tending to my mother's tv remotely

[bobbyr]

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.

 

[Montecfo]

So you would be doing the voice commands?

We found that despite all attempts to "simplify" TV for my MIL (also 90s) she could not remember them or even to refer to simple notes (no dementia just age). She always reported TV was broken.

We did not try your proposed method. I guess you are currently going there every day?

 

[TheWizard]

I can control my wifi light switches and my robot vacuum cleaner from my smartphone anywhere there's internet.
So I'd have to think with the latest smart TVs that there would be some way to do what you want.
I'll be watching this thread to find out...

 

[bobbyr]

there is some dementia as well, so i would hope to send voice commands when she is in the other room, so as not to confuse her.

I am thinking maybe a firestick box of some kind right next to the camera, so i can speak softly with commands to the tv that is hardwired to the firestick/amazon box...?

 

[aja8888]

Don't these smart TV's have timers built in you can program (turn on/turn off)?

 

[bobbyr]

So you would be doing the voice commands?

We found that despite all attempts to "simplify" TV for my MIL (also 90s) she could not remember them or even to refer to simple notes (no dementia just age). She always reported TV was broken.

We did not try your proposed method. I guess you are currently going there every day?

yes, i live nearby and go over there multiple times a day, also have some other caregivers here and there (2) and other family (1) -- i want to be able to keep the tv on as much as possible (unless she is sleeping)

 

[bobbyr]

Don't these smart TV's have timers built in you can program (turn on/turn off)?

that's a decent consideration...but not quite the flexibility i would want/need

also, i'd like to be able to tell amazon or netflix to keep playing something when it does it's auto stop after three episodes

 

[bobbyr]

I can control my wifi light switches and my robot vacuum cleaner from my smartphone anywhere there's internet.
So I'd have to think with the latest smart TVs that there would be some way to do what you want.
I'll be watching this thread to find out...

I'll definitely be upgrading the tv to something very new - friend at best buy will help me...also with the remote questions. I always get good advice here, so I thought I'd toss it out there (also a lot of us are dealing with elderly parents)

 

[harllee]

Following this thread for my 90 year old mother. Her TV/remote "breaks" quite often. Fortunately she lives in an independent living apartment and there is a staff member whose main job it is to fix residents TVs and remotes--it is a full time job. But sometimes he can't get to my mother right away so if there was a way to fix it remotely I would like to know it. I live an hour and a half away. My sister lives 15 minutes away but she is clueless about the TV and remote.

 

[aja8888]

I'll definitely be upgrading the tv to something very new - friend at best buy will help me...also with the remote questions. I always get good advice here, so I thought I'd toss it out there (also a lot of us are dealing with elderly parents)

I'm an elderly parent and my wife is too ....and she is having trouble with the controls. I'm tired of having to show her how to get past the on/off switch (get to Roku, Netflix, whatever). But she's a sweetie.

I'm following this thread too!

 

[bobbyr]

I picked up an amizon fire hub from best buy and a 24 ft hdmi cord with coupler...plan is to hardwire hub to tv and place hub next to ring camera to give vocal alexa commands for the tv via my ring phone app from my house 3 miles away.

I will be hooking it up this afternoon hopefully and will report back asap

 

[Qs Laptop]

Since the only way a TV can change channels or inputs is via the remote or a keypad on the actual TV, I think you'll find the idea of remotely controlling the TV from another location to be impossible.

It is possible to control certain TV's using your phone as a remote but your phone and TV must be on the same Wi-Fi network for this to work. If you can figure out a way to get on your mom's Wi-Fi network from your house miles away, this might work but I don't think this is possible.

Probably the best you can hope for is to get a TV service with a microphone on the remote and have your mother press the microphone button and then say the name of the show she wants to watch.

Comcast has this feature and I presume other cable providers do as well. When my mom was in her nineties she was able to press the microphone and say "Wheel of Fortune" and then press enter and she could watch the show. This only works if Wheel of Fortune is being shown at that time of day the request was vocalized into the microphone. This worked for my mom because she knew if it was 6:30 then it was time for Wheel of Fortune to come on.

Roku has a voice search feature as well but using it will pull up every place you can watch a particular streaming TV show--and then list them in order of ascending cost to view. This might work if, a) the program is free and/or b) you have a subscription to the streaming channel the show is on. I'm going to guess this will be too confusing for your mom to navigate.

 

[bobbyr]

Since the only way a TV can change channels or inputs is via the remote or a keypad on the actual TV, I think you'll find the idea of remotely controlling the TV from another location to be impossible.

It is possible to control certain TV's using your phone as a remote but your phone and TV must be on the same Wi-Fi network for this to work. If you can figure out a way to get on your mom's Wi-Fi network from your house miles away, this might work but I don't think this is possible.

Probably the best you can hope for is to get a TV service with a microphone on the remote and have your mother press the microphone button and then say the name of the show she wants to watch.

Comcast has this feature and I presume other cable providers do as well. When my mom was in her nineties she was able to press the microphone and say "Wheel of Fortune" and then press enter and she could watch the show. This only works if Wheel of Fortune is being shown at that time of day the request was vocalized into the microphone. This worked for my mom because she knew if it was 6:30 then it was time for Wheel of Fortune to come on.

Roku has a voice search feature as well but using it will pull up every place you can watch a particular streaming TV show--and then list them in order of ascending cost to view. This might work if, a) the program is free and/or b) you have a subscription to the streaming channel the show is on. I'm going to guess this will be too confusing for your mom to navigate.

I can send audio to alexa via Ring app (I am thinking) - haven't set it up yet

 

[gauss]

Interesting ideas from the OP. I had this sort of problem with my DM in the past. She would accidentally sit on the remote control and then change the source input of the TV to something other than the intended cable box.

I always thought a Raspberry PI with an infrared LED could be setup to emulate a TV 'remote' which I could control via the Internet.

In reality I would just visit her soon and fix it for her (only ~ 3 miles away).

-gauss

 

[Time2]

I always thought a Raspberry PI with an infrared LED could be setup to emulate a TV 'remote' which I could control via the Internet.


-gauss

A short search pulls up several raspberry pi projects to us a Raspberry Pi as a remote control for your TV. What I didn't see (short search) was how to control the Raspberry Pi from a remote location. But that might be the easy part.

 

[gauss]

A short search pulls up several raspberry pi projects to us a Raspberry Pi as a remote control for your TV. What I didn't see (short search) was how to control the Raspberry Pi from a remote location. But that might be the easy part.

You would need to 'port forward' on DM's cable modem the appropriate ports (ssh 22, http 80 etc.) to the Raspberry PI -- or something similar. Lots of discussion on the Internet about how to do this sort of thing (ie Q:How to run my own web server at home? etc.).

-gauss

 

[jevans04]

Wouldn't something like this work?

https://www.amazon.com/Broadlink-RM-Mini3-Universal-Controller-Compatible/dp/B01FK2SDOC

"IR Smart Universal Remote Hub
BroadLink RM Mini 3 is a smart IoT remote control that can be easily to install and use. With it, you can remote control various home appliances, such as Air Conditioner, TV, STB, Lighting, Audio, etc.

With the support of BroadLink Global Cloud service technology, it becomes easy and reliable to remote control you home devices from anywhere."

 

[Time2]

You would need to 'port forward' on DM's cable modem the appropriate ports (ssh 22, http 80 etc.) to the Raspberry PI -- or something similar. Lots of discussion on the Internet about how to do this sort of thing (ie Q:How to run my own web server at home? etc.).

-gauss

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

 

[ERD50]

You would need to 'port forward' on DM's cable modem the appropriate ports (ssh 22, http 80 etc.) to the Raspberry PI -- or something similar. Lots of discussion on the Internet about how to do this sort of thing (ie Q:How to run my own web server at home? etc.).

-gauss

I thought we were talking about the Raspberry Pi using an IR transmitter to control the TV?

You would need an internet connection path from outside the home to the R-Pi, but you should not need to mess with the cable modem's ports, right?

Ahhh, that Alexa box that jevans04 posted sure seems to fit the bill, and at that price is worth trying.

But if one did want to try to roll-their-own, I found a pretty simple way to set up communication is with email. Have the R-Pi check for email once/minute, and it could decode a set of commands in the email. But that Alexa box sure looks simple/cheap if it does the trick.

-ERD50

 

[bobbyr]

I can send audio to alexa via Ring app (I am thinking) - haven't set it up yet

I tried via Ring app this morning, my voice came through as I spoke Alexa commands...it worked initially (at least turned the tv on), but I couldn't get it to work consistently. The quality of my voice via Ring has a bit of a digital quality that must not fit the Alexa expected tone,

Last think I want to do is be barking orders to Alexa without effect, and confusing my mother.

So, Alexa cube will respond with TV off to "Alexa turn on Downton Abbey" and it successfully implement...ended up making my mom a large flash card or cheat sheet with 72 font printing. We'll see.

I was sure I could manipulate with Ring microphone...oh well.

 

[bobbyr]

Wouldn't something like this work?

https://www.amazon.com/Broadlink-RM-Mini3-Universal-Controller-Compatible/dp/B01FK2SDOC

"IR Smart Universal Remote Hub
BroadLink RM Mini 3 is a smart IoT remote control that can be easily to install and use. With it, you can remote control various home appliances, such as Air Conditioner, TV, STB, Lighting, Audio, etc.

With the support of BroadLink Global Cloud service technology, it becomes easy and reliable to remote control you home devices from anywhere."

thanks, will look into this

 

[retire48in2018]

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

 

[6miths]

Great thread. TV issues with my 90-year-old mother as well. She is still good with working basic functions and dvr/cable box. Main issue is volume. She has her hearing aids but still needs volume quite high and it seems that most bluetooth headphones now have safeguards against pumping the volume too high which is excellent to protect normal hearing but prevents using them for this situation. Maybe that's a good thing too, not an expert.

Seems like 'remote' remote control is something that Sony/Samsung/LG should be instituting as a feature.

 

[CaptTom]

The Broadlink remotes mentioned above will do what you want. By default everything goes through their (Broadlink's) cloud so it shouldn't need to be on the same network.

I'll bet there's a demand for a remote that looks like an old-fashined TV channel changer dial. Folks from a certain era ought to be able to handle that. It would have to be programmable so you could set up 13 different "channels" to bring up stuff they'd like to stream. Maybe allow you to queue up different shows and you could just tell them it's on "channel 12" or whatever.

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

 

[gauss]

I thought we were talking about the Raspberry Pi using an IR transmitter to control the TV?

You would need an internet connection path from outside the home to the R-Pi, but you should not need to mess with the cable modem's ports, right?

Ahhh, that Alexa box that jevans04 posted sure seems to fit the bill, and at that price is worth trying.

But if one did want to try to roll-their-own, I found a pretty simple way to set up communication is with email. Have the R-Pi check for email once/minute, and it could decode a set of commands in the email. But that Alexa box sure looks simple/cheap if it does the trick.

-ERD50

Yes - the concept of the cable modem 'port forwards' was solely to access the RI-PI externally. It had was not meant to interface with the cable TV controls.

-gauss