tending to my mother's tv remotely

[gauss]

Can any of that be done through CAC? I saw article about CAC connection.

Not sure about that. I am not familiar with CAC.

Another solution would be to utilize an external VPN server that the R-PI could connect to. You could then access the VPN from your location.


-gauss

 

[nwsteve]

There has been no mention of it but the ALEXA system has a number of features for seniors that may be of help without quite the fuss. For example, called "drop-in" which allows you to speak to a resident over their Echo.
https://www.snugsafe.com/all-posts/alexa-for-seniors
https://www.makeuseof.com/alexa-for-seniors/
www.developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs...erties/asp-in-senior-living-device-setup.html
There are a lot of tools inside their senior system that someone with some tech background can customize

 

[Time2]

Not sure about that. I am not familiar with CAC.
-gauss

Of course you aren't! That's because I got it wrong, it's CEC, (Consumer Electronics Control)
More info,

https://www.howtogeek.com/207186/how-to-enable-hdmi-cec-on-your-tv-and-why-you-should/


and more


https://duckduckgo.com/?q=CEC+used+in+TV+control&atb=v330-1&ia=web

 

[Ronstar]

Great thread. I'm having TV issues with 93 yo MIL. Solved them temporarily with a new tv.

Now she is staying at our place and she is not mobil enough to make it downstairs to our lower level tv room. No tv's on our main level.

I either need to get another cable box and put a tv in our living room or guest room. Or see if Comcast has a way where I can bring her cable box to our place and use it here temporarily.

 

[bobbyr]

There has been no mention of it but the ALEXA system has a number of features for seniors that may be of help without quite the fuss. For example, called "drop-in" which allows you to speak to a resident over their Echo.
https://www.snugsafe.com/all-posts/alexa-for-seniors
https://www.makeuseof.com/alexa-for-seniors/
www.developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs...erties/asp-in-senior-living-device-setup.html
There are a lot of tools inside their senior system that someone with some tech background can customize

Helpful links, although I am dealing with DM dementia which is substantial...but still some good stuff to read about.

My DM is pretty funny, she gets mad at me if I don't say please and thank you to Alexa.

I have two cheat sheets printed for her:
1. Alexa play Frank Sinatra
2. Alexa play Downton Abbey

She still forgets unless I am there to guide her

 

[Jerry1]

I either need to get another cable box and put a tv in our living room or guest room.

Wouldn’t just getting a streaming stick work? We only have WiFi now that our cable company (Spectrum) uses a streaming app. Anything we got through the cable (tv) box, which required a hard wire in that room, can now be streamed over WiFi with no wiring required. Of course if you get a tv, it will likely be a Smart TV, however, be careful, Spectrum’s app only work on certain devices - Roku being one of them.

 

[Ronstar]

Wouldn’t just getting a streaming stick work? We only have WiFi now that our cable company (Spectrum) uses a streaming app. Anything we got through the cable (tv) box, which required a hard wire in that room, can now be streamed over WiFi with no wiring required. Of course if you get a tv, it will likely be a Smart TV, however, be careful, Spectrum’s app only work on certain devices - Roku being one of them.

Thanks - I'll look into it!

 

[gauss]

Of course you aren't! That's because I got it wrong, it's CEC, (Consumer Electronics Control)
More info,

https://www.howtogeek.com/207186/how-to-enable-hdmi-cec-on-your-tv-and-why-you-should/


and more


https://duckduckgo.com/?q=CEC+used+in+TV+control&atb=v330-1&ia=web

Thanks for the clarification.

As CEC appears to ride on the HDMI signal, my gut feeling is that any possibility for a R-PI interface would be problematic due to the speed requirements (HDMI speed >> R-PI speed) unless some sort of commercial CEC interface box is available.

-gauss

 

[gauss]

Helpful links, although I am dealing with DM dementia which is substantial...but still some good stuff to read about.

My DM is pretty funny, she gets mad at me if I don't say please and thank you to Alexa.

I have two cheat sheets printed for her:
1. Alexa play Frank Sinatra
2. Alexa play Downton Abbey

She still forgets unless I am there to guide her

Oh my goodness. That was the one thing that my late DM was able to do with Alexa.

The funny thing is that we shared a Spotify account so all the Frank Sinatra biased our "Discover Weekly" feed.

Thanks for the memory.

-gauss

 

[marko]

Just spitballing but

1) xfinity has an app that acts like a remote from your phone or laptop.

Then,

2) wouldn't a VPN at Mom's allow you access to the app via the VPN as it would think it was on the same network?

 

[bobbyr]

Just spitballing but

1) xfinity has an app that acts like a remote from your phone or laptop.

Then,

2) wouldn't a VPN at Mom's allow you access to the app via the VPN as it would think it was on the same network?

she's on AT&T fwiw - but they might have an app as well, although we still have to navigate to amazon prime (change source is required on the remote)...but still, good idea to look into

vpn is above my pay grade but i could look into it.

I am learning this week that the verbal Alexa commands are working well for our housekeeper and caregiver(s)...so I am relaxing on this a bit (for now)

 

[SecondAttempt]

Unfortunately, the market for these would be limited, and shrinking.

I think they are sold in the buggy whip aisle!

 

[SecondAttempt]

Just spitballing but

1) xfinity has an app that acts like a remote from your phone or laptop.

Then,

2) wouldn't a VPN at Mom's allow you access to the app via the VPN as it would think it was on the same network?

I think "same network" actually means in the same subnet mask space. I have 4 networks running at my house and almost everything thinks they are the same even if I connect from far away over the internet.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Harmony works over internet.

I have harmony hubs for a couple tvs. DW gets frustrated with tv, and wanted help sometimes when I was working and traveling. I can work with harmony hub over internet to address issues, turn on, off, change channel, even streaming services.

It has been discontinued from Logitech, but existing setups work

I don’t know if you can set up new

I have a harmony hub to control my older dumb TV and a few other devices. At least the 3-4 year old model I have does not rely on the cloud. But you may need cloud services to use their app. You can still buy them on Amazon but I think it is true that they are being discontinued.

I use Homeassistant running on a R-Pi that I can access externally to control the Harmony. I don't have much need to control the TV when I am not home but I can. Homeassistant is free but has a little bit of a learning curve.

If it is a newer TV you should be able to change source and turn on/ff automatically using CEC but I have never gotten that to work 100% reliably.

 

[HGTVFanatic]

Possible Solution

Is this helpful?

Or this:

 

[Global Wizzo]

My mom is almost 100. We found avTV remote that was about 12” tall x 6” wide. She used it for several years and finally decided the regular remote was easy enough. She had MD and almost blind for near vision.

Sennheiser makes a stethoscope style headset for TVs. Works great and mom has “sold” several to her friends.

I wish you both the best.

 

[48Fire]

I have a Ring camera in a couple of rooms at my mother's house to make sure she is ok (she's in her 90s but doing pretty well).

In her bedroom is one of the cameras along with a tv that I turn on for her. I put it on local channels or use Roku and turn on her one or two preferred Netflix or Prime movies/series.

I live a few miles from her house and she can't work the remotes. I am wanting to somehow configure maybe an Alexa box near the ring camera to say via the Ring camera - "alexa, turn on the tv. alexa change source to roku, alexa open amazon prime, alexa play blablabla..."

Any feedback/guidance on what I need or anyone's lessons learned for similar situation is greatly appreciated.

My MIL had issues when her dementia started. I took pictures of the remote, and some of the menus on the TV. That way I could tell her what buttons to push.

 

[dawdmorgan]

Remote desktop

Great ideas. One consideration may be to use harmony hub/Pi/etc to turn tv of/off and set the right input. But then to control Netflix/streaming services you could use a Chromecast as one of the TV inputs and the use chrome's remote desktop feature to control an always-on PC at your mom's place. Pick which streaming service/show you want and "cast" it from her PC to the TV...or if convenient directly connect the PC to a TV inputs and control the same way.