Anyone else feel like this?

Firegod

Firegod

Firegod

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2003
Posts
11,861
Location
Newcastle, UK
I often feel at Christmas I have the perfect excuse to treat my parents. If it wasn't for me, my parents would never get any new tech. Do you find yourself having to help (or drag family members) into the future, otherwise they'd still be using their Sony Walkman and watching their B&W CRT TV's. :cry:

My parents are like this. Elderly now, but they've embraced new things over the years, the smart heating, security cameras, video doorbell, etc. Lately though their home viewing experience has needed my attention. They are rocking (my hand me down) 6-7 year old 49" Sony LED TV (they even do a bit of streaming which is nice to see them embracing - but the interface is so slow it is painful even trying to load Netflix for example.) Past Christmases, I've managed to upgrade the sound for them, starting with the Sennheiser Ambeo Mini soundbar. Which they like. They also have a newer Manhattan T4R for recording their shows now. The other thing I've replaced fairly recently was their DVD player. All my films are 4K / Blu-Ray so that enables them to now take some and watch if they want to. I got them the Panasonic UB820 for that. (And then I had to do the HDMI cables as they were not up to scratch - doh)

This year, I thought I need to do something with the TV for them, as they are not seeing any benefit from HD or 4K content on it, and as mentioned, it is just so slow to use. So I managed to snag them a mid-range TCL. The Q7C in 55". They'll do the normal thing like most years, complain there is nothing wrong with the current TV, say I spent too much (£599 I don't feel is too OTT for a joint present), then once it is setup and working, they'll love it and wished they'd done something like this sooner.

Do you help any family or friends with AV/Techy stuff like this? I enjoy getting them things over the years to help. They do seem to get a lot of enjoyment from them, which is great.
 
I would like to, but one is so pernickety that even suggesting a specific technology is likely to spawn an hour-long conversation on why something else is superior, and the other is so hopeless that I'd just get sucked into endless tech support mode.

My rule generally is that I'll answer any question, and even go and help troubleshoot if it's something they're really stumped on, but I don't proactively make suggestions.

That way at least when something goes wrong it's because they wanted to upgrade, and not because I compelled them to replace something that was already working perfectly.
 
I wish.
My mother has an ancient Denon all in one CD/amp/tuner thing.
When she comes to visit sometimes I'll put some music on, she still says that she can't tell the difference.
Being fair, my better half usually can't be bothered to push two buttons to enable the AV side of things with the TV, and would rather rely on the inbuilt TV speakers than the AV system.
 
My inlaws are old and were complaining they couldn't see or hear the TV! Got them a 55" and a sound bar.

It's perfect for them, but the smart apps and sources are easy to mess up - they only want sky and Netflix. So every other week i am visiting to press a few buttons ie change source to HDMI3 or sound input back to soundbar.

What is infuriating is when they say they haven't touched anything or it was my fault as i was the last one to mess with the settings. Just say you pressed something you shouldn't have!!
 
ivrytwr3 said:
My inlaws are old and were complaining they couldn't see or hear the TV! Got them a 55" and a sound bar.

It's perfect for them, but the smart apps and sources are easy to mess up - they only want sky and Netflix. So every other week i am visiting to press a few buttons ie change source to HDMI3 or sound input back to soundbar.

What is infuriating is when they say they haven't touched anything or it was my fault as i was the last one to mess with the settings. Just say you pressed something you shouldn't have!!
Click to expand...

Would be useful if TV's had option to disable inputs, so you literally can't do anything to change to aerial and other HDMI inputs

As for parents I got them a Q Acoustics 2.1 behind TV system and massive upgrade over the TV speakers, I'd be happy with that myself in the bedroom.
 
Mum's TV setup is horrific. Old 720p TV with smart features that don't work, a load of speakers but sound plays from the wrong direction, content recorded in sd from live TV. Suggested alternatives but I'm wasting my time even trying.
 
Pretty sure this is every parent. Change is horrible to most people when it comes to tech!
 
I helped my parents reduce the cost of internet/tv package earlier in the year by suggesting they move away from Virgin media, which they did, along with that they needed a new tv as now they no longer had a set top box for catch up tv services and the current tv was old and had very little internet/app functionality, so I recommended them an LG C4, and they got that in a really good sale.

I like to help them with stuff like this, mainly to reduce costs for them, and make certain things easier, having just the tv and all the apps on it has made things more simple and faster for them, and they instantly noticed the better picture quality with oled coming from an old LCD tv.
 
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pre said:
Pretty sure this is every parent. Change is horrible to most people when it comes to tech!
Click to expand...
Change can be worse when you consider Physical media remains"King" when it comes to quality and bandwidth. So theres always an exception.
 
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