Flipper remote control

[stu+the+foo]

I have been trying without success to set up a flipper remote for my 92 year old mother who has dementia and can't work the normal multi- button sky Q remote. 

the flipper paired ok, turned up volume and turned TV off. Then paired sky box and set up favourite channels. Again all fine. Turned tv/sky off - fine. Powered on and sky loads the Home Screen. Flipper can't navigate off this so I tried numerous ways to get Sky to start on the last channel rather than Home. No success. 

Having to use the Sky remote to navigate from home to a channel - where the flipper then works - is not an option. It's more confusing for mum with 2 remotes. 

I think I have come to conclusion that the home function is fixed and not something that can be changed?

Can anyone help. 

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

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@stu+the+foo wrote:

I think I have come to conclusion that the home function is fixed and not something that can be changed?

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Unfortunately that's correct: a Q box will always open at the Home screen.

[stu+the+foo]

Thanks for your very prompt advice. I went through numerous suggestions by Copilot yesterday, turning/changing numerous settings and even unpairing the Sky remote. Eventually I came to the conclusion hitch you have verified. 

I find it VERY disappointing on the part of Sky that the Home lock cannot be changed or that they can't offer a suitably simple for the elderly, physically impaired and  dementia sufferers - which must make up a decent proportion of their client base. 

My mum is an avid sports watcher, has all the Sky & TNT channels, but the only way she can watch them now is for me to drive to her home any put the correct channel on for her. Even trying to explain the remote operation over the phone is now near impossible.

Is anyone aware of an alternative I can look at. Watching Sport is one of the few remaining pleasures she has left but I'm seriously thinking about cancelling her contract because frankly she can't use the system on her own ☹️
 

[TimmyBGood]

@stu+the+foo 

Some of us have been suggesting for years that starting at the last viewed channel should be an Accessibility option: unfortunately Sky regards the Home screen as valuable commercial real-estate and has always been remarkably reluctant to permit UI changes.

[stu+the+foo]

As I said previously Thanks 👍

Its a shame Sky doesn't listen and seek to help its less able customers. 

[stu+the+foo]

Hello again. I have contacted Flipper and they have suggested a workaround so I can use their remote to avoid the Home Screen issue. 

Basically it's possible to disable the unit from turning off the sky box when it turns off the TV, so theoretically the sky box signal should remain as the last viewed channel. For this to work I assume I need to disable any screen saver type mode that the sky box might have. Is that possible? 

[MightyQuinn]

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@stu+the+foo wrote:

Hello again. I have contacted Flipper and they have suggested a workaround so I can use their remote to avoid the Home Screen issue. 

Basically it's possible to disable the unit from turning off the sky box when it turns off the TV, so theoretically the sky box signal should remain as the last viewed channel. For this to work I assume I need to disable any screen saver type mode that the sky box might have. Is that possible? 

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Hi @stu+the+foo   I'm afraid that the chances are that the box will reboot overnight by itself for housekeeping.

[stu+the+foo]

 

 

  

before I contacted you learned lot I tried Copilot and it says that setting the screen saver to NONE will work - but if your advice is correct it seems that this will only be an interim fix?

[MightyQuinn]

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@stu+the+foo wrote:

before I contacted you learned lot I tried Copilot and it says that setting the screen saver to NONE will work - but if your advice is correct it seems that this will only be an interim fix?

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Hi @stu+the+foo   Setting the Standby settings to None used to work, then a few years back they decided that the box benefits from a quick reboot every night, even with the Standby settings set to None.

[nigea99]

@stu+the+foo  Unfortunately even with the eco modes off on the SKY Q box, the box will power down after a few hours if there is no interaction which cannot be turned off AFAIK

Whilst watching you do get a prompt but obvisouly overnight or other long periods with the TV off this won;t be seen and it will power off.

BTW I think the Home screen does eventually return the last channel but if this  is the case it is only after quite a long time and likely to be confusing/annoying for your mother. (I could be wrong on this)

[stu+the+foo]

Thanks - it seems I'm flogging a dead horse. It's a shame I can give my Mum this level of simplicity. I may have to cancel her Sky subscription, watch 'council telly, and buy a simple universal remote ☹️

 

[stu+the+foo]

After quite a bit of work I finally managed to get the 'flipper ' solution to work which was great giving my 92 year old mother in law ( with failing cognitive ability) the ability to use her Sky TV again with a 3 button remote set to the small number of channels she actually watches. HOWEVER given the recent software update issue (see seperate thread on this forum) causing her Sky box to freeze daily - requiring reboot - she looses the 'flipper' control  functionality and can't use her TV AGAIN until I reboot the box for her - but I can't  go to her assisted living facility and do this on a daily basis.  A sad side of this is despite her failing mental ability she still loves football but will most likely miss most of the World Cup 😢

[TimmyBGood]

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@stu+the+foo wrote:

A sad side of this is despite her failing mental ability she still loves football but will most likely miss most of the World Cup 😢

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Given that's on BBC and ITV rather than 'Sky', perhaps a set with either free to air reception or Freely is more appropriate (although unfortunately interfaces and remotes are just inherently more complicated now)

Edit: or a Freely puck outputting to a monitor.

[stu+the+foo]

Thanks for your answer but she doesn't have a TV aerial and as you say the main issue is that she can't cope with a multi- button remote. If Sky could resolve the current software issue out the problem would go away. 

[Angel_Aka]

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@stu+the+foo wrote:

Thanks for your answer but she doesn't have a TV aerial and as you say the main issue is that she can't cope with a multi- button remote. If Sky could resolve the current software issue out the problem would go away. 

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If it's of any use and your mother has broadband, I can recommend the Manhattan Aero streaming device. It has Freely which receives free to air TV channels entirely via broadband without need for any aerial. I got one for my mother and she gets on well with it. 

It usefully will automatically start streaming the last channel it was left on without opening to any home screen. You can then just channel up and down to channel hop as well as volume. There's also a full TV guide and catch up apps. 

My only criticism for elderly users, or those with limited dexterity, is that the remote has small buttons so I would recommend pairing it to a better, more simple remote as you've done with Sky Q. The Aero remote operates via either Bluetooth or infra red so can send out signals which can be learned by a suitable remote.  

Best of luck.