Who Is The Master Of The Remote Control In Your Household?
I have to admit that I allow my wife to control what we watch on television most of the time, since we enjoy mostly the same shows, but although she is technically savvy in many ways, there are a few ways in which we differ in our methods.
We live in the UK and have Sky (Satellite) as our main provider of television services.
The Sky remote control is programmable so that it can be used to operate the television as well as the Sky Box, so that regular functions like adjusting the volume and turning the television on and off can all be done using a single remote, which as we all know is a whole lot easier than having to align 2 or more remotes on the arm of your chair, or on a coffee table.
By pressing the “TV” button you can also select different inputs on the television, for example if we want to use the Nintendo Wii or watch Terrestrial Television (new lingo for received via an aerial).
My wife sometimes gets confused however, because she will press the TV button accidentally or on purpose, and then decide later to type a channel number to switch to that channel. Well since the remote is in TV mode and not Sky mode, the television thinks that she wants to switch to a Terrestrial channel, and therefore switches input to Terrestrial and of course there is no signal, since we don’t have an antenna plugged in.
I think she has got used to this now though, but it took a while to explain what was happening.
The real thing that I have trouble with is that because she uses the remote control to select programs, I never know if it’s a live program that we are watching, or one that we recorded earlier. We have the TVR ability in our Sky Box to record programs automatically, even a complete series, which is wonderful, and you wonder how we ever managed with the old VCR tapes, or before that even. I guess what you have never had you never miss, but I know I would miss this now if I had to lose it.
But the biggest difference in our attitude to watching programs is the way we watch the shows that we have already recorded.
The way that I would do it, would be to always watch the recorded version of the show, and don’t worry if it’s already started or about to begin, it doesn’t matter any more.
I would (and when I was the King Of The Remote I used to) always watch the recorded version of a show, and then delete it.
My wife however prefers to watch programs live, even though they are being recorded, so if there are 2 soaps on different channels, one after the other, we watch one live, then have to switch channels and either miss the very end of one or the beginning of the other.
After watching the shows, she then goes through the planner to see what we have recorded for those shows, and deletes the ones that we already watched (live), although the status of them is showing as Recorded not Watched, since we did not actually watch the recorded version.
More than once she has deleted something that said Recorded and that we had not watched, whereas using my method, everything you watched would actually show Watched, which to my “manly logic” means that it’s ok to delete.
I’m not sure if this makes sense to you reading this, but certainly to me it does. Still, after a year or more of dealing with this, I have learned one thing – it’s not worth arguing about, I just let her get on with it, and if I miss an episode of a complex drama or sci-fi series where you need to watch every one at least once or completely lose track, I just stop recording the series, unless I can find the missed episode(s) showing at a different time.
It’s wonderful isn’t it having all this new remote control technology, but we still have to learn to use it, and some use it differently to others.
I guess with more sophisticated television systems, even if there is now only a need for a single remote in our household, it still doesn’t eliminate arguments over who has the remote.
This article was a project for the week for GBE2 (Global Blogging Experience) and was based on the word “Control”.
I think that sharing a TV with anyone is challenging! LOL! I remember even as a child fighting with my brother over this subject! LOL!
Great blog!
At my house, the hubs is the master of the remote, but since he loves TV and I could easily live without it, it works out perfectly. ;O)
I don’t really watch tv, but my other half has a tv in the bedroom and he is in total control of what he wants to watch.
I rarely control the remote… mainly because I haven’t got the faintest idea how to do much more with it than press up or down to change channels! Honestly, I can do so much with a computer, or a games console, but put that remote in my hand and I regress to the mental capability of an emergent amoeba! Cool post, Tony
I get your “manly” ways…*giggle..but as I am not much of a tv person either…I could care less whats on the Teley…unless its Penguin..:)
My husband and children can fight over the remote. I prefer to watch my shows on the internet through my cable provider. I have to catch the episodes before they are deleted (they can only go back 5 episodes), but I usually manage to get that done. And I don’t have to worry about the remote
I liked reading this post…as the lingo is slightly different than here in the US..so I’m better prepared when I come visit the UK one of these days
Cheers, Jenn
It’s so funny how the difference in the sexes comes out in their way of viewing TV. My hubby loves to flick through all the channels. I just get interested in a show and he changes the channel. Drives me nuts.
I have no idea how to use all the features on the satellite remote so when in doubt, I do what I usually do for technical difficulties such as these and hand it to my more technically savvy teen sons. Hubs has no idea either. He only knows how to flick!
Great blog about the television remote!! Whoever has possession of it really is in control!
At my house, I make sure that person is me!
Kathy
http://www.thetruckerswife.com/
I remember the days before remote controls. When you wanted to change channels, you had to get off your rear and do it. This led to the least laziest person having control.
Joyce
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
I remember those days too. We didn’t get a color television until I was in my mid-teens.
I used to hate having to get up and turn the volume up on the tv across the room. When you sat down it was invariably still too low, so you had to get up and turn it up some more. Sit down again, still too low, repeat process. Then it’s too loud, so go and turn it down again.
Then channel changing wasn’t a big deal in the UK, as we only had 2 channels back then, however the vertical hold kept going (remember that?) and you had to lean over the tv to get to a knob at the back to try and stop the picture rotating up.
Life is so easy these days by comparison isn’t it.
It all makes perfect sense to me.
I still don’t know how to use the remote controls correctly. So after some frustrating minutes, I just start clicking buttons all over the place. And if that doesn’t work, I unplug everything and start over
My GBE 2 Control blog: http://myheartblogstoyou.blogspot.com/2011/06/issues-of-control.html
In our house the remote is strictly man’s domain. I don’t even know how to use the one with the new TV.
we gave up TV 5 mos ago..now we read to each other..i fondle his remote more now. LOLOL Loved your post and thank you for truly making me smile
We try to keep it simple here. lol The cable TV is going bye bye soon, since we really don’t watch it.
We have some simple rules: if Liverpool are playing, I watch. Anything else, she tends to choose. Fortunately that usually means music or comedy and our tastes are fairly well-meshed. I’ve long learned to keep quiet whilst watching Poirot for the n’th time …
I love Poirot too, but I agree, you can only watch each episode so many times. I am always getting moaned at for talking while a show is on.
Oh, my gosh. Your remote sounds a little too complicated for me! I like the fact that you don’t have the need to assume “total control” of the remote. What good would it do? It’s more important for you to live peacefully. I really respect that.
My hubby and I both love the same shows so that’s not a problem with us. Our problem is with fast forwarding through the commercials. As a rule, we don’t watch live tv because we both hate commercials. When I have the remote, it’s in my hand and I start skipping ahead the second a commercial comes on. And I’m usually pretty good about stopping just as the show comes back on. But when John has the remote, he usually drops it between the cushions and has to search for it at every commercial break. Then he skips too far ahead so he has to go back but he goes back too far so he skips ahead again, etc. It’s really annoying and unfortunately I haven’t learned how to keep my mouth shut yet.
I know the feeling lol
Sometimes Debbie will go and get ready for bed and leave the TV on, while I am trying to finish off my work on the laptop. She leaves the remote out of reach however, so I can’t turn the TV off without putting the laptop down and getting off the couch.
It’s no biggie, but all these little things annoy us don’t they. Maybe I need to add a section on My Pet Peeves for ways that our partners annoy us when it comes to the remote control.
My parents would invariably push the wrong buttons on their controllers and I’d have to go down and re-program them because they’d either switched from cable to antennae or, as Mom once did, somehow managed to change over to Spanish, so all shows that were simulcast in Spanish would only speak Spanish. She was so confused, and so was I because it took me forever to find the darned menu she’d hit to make that change.
Oh goodness, I don’t know that I would have your patience! Good job for moving forward and letting it go.
My husband and I TVR completely different shows for ourselves – sports (especially soccer) and reality competitions for me (Project Runway, Best Restaurant, Jeopardy) – so we never run the risk of deleting one another’s shows. Phew! Also, luckily, when it comes to watching those sitcoms and dramas we both love, he relinquishes control of the remote to me so I don’t have to give his methodology a second thought!
Enjoyed this post.
Every person in the house want to become the owner of the remote control. As through that you will get all the power and use the remote as you want. Remote control technology is really best and the nice, but we still have to learn to use it, and some use it differently to others.