This topic

Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 20:46:29 GMT

Hi,
We've moved my Father in Law to a managed bungalow, as he has early onset dementia. This is great for him being somewhere close and retaining a fair bit of independence.
He love his sport, so we have BT Sport and Sky sports via NOW, on his YouView box.
Unfortunately this is new to his routine, so he is struggling to make use of his new channels.
We have a video camera in the lounge and he can use his portal, but phoning him to tell him football or cricket is on and telling him what channel to turn to has it's own problems.
He can't press 3 numbers in a row fast enough to turn to the right channel, this can take many attempts. Next, if you phone him, forgetting to video call, he will put the phone down to use the remote with both hands and then he puts the remote to his ear and of course, communicating is then impossible.

I've been looking for a solution other than driving over all the time.

1. An App for my phone which will remotely work the tv box from my location - BT tell me there is no such app.

2. An infra red device that will connect to the internet and will work as a physical remote control, but is controlled via an app for my phone.

I'm sure number 2 must be an option, but I'm struggling to find anything using my google search terms, so I'm hoping someone can provide a link to something they use, know about or have seen.

Cheers folks, thanks for reading.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

gomezz — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 20:57:49 GMT

One partial workaround is that you can set recordings on the Youview box from your phone remotely. If you do this for everything your father would like to watch then it may be easier for him to find and play the recording using the remote control buttons at his own pace.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 21:20:13 GMT

His pace is so slow that pressing 420 to get sky sports is hard, getting him to press new buttons to access recordings will be difficult, but I'll look into it.

I didn't know you could set recordings from your phone, how do you do that? We have YouView and TalkTalk at home and that facility was removed for us.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

Brucemeister5 — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 22:33:54 GMT

Rather than setting up a recording as @gomezz suggests, it’s also possible to set up an alert for a programme on the EPG. Unfortunately it’s not possible to do this remotely, but it might be a partial solution as it would mean that he would only need to press the ok button on his remote control to get to the programme.

You would need to set up the sports that he may be wanting to watch by simply pressing ok on the remote control when you are in the EPG. You would be able to do this for a few days in advance when you’re over there. As long as your father-in-law is able to turn the tv and box on he would just need to respond to the alerts that appear on the screen by pressing ok on the remote control without needing to input the channel number.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

DarrenDev — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 09:46:19 GMT

@skier-hughes when YouView removed their app for remote recordings, we agreed to take over - even for TalkTalk customers. Anyone with a compatible* YouView box can use the BT TV app to set/cancel/delete recordings.

* 1st generation boxes are no longer supported, but I can't imagine many people would still be using those.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 10:22:19 GMT

A Logitech Harmony Hub would do it but they're discontinued, so you'd have to source used. There's also a Harmony Alexa Skill, which can be programmed for voice control. You could set up individual channels for voice control too, so he can just ask for a channel by name & Alexa/Harmony will send the IR codes to the Pro Box to select that channel.

Like all tech, it can sometimes fail but as long as your camera has sight of his TV, you should be able to get things sorted remotely.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 10:55:43 GMT

@DarrenDev

From your post elsewhere, is there a link somewhere that explains exactly what's possible with Alexa on the previous 4k box? Might be an option here.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

DarrenDev — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 10:58:21 GMT

I believe the Alexa skill only offers voice search. Don't think it'd be helpful here.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:27:40 GMT

Hi all,

Thanks for your suggestions and sorry for the delayed response, far too many problems too deal with following his house move!!!!
Following a reply on another forum, I found a search term to allow me to find an IR sender which can be remotely controlled via my phone.

And what made me go this way was one review starts with
"I bought the RMmini3 Universal Remote to allow me to control the TV in my stepfather's flat many miles away. The unit is small but it emits a good IR signal in all directions and can be placed almost anywhere in the room. My stepfather struggles with remote control buttons, but by using the Broadlink App on my phone while speaking to my stepfather on the phone I can remotely control his TV (and any other IR-controlled devices) in his room and help find and select what he wishes."

I'll let you know how it goes.

I've also just set a programme to record on my home tv from my phone using the bt tv app as suggested, so I'm hoping that's two problems in one go sorted, result.
Thanks folks.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

gomezz — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:50:09 GMT

That sounds like a good solution. I was thinking of the Slingbox that can do similar and more but with the ubiquity of online streaming services it is a product who's time has been and gone and is no longer available.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:30:03 GMT

my recording is working - lets hope the IR box does when it comes tomorrow.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

JonMace — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 08:59:37 GMT

I thought the harmony hub only worked on the same network, but I turned my wifi of on the phone and it still worked, so that is definitely an option for you

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 20:47:09 GMT

Thanks for the suggestions.
As an update I bought a broadlink RM mini 3 as it sounded like it'd do just what I wanted, the reviews were good and it appeared easy to set up.
Unfortunately if it doesn't connect to the wifi on it's auto setup there is very limited help in trying to get it to connect. I've tried and tried, so I'm on the look out for a replacement, and am off to google the harmony hub.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

JonMace — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 21:54:44 GMT

You could also look into sofabaton, they are a new product and are still being produced unlike the harmony. They have there own forum, if Y were you I would post there and ask if it will work for you.

Let us know what you find out

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

gomezz — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 09:45:44 GMT

Although new Harmony products are not available it appears there is still an active support section for the range within Logitech as I have just had a new firmware update for my Harmony Ultimate One model.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 14:40:23 GMT

Posed the question yesterday, nothing yet.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 14:42:34 GMT

Thanks, it's just a bit of an outlay, £150 compared to £20, to find I have the same difficulties in connecting the unit to the wifi. I've messaged a seller who say they offer a 60 day money back guarantee and customer service to see if it will do what I want and how easy it should connect and what they can do to help if it doesn't.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

skier-hughes — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 14:48:12 GMT

I have had a message back from an eBay seller of the harmony goods, he has loads for sale. He says it won't work as the phone and hub need to be on the same network and the remote obviously wouldn't work, as it is RF. The remote didn't matter, so the hunt continues.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 15:18:14 GMT

He's wrong, as two of us have already confirmed in earlier posts.

The Harmony can be set up so that IR codes are sent from the remote or from the Hub. In your scenario the remote would work but isn't necessary. You could control the Hub directly from the app, so you don't need a remote, just the Hub.

Re: Control BT YouView box from a different location

brookheather — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 11:32:43 GMT

I have a Harmony Hub and can also confirm the app on my phone works fine over a mobile connection rather than wifi - it uses a cloud connection instead of local wifi.