My 86 year olf mom, living in another city, is going crazy. We've equipped her with WebTV (Phillips) for e-mail , a Sony Trinitron, a VCR and Cable. She now has five remote controls and absolutely no concept of modes, power on/off, auxilliary power outlets, etc. She's always inadvertently pushing one button or another and getting frozen out (she's a very sharp lady, but mechanically impossible.

I'm going to visit her, and am wondering if someone can suggest a remote that I can program with sequences of commands for all her devices so I can label buttons (or number sequences) with "Go to E-Mail", "Watch TV", "Record Soap", "Turn off", etc, and then let her use these limited functions without ever thinking about it again. Large buttons would be heaven.

my personal e-mail is [email protected]. She's about to melt down from frustration - this will save this woman's sanity, if anyone can lead me in the right direction.

Thanks a mill....

For "Go to E-Mail", "Watch TV", "Record Soap", "Turn off"
the best thing is a Pronto or Harmony remote.
(and with the Pronto you decide on size of buttons.)

You can also do a search on senior in this forum, you should find some threads on the subject

I second that note on the Harmony. Check out www.easyzapper.com for a demo. This little remote has a minimum of buttons, which makes it simple to use. It also employs an LCD screen, on which are displayed your own commands, such as "Go to E-Mail", or whatever you like. Even better for users, it does not matter if the TV is on or OFF when you sit down to watch something: if anything gets out of synch, there is a HELP button which steps you right back into synch.

And a bonus is that the screen also displays all the channels and channels names, and lists the programs on those channels.

The Pronto can be set up to be just as simple to use, but be warned: it does take a heckuva lot of programming to get it that way. ... Mike