I do this every week
I just spent an hour or an hour and a half setting up my grandparents’ new dvd player. This included approximately 5 minutes to put the dvd player in the right place (the jacks on the tv were hard to find, and we needed to find a spare cable), 1 hour to set up the freaking remote controls, and half an hour to teach them how to use them. (Mostly because I had each of them try it out.)
My grandparents are smart people. They’re not scared of technology. They can figure out a lot of stuff. But they have absolutely no ability to set up remotes and other tv related items. Not a problem, I’m always happy to help them out. I just don’t get how people who aren’t tech-happy and don’t have the right friends or relatives figure it out.
The PVR remote control can’t change the input for the tv (but can do everything else for the tv), and neither can the dvd remote, so to change between dvd and cable, you need to use the tv remote control. All the remote controls can run the dvd player. None of them can change the PVR stuff at all except the PVR remote itself. Plus you need to remember which things need which remote — it’s not always obvious. I got it down to using the PVR remote except to switch sources from the tv, but of course the single button they ever need to use on the tv remote is not marked out as special in any way, and the writing on the remote is very small. Plus of course all the machines are very picky about line of sight.
Don’t forget that you have to figure out the right code for the dvd player. Sure, 021 can use play and pause and on and off for the dvd player, but it cannot move around between menu items, you actually need code 042. And so on.
No wonder the geek squad does so well.