Helping TV-watching seniors through digital transition.
Seniors, if you have Time Warner Cable, please read on. Boomers and younger, if you know a senior with TWC, please offer to help.
At the end of June, TWC is making a big change. I'll give you the skinny and then tell you what to do.
While explaining this to my 85-year-old mother-in-law, she said: "Leave my TV alone, it is fine." It isn't. If we don't get her TVs set up, starting June 29 she will begin losing channels. By July 15, she will have no service at all.
This isn't optional. You can like it or dislike it, but you can't stop it. If you don't have some kind of a box between your wall and your TV, after mid-July, you will be without service. Period.
Try this. You can do it.
Don't wait until your service is interrupted. Don't get annoyed; instead, get on board.
This week, I connected the TVs at my house, my parents' and MIL's. Here are my suggestions for you:
Step 1: Today, look at each TV in your house. If you have a cable box on a TV, you don't have to do anything with that TV. If you have TVs where the coaxial cable from the wall goes right into the TV, it must have a digital adapter put on it. Each TV must have either a cable box or adapter.
Step 2: To get an adapter, you have 3 choices. A) Go to the store and pick one up. Plan to wait 30 to 45 minutes. B) Call and ask for an installer to come out to hook you up. It will take about two weeks to get someone out because they have so many to do. C) My suggestion, have the adapters delivered to your house. Call now, 844-210-2718. They are open 24 hours, seven days a week. The adapters will arrive in just a few days.
Info about the adapters: They are the size of a deck of cards, up to two of them are free until Oct. 6, 2018, and then they will charge the going rate, which is $3.25 per month right now. If you order more than the two free adapters, the charge is $3.25/month. Shipping is free.
If you are on Medicaid, TWC has a special offer for two adapters, free of charge, for five years. Get the form at Time Warner, from the Appleton Public Library at the first floor information desk, or visit this site and print the form: www.timewarnercable.com/content/dam/residential/pdfs/support/tv/DCI/digital-adapter-medicaid-form-midwest.pdf
Step 3: Once you get the adapters, connect them. Don't put them in a drawer. Give it a shot, or ask your kids/grandkids to do it.
Step 4: Follow the instructions in the booklet that comes with the adapter.
I have additional hints.
Your adapter comes with a two kinds of cables; a coaxial cable and an HDMI cable. You will only use one.
If there is a spot for an HDMI cable on your TV, that is the cable you want to use. This is generally the newer, flat-panel TVs.
If your TV is one of the older, heavy ones, you will use the coaxial cable. As an extra step, the TV needs to be set to channel 3 all of the time, with the button on the back of the adapter set to channel 3.
Step 5: Hook up all the TVs; turn on the adapters and the TVs. You will possibly see a message that says "searching for channels." Wait until it runs through that. Two of my TVs got to the end of that message and then started again. Patience. Let it run through again.
Then, a message comes up that says that you are ready to start activation. Be sure all TVs are on and ready before calling.
Step 6: Call 1-855-286-1736 and select "activate".
Allow 10-20 minutes for it to get activated. There will be a progress bar telling you it is working on it. After 10 minutes, if it never leaves the 0 percent, call the help-line again. They had to activate one of MIL's twice.
Your TV's should start working automatically. A TV show will pop on.
At this point, my MIL was happy and said, "This wasn't so bad."
I smiled, knowing the hard part was yet to come; learning a new remote is more difficult when you are 85.
Step 7: The remotes. Fortunately, the remotes all look alike, so are easier to learn.
On her new flat-panel TV, she will use one remote, the new one that came with the adapter. She said didn't want to learn it, so she just wouldn't use that TV.
I am persistent. I had her run through the buttons on her own eight times. She picked it up, and once she found her "Property Brothers" on HGTV, she was smiling. We put away her other remote so she wouldn't be confused.
Taking pink finger-nail polish, I drew a circle around the TV power button so she would know which power button to use. Big hint: forget turning off the adapter. Leave it on all the time. The two-step process is too confusing.
That was the easy TV.
The other TV she has is the heavy, old one. It didn't convert 100 percent. It needs the old remote to turn on and off and the new remote to change channels and volume. If she mistakenly changes the channels using the old remote, it takes her off channel 3, and the picture goes out. It was confusing.
MIL was ready to throw her hands up in frustration. She declared that she would stop watching TV. Then hubby came up with a solution. You may laugh. We took her old remote, wrapped it in adhesive shelf paper and just cut out the circle for the power button. We wrote on it "on & off." Problem solved.
Remember, I don't work for TWC. I am simply sharing my experience. You are welcome to report to me that your TV is up and running, but please don't call me with your 'how-to' questions. Instead, call the help-line at TWC at 1-844-210-2718. They are caring and will get you fixed up. If you really get stuck, they will schedule to have an installer come out to get everything working.
When you are finished, hopefully you'll say what my MIL said "Wow! The picture is awesome."
Jean Long Manteufel, senior move manager and CEO of Long's Senior Transitions in Appleton, writes a column on the first Sunday of each month about life changes associated with aging. She can be reached at 920-734-3260 or JeanLM@longmoving.com.
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