Why is it so difficult?

We have the television on a kneehole desk, and the DVD player etc are in the kneehole, on the floor. There's a ghastly tangle of cable behind, fortunately can't see them. The dust collects there and I daren't clean without DH there in case one of the cables gets moved and that way lies madness.

I’m the same as you, janieuk

Eureka! The 'man' has been. All now sorted. Apparently all we needed to do was press a particular button on one of the handsets. Goodness knows how we could possibly have worked that out. It wasn't mentioned anywhere in the copious literature that came with the TV!
A blissful afternoon in prospect catching up with all my favourites.

GabriellaG make sure you return it soon or it'll be too late!

Reassuring that I am not alone! It has taken me a month to work out how to download photos from my new phone too my laptop - and that included a trip back to the shop - who also had no clue!!
I also struggle with instructions that come only as diagrams. I am hopeless at 'reading' them!
Why do manufacturers never 'road test' their instructions/products?

I find that when wandering around Curry's, I haven't the least idea what many of their products are, so am not tempted to buy them. The wonders of new technology.

OH did explain all his refinements to me and I wrote and step-by-step guide as to how to do it, not only because I did not know, but because he forgets!

However, he now says he has changed it since then but cannot actually remember in exactly what way!

We recently treated ourselves to a “Smart” tv and after many hours of fiddling we have decided the tv is smarter than us and have given up on all the gizmos its supposed to do!

This is nothing new. About 30 years ago when we were selling our house I received a fax from the estate agent with a header showing that it came from a different office on the other side of the country. We were on very chatty terms so I told him and also told him how to get into the memory of the fax machine to change it. He was only about 40 but it was beyond him. I then suggested he went out of his shop and grabbed the nearest 9 year old and asked for help!

Although the oldest person at my work I was the 'go to person' for everything the least bit techy, not just their computers but also phones, photocopier etc. It really annoyed the IT helpdesk who worked just a stone's throw from me! Now however, I have to stop and think and play around if I am using a program I rarely use. As for the TV, DH cares far more than I do what we watch so I just let him get on with it.

I must be the only one amongst my friends who doesn’t have Sky, or any TV package other than the ordinary channels and what’s on Freeview. I have no recording facility but catch up on iplayer if I miss anything I’m desperate to see. My last TV (6 years ago) was a Smart TV but only for BBC channels. I had Sky for a year once as part of a competition prize but could honestly say that even scrolling through the endless channels they offer I didn’t feel I was missing anything so didn’t continue it. I know sports fans and film buffs find it invaluable. My DVD player didn’t fit the new TV and has never been replaced. I can play DVDs on a small TV in my bedroom if I choose to. As others say, everything changes all the time and you need to be an expert in IT to cope with it.??. I’ll just continue in my old fashioned way. I’m sure if I didn’t live on my own I would have been coerced into having more technology about the place!

I have a new (1 month old) 55" tv which I've never even plugged in. I bought it without thinking of where it would go and, as the sitting-room furniture is in the optimum position for my liking, it leaves right in front of a radiator as the only space where it will fit ☹?
I guess it's going back to the shop.

Dont talk about technology, it drives me mad when things are so complicated these days.

You can usually find YouTube clips showing you how to do things those 'simple when you know how' things with modern TVs. You're lucky if you get an instruction booklet nowadays which doesn't seem to me to be progress.
The answer is usually online somewhere.
My laptop has a problem with keys sticking and I googled it and the answer was 'turn it over and bang the back of the keyboard' - and it worked!

Anyone remember the balmy days of video plus? You just typed in a code number and it recorded whatever you told it. then everything was 'improved' and this splendid facility bit the dust.

Now we have tons of complicated cabling behind the tv and associated 'smart boxes'....

I've told the OH that when he goes, the cabling, plugs, sockets and gadgetry is going in the box with him. He thinks I'm joking.

Jane10 I agree withyou. Why are TV's so difficult to use. We have two in the house and they both have different devices. The one next to the kitchen needs 2 to work!!! Anyway if absolutely stuck on how to work a mechanical thing I do go to U tube for a demonstration video. With the TV however I just take to my computer and watch things there. Sadly as I have an adblocker there are various programmes all with adverts that I cannot get.

It's all the cables behind the tv that I hate.................I'm looking at them now! I wish I knew a way to hide them. Any ideas?

I have the same problems. We have a Talk Talk box which gives us what we need but if you press one button wrong on top of the TV getting back to the program is fficult.

We also bought a good flat screen TV from a relative
who had the offer of a slightly newer flat screen TV from a colleague who was emigrating.
We also have all sorts of cables stuffed down the back of the TV cabinet.
I would struggle to get all the cables back onto the right sockets.

I would like to go back to the days when we had only four TV channels and you had to stand up and walk to the set to change the channel or turn the sound up and down. Just imagine - a remote free coffee table! We have four remotes on our coffee table now and I couldn't tell you what exactly they each do. If I want anything recorded I have to get DH to do it and I have to ask again when I want to watch one of said recorded programmes. I've asked him to explain how it all works but he keeps changing remotes and talks too quickly so I don't grasp it. We have a forest of wires attached to the back of the set, some are for the various video games the DGC play, and you have to remember the right AV number (don't ask) if you want to watch TV instead of play a game. It's a nightmare, so why is it the DGC can operate the darned thing without asking Grandad a whole load of questions - and I can't? If I am at DDs looking after GC I have to rely on the GC to work the TV so all we watch is children's progs (there are millions of them, on all day) or football? It's a good job I have my kindle with me at all times. At least that doesn't have remotes and wires and I certainly don't let anyone else use it. Grrr.

All I can say is thank goodness we have children, because without them I doubt DH and I would have a single piece of modern technology set up and working in our home

And why oh why do we have to have the instructions on a DVD ? Having to set up one piece of technology in order to set up another seems a bit daft to me.
I am going to treat myself to a new TV in my new abode but will buy local so it will all be set up for me. No doubt the zapper will have oodles of buttons to press, the majority of which I shall have no clue about and will just ignore.

Even my daughters vacuum cleaner was complicated.
She demonstrated before she went on holiday, and I thought I understood.
When she came back, she said "The floor looks nice, mum"
And then...
"You didn't use the vacuum, did you? You didn't know how, did you?"

Why are modern electrical appliances so complicated? I've turned into my grannie earlier than I would have hoped so far as working the tv, oven timer, even the clocks on the various central heating devices defeat me.
As the OP says, surely we have the technology to simplify things not increase the complexity. Seems not. My car clock is right for 6 months of the year, I've learned to live with that, it's easier than reading the million page booklet on how to do various things to the car.

When my mum lived here for a while, she fiddled with the tv whilst I was at work.
I didn't know how to put it right, so we had to watch only ITV for about 3 months!

I am currently ensconced at DDs until I pick GS and DH up from football. They are away. I dare not put the tv on as what usually appears on their screen bears absolutely no resemblance to anything I recognise! I shall be watching iPlayer tonight on my iPad.

Nonnie your husband is just like mine, drives me nuts! How does the male hand become so much better at pressing buttons than mine (not)!