Basic question about Comcast remotes and TVs

[pembquist]

Here is the situation:
My mom has Alzheimer's and her tv skills have degraded. She likes to watch some of her collection of dvds but she doesn't because she can't remember how to get her TV back to cable mode.

She has a TV with built in DVD player and she has a Comcast remote and the original TV remote. What happens is she puts in a DVD and I guess remembers to use the original TV remote to get it playing and eject it and maybe even to go back to TV mode but then she tries to change the channel with original remote and ends up lost because the TV has to be on channel 3 to get the signal from the cable box. She cannot remember this and cannot really even remember to read step by step instructions to get back to channel 3.

For normal TV operation she successfully uses just the Comcast remote for power and channel changing.

At this point I would be happy to just buy another TV for her to watch cable on and have the DVD playing TV just for DVDs. Sounds ridiculous but I'm not sure what else to do.

I don't have and have never had cable myself so I'm not sure if the Comcast remote would end up accidentally controlling both TVs at once.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[Meatwad]

If you buy another TV, as long as the TV is a different brand, the comcast remote wont control the power/volume/input. I would use the original tv for comcast and the new tv for DVD's. There are a few brands of TVs that use the same remote codes, but that s a slim chance.

if one is a Sony and the other is a Samsung, the comcast remote will only control the first original tv

[Curval]

Sorry to hear your troubles.  Afraid I can't help but can empathize.  We taped up the remotes so certain buttons could not be pushed and hid some of the remotes for various TVs so they would not confuse the situation.  Then the old man would buy a new TV and we would have to start over. 

[100Coogn]

What about something like this?
You won't have to change the source from the TV menu anymore.

                                   
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Coogan

[ROC]

There are quite a lot of remotes with senior citizens in mind.
This one, https://www.amazon.com/Hy-Tek-bw-0561-rd-Partner-BW0561RD-Universal/dp/B000P0S7UK has large, easy to read buttons that clearly say TV or DVD, and just a few needed buttons for channels and volume.

[pembquist]

Thanks for the replies. Coogn if she had a separate DVD player a switch might work, unfortunately its built into the TV. I'll look into a new remote, the trick is in how simple/capable they are. She doesn't need big just really simple. A good design would be a remote that you could customize by adding/removing buttons. Maybe I should get a remote for her TV and just remove all the buttons but TV DVD and the buttons to make the dvd player work, I would do it to the remote she has but it would kind of destroy it.

[Bruv119]

my parents arent quite there yet but I got them a amazon fire stick and then they can just say   "alexa, launch insert program here" 

hardest part is getting them to understand they can watch anything on prime/netflix/ freeview players whenever they want rather than fishing through the tv guide.   

setting parental controls for parents was a bit 

[Randy1]

All though pricey, I think you could setup a tv remote you can control with your phone so if she called you could change sources.  It might be cheaper to have two tv systems.

My Wife's Mother called many times with remote and tv issues so I feel your pain.