Recommended PVR for elderly?

In message , cwyatt
wrote


yep..you asked this question on the PVR Forum on Digital Spy and the usual
crowd all shouted "Humax!!!" and "Topfield!!!" :

http://www.ricability-digitaltv.org....stbs_and_digit
al_tv_recorders/recommendations/easiest-to-use-digital-tv-recorders.htm



A Humax might be OK but downloading TAPs?




Why do believe that you have to download TAPs? The Toppy (Topfield)
works perfectly well out-of-the-box and it is in this operational mode
that gets the high scores in the reviews.

If anyone buys a Toppy and they want to experiment with TAPs (third
party programs that alter the way the user interfaces work and add extra
functionality) then there is a UK web site with a very large UK userbase
that can provide help. The Toppy forums currently have 60,000 posts.

http://www.toppy.org.uk/index.php



--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

On Tue, 08 May 2007 12:58:23 +0100, charles
wrote:

|!Hi,
|!Why do young people all think that 'old' means 'dim'?
|!If you are a dimwit at 30 you will still be one at 70.

Likewise if you are bright when young you will still be bright when old.

However, there are people who are very bright who can't programme a VCR.
It's just that they don't have a technical mind - but still a bright one.

My mother, who was a doctor (medical) but not especially technical,
lived to be 80 and managed to write a daily journal up to her very
last day, including pictures, on a computer, and to exchange emails,
sometimes also including pictures, with friends and family all over
the world. At first she'd take the pictures with a film camera and
scan the prints, but later we got her a digital camera and card reader
and she soon got the hang of that. And she had 3 videos, all different
makes, and knew how to program all of them.

Sometimes in shops I've seen books with titles like "Windows for
Seniors", and "Word processing for Seniors", and it always feels like
an insult. Maybe if I get to be really old I won't want to know all
the details of every new fangled gadget, but I'm sure I'll be able to
handle the basic domestic technology for which I have a daily use.
Mostly it's just a matter of reading the instructions and using common
sense.

Rod.

On 8 May, 20:01, Alan wrote:
In message , cwyatt
wrote

A Humax might be OK but downloading TAPs?

Why do believe that you have to download TAPs? The Toppy (Topfield)
works perfectly well out-of-the-box and it is in this operational mode
that gets the high scores in the reviews.

Indeed; the majority of Toppy users probably don't use TAPs, but Mr
Diggler/cwyatt is on a mission of some sort.

My mother is in her 70s, and manages perfectly well with the Toppy, or
rather, at least as well as she does with any other bit of technology.

I too find the idea that the older people - who have, after all, lived
through a period of astonishing technological change, while we
youngsters have merely seen the same things get smaller, faster and
more colourful - can't manage complicated things somewhat patronising.

People of my mother's age have moved from schoolroom slates, box
brownies and wind up gramophones to word processors, digital cameras
and on-demand entertainment.

They've learned to use a lot along the way, so why on earth imagine
that they'll be flummoxed by the idea of using arrows to select
something on a screen and pressing a button with a record symbol?

Nigel.

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 08 May 2007 12:58:23 +0100, charles
wrote:

|!Hi,
|!Why do young people all think that 'old' means 'dim'?
|!If you are a dimwit at 30 you will still be one at 70.

Likewise if you are bright when young you will still be bright when old.

However, there are people who are very bright who can't programme a VCR.
It's just that they don't have a technical mind - but still a bright one.

My mother, who was a doctor (medical) but not especially technical,
lived to be 80 and managed to write a daily journal up to her very
last day, including pictures, on a computer, and to exchange emails,
sometimes also including pictures, with friends and family all over
the world. At first she'd take the pictures with a film camera and
scan the prints, but later we got her a digital camera and card reader
and she soon got the hang of that. And she had 3 videos, all different
makes, and knew how to program all of them.

Sometimes in shops I've seen books with titles like "Windows for
Seniors", and "Word processing for Seniors", and it always feels like
an insult. Maybe if I get to be really old I won't want to know all
the details of every new fangled gadget, but I'm sure I'll be able to
handle the basic domestic technology for which I have a daily use.
Mostly it's just a matter of reading the instructions and using common
sense.

Rod.


When Joseph Rotblat (Jewish scientist, Nobel Prize winner, sent by Britain
to work on the Manhattan project)
was interviewed on Desert Island disk when in his 90s. His reply to the
question 'What luxury would you like to take with you?' was a 'Laptop'.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rotblat

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.o...17162b 682b15

--
Michael Chare

On May 9, 4:00 pm, "Michael Chare"
wrote:
"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message

...





On Tue, 08 May 2007 12:58:23 +0100, charles
wrote:

|!Hi,
|!Why do young people all think that 'old' means 'dim'?
|!If you are a dimwit at 30 you will still be one at 70.

Likewise if you are bright when young you will still be bright when old.

However, there are people who are very bright who can't programme a VCR.
It's just that they don't have a technical mind - but still a bright one.

My mother, who was a doctor (medical) but not especially technical,
lived to be 80 and managed to write a daily journal up to her very
last day, including pictures, on a computer, and to exchange emails,
sometimes also including pictures, with friends and family all over
the world. At first she'd take the pictures with a film camera and
scan the prints, but later we got her a digital camera and card reader
and she soon got the hang of that. And she had 3 videos, all different
makes, and knew how to program all of them.

Sometimes in shops I've seen books with titles like "Windows for
Seniors", and "Word processing for Seniors", and it always feels like
an insult. Maybe if I get to be really old I won't want to know all
the details of every new fangled gadget, but I'm sure I'll be able to
handle the basic domestic technology for which I have a daily use.
Mostly it's just a matter of reading the instructions and using common
sense.

Rod.

When Joseph Rotblat (Jewish scientist, Nobel Prize winner, sent by Britain
to work on the Manhattan project)
was interviewed on Desert Island disk when in his 90s. His reply to the
question 'What luxury would you like to take with you?' was a 'Laptop'.


he used it to keep his plate off his lap whilst he had his tea

On Tue, 08 May 2007 22:06:03 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

Mostly it's just a matter of reading the instructions and using common
sense.

Just? An ever increasing number of the population seems to have trouble
with one if not both of these.
The trouble is made worse by pandering to this and dumbing everything
down, which results in a downwards spiral - evolution in reverse I guess.

I wonder who it is who sits on the back cover of What Satellite and Digital
TV every month in his knickers and vest and wearing a curly black wig ?.

I may be shouted down for this, but as the majority of my customers
are between 60 and 90 and I always teach them to use their new
equipment, I find the older, single tuner Humax PVR8000T to be the
most user friendly of all the PVRs(although the play etc buttons on
the remote are far too small).

The EPG stays populated when the machine is in standby unlike my 2
PVR9200's at home which can take a very long time to produce a full
guide.

They are devoid of all clever features apart from:
Excellent Large menus,
Recording TV easily from the EPG,
Recording Radio easily from the EPG,
Live Pause,
Live rewind,
Easier switching between Radio and TV than the 9200
Unlike the 9200, they have a remote control which, like a Sky Remote,
can be set up to control on/off and volume of most makes of TV. (The
9200 is a real pain in this respect as the volume buttons control the
output of the box and therefore there are two lots of volume controls
and customers constantly manage to reduce the box volume to the point
where they have to turn the tv volume right up and wonder why the
sound is still too low and hissy and why they are blasted out of the
room when they go back to analogue TV, DVD, VCR or switch the Humax to
standby)

One major complaint about the operating systems of both models...why
oh why, Humax, can you not make it so that you can press "OK" to play
a chosen recording from the list rather than having to press "PLAY"??
Everyone presses OK naturally (Which leads to EDITING). Make the
"Play" button an "EDIT" button, and "OK" to play......problem solved!!
(or perhaps its just me and all of my customers)
Oh yes, and while we are about it, Could it say "RECORDINGS" rather
than "RECORD" on the main menu. Simple, but it would avoid so much
confusion.

On 12 May 2007 18:53:22 -0700, wrote:

I may be shouted down for this, but as the majority of my customers
are between 60 and 90 and I always teach them to use their new
equipment, I find the older, single tuner Humax PVR8000T to be the
most user friendly of all the PVRs(although the play etc buttons on
the remote are far too small).

You may shout me down for this, but although I'm not quite into that
age group yet and have a lifetime's experience of various types of
recording equipment, the Humax 800T is the most confusing and least
user-friendly one I've ever encountered.

I thought the purpose of using a random-access device like a computer
disk was that you could watch a previous recording while a new one was
being made, but this machine won't let me do this. It will allow me to
watch the *same* programme that is being recorded from any earlier
point, but as soon as the recording ends, the playback is stopped too,
switching me abruptly to live TV reception, and I have to wade through
a sequence of menu operations to find the recording and then spool
through it to the point where it abandoned me. How do you persuade
your 90 year old customers that this is simple? And do you warn them
to be careful not to press the power button while a recording is being
made, because there is no interlock preventing it from scuppering the
recording?

Rod.

One major complaint about the operating systems of both models...why
oh why, Humax, can you not make it so that you can press "OK" to play
a chosen recording from the list rather than having to press "PLAY"??
Everyone presses OK naturally

I agreed.

But note tense: Humax have changed this in the current software so OK
does indeed play the selected recording (although you still then have to
press MENU to get out of the menu and see it full screen). You now
delete with the red button (the other red button that is, not the Record
button).

I console myself with the thought that, if I make it to 70+, voice
recognition will have replaced the buttoned remote.

--
Robin