Non-motoring > Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Falkirk Bairn Replies: 12
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 11:18 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - Falkirk Bairn
MiL is suffering from dementia.

6 months ago her Virgin Analogue signal was cut off - she got a neighbour to phone up and ordered digital - complete failure - the 3 digit channel numbers, the poor supplied remote control + dementia means she cannot change channels and get hopelssly lost in a maze of pages.

Is there out there a simple r/c, up / down channel, up / down volume and few other buttons that could help. I have googled but all that comes up are replacement/similar r/c with lots of buttons.
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 11:36 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - No FM2R
Like this ?

www.amazon.co.uk/Giant-Universal-Remote-Control-Friendly/dp/B000Y853M8
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 11:38 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - No FM2R
or this (since this one is actually in stock!)

www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=99817&C=SO&U=strat15
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 12:08 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - Redviper
We have Virgin digital, and I cant for the life of me figure out why they have to number channels like thus

101 BBC 1
102 BBC 2
103 ITV
105 C4

Etc

When my Freeview box did it the simple way

001 BBC1
002 BBC2
003 ITV
004 C4

etc

so if you wanted BBC 1 a simple "1" button press was suffciant, now its "1,0,1" on the button press which although sounds trivial, when I 1st got it I thought was a bit silly.
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 14:51 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - PeteW
We have virgin. I've programmed the 'favourites' channels for the most used ones. Perhaps you could do likewise for your MIL and try her using the up/down channel buttons on the supplied remote?
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 15:45 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - Falkirk Bairn
Thanks for the above but what is needed is a r/c with only 2/3 buttons

She would get just as lost with multiple big buttons as multiple small ones.
It is not eyesight but dementia / confusion - we have tried instruction of up/down etc but this falls on stony ground we need a r/c with a max of say 5 buttons - no number pad/colour/contrast etc just channel & volume up and down.

2.5% of the population cannot mange analogue r/c due to handicap/dementia - this increases to 7.5% of population cannot manage a digital tuner r/c
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 15:55 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - Bromptonaut
I'm surprised the percentages are so low!!

Can you lock out any of the functions on the remote or the box?

My own MiL has the same problem so I know how distressing and frustrating it all is.
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 16:32 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - henry k
Lots of big button stuff but so many devices are "too clever"
looking into the situation:-
uxnerd.com/2009/07/design-of-a-remote-control-for-elderly-people/

some other attempts from abroad
www.weemote.com/products.html
www.technicalwhizz.com.au/html/simple_remote.html

An intersting device
www.slipperybrick.com/2008/06/fotodialer-dials-phones-automatically-by-photo/
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 17:31 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - rtj70
I would think any remote replacement will need numeric buttons because you will have to enter the code that tells it how to control the box.

Also, you say you want to control volume - then it needs to control the volume of the TV not the Virgin Media box. Not as simple as it seems this... up/down channel to control the VM box, up/down volume to control the TV.
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 17:58 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - Falkirk Bairn

>>
>> Also, you say you want to control volume - then it needs to control the
>> volume of the TV not the Virgin Media box. Not as simple as it seems
>> this... up/down channel to control the VM box, up/down volume to control the TV.
>>

A clam shell r/c - closed a few buttons - opened up a numeric pad
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 18:15 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - rtj70
Sounds like you should market that idea.
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 20:29 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - sherlock47
Looks ideal

tinyurl.com/trythis1001

and page down there are several other simple ones!

Last edited by: pmh on Fri 9 Jul 10 at 20:31
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New Fri 9 Jul 10 22:18 
 Simple remote control for Virgin Media (cable TV) - rtj70
That was quick marketing. Looks like this would work. If the volume and channel buttons can control different devices.
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