correct me if that's wrong though.

BTW I said Toshiba 40-inch. It's actually 42-inch. Just for the record. ;)

Is that remote possibly JP1 compatible? That might get you where you need to be.

The only Sony JP1's I know of are a couple of Tivo remotes.

Can you convince her to just always leave the cable box on?

Can you convince her to just always leave the cable box on?

Yes, but it's still problematic for her though because to turn the TV on and off she has to press the TV button first, then the Power button, then press the Cable button to put the remote into the cable-box control mode, not TV control mode. Somehow she keeps changing the TV input from component video to tuner mode, ends up with snow on the screen, and can't find the component input again.

A possible solution is to use the Comcast remote's "POWER ALL" button for the sole purpose of turning both the TV and the cable box on and off with the single press of that button. And then set that remote aside and use the Sony remote for everything else, presuming it's in "Cable" mode.

I know this is frustrating for her and seems ridiculously simple to us all but it's actually something of a minor challenge to make this work the desired way.

What functions do you need in the remote? If it is just All On/Off and channel up/down and volume up/down, maybe you can use one of these:
Cricket remote (http://www.yourbroadbandstore.com/product.php?pid=722482)
Weemote Sr. (http://www.weemote.com/products.html)

They both have All Power on/off, has no device mode keys (TV/Cable) and can have the channel up/down and volume up/down set to control either cable box or tv. They have additional buttons to set some channel presets.

In addition, the Cricket remote is a JP1 remote (http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/index.php), so I would imagine that if you really want to, you probably can reprogram the channel preset buttons to numbers to entering in channel number using a JP1.2 cable connected to a computer. The layout of the presets/numbers keys aren't great for that though ("1" and "2" are separate and above the vol/channel keys). BTW, the picture of the cricket on that remote is removable/replaceable, so you don't have to see that cricket all the time.

You also mentioned Comcast remote. If you have this remote (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote) from Comcast, it's actually quite a more programmable remote than they let on in the manual, so you might be able to make that one work they way you want. For example, you can set all the keys to work the same way regardless of the device mode you are in and disable functions you don't want. It's also a JP1 remote so its it would be a lot more programmable with the JP1.2 cable.

What functions do you need in the remote? If it is just All On/Off and channel up/down and volume up/down, maybe you can use one of these:
Cricket remote (http://www.yourbroadbandstore.com/product.php?pid=722482)
Weemote Sr. (http://www.weemote.com/products.html)

They both have All Power on/off, has no device mode keys (TV/Cable) and can have the channel up/down and volume up/down set to control either cable box or tv. They have additional buttons to set some channel presets.

In addition, the Cricket remote is a JP1 remote (http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/index.php), so I would imagine that if you really want to, you probably can reprogram the channel preset buttons to numbers to entering in channel number using a JP1.2 cable connected to a computer. The layout of the presets/numbers keys aren't great for that though ("1" and "2" are separate and above the vol/channel keys). BTW, the picture of the cricket on that remote is removable/replaceable, so you don't have to see that cricket all the time.

You also mentioned Comcast remote. If you have this remote (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote) from Comcast, it's actually quite a more programmable remote than they let on in the manual, so you might be able to make that one work they way you want. For example, you can set all the keys to work the same way regardless of the device mode you are in and disable functions you don't want. It's also a JP1 remote so its it would be a lot more programmable with the JP1.2 cable.

Thanks for the suggestions (that goes for everyone). She does indeed have that Comcast remote. It is quite capable, but it has too damn many buttons for her. I've considered taking the remote apart (whatever remote we settle on) and removing unnecessary buttons, but that seems extreme.