20220123 : TV time

My TV is not working again.

Well, its playing stuff alright, but the TV is not connecting to the Wi-Fi. So the smart TV has overnight become a dumb display.

I can still watch everything as before as I have an external Chromecast attached and I cast what I want from my phone.

My phone battery is quite bad. I need to charge it a few times during the day. I normally do it when i am unable to have the phone with me - during physio, during change, during afternoon exercises, bath etc. That way I don't really miss it. The battery performance would have been a concern but I don't really care as I don't have to go anywhere with it.

However, this new development is irritating. Sometimes it is close to running out of juice and I have to charge it other times.

It's not my phone only anymore, it is also the remote for the TV.

It's absolutely frustrating when something is playing on the TV and we don't have the remote to change what is playing. Even if dont have to change anything, the urge to want to change what is playing surges. I guess it is just the loss of control...

Mind you, I am still able to watch everything I want - just brief periods inbetween, I can't change it. I play some news during those times.

When I was in the hospital initially, and I had no ability to communicate or much movements, I was feeling the same way.

The hospital had very few channels, mostly regional content, 2-3 english movie channels and 1-2 sports.

These were days when my vision was blurrier and my double vision was simply unbearable. There were 2 distinct TVs at that distance (probably 12 feet) and they were overlapped. One TV started at the middle of the other, so I couldn't see much on it. (Probably if it was even worse, there would be no overlap and I could see one of them 🙂).

So I would be glad when someone put the sports channel (IPL was going on) and even though I don't follow cricket, I didn't have to watch and listened to it like a radio commentary. 

Most of the time though, folks would put on the english movie channels for me as I loved watching movies. When we only watch 1-2 channels of them, we realise how much they rerun the same movies in a week. I almost could remember entire movie dialogs by heart 🙂

After a few months we moved back home. I had a dumb TV in the room too and needed someone to cast anything for me. I would ask (rather nod yes) when they said 'news'. Everyone used to be tired of putting news. We had explored very few things and it was mostly 'India Today' or 'Republic TV' from hotstar.

The same junk news would be repeating over and over. It used to be tiring. But I preferred that to the alternate frustration.

Those days my hearing was much worse. Well - the hearing itself was probably better (as there was no interference from the right ear) but I just couldn't handle multiple conversations. The TV would be playing and the nurses would often converse or say something to me or someone else would say something to me so on.. all the conversations would jumble up in my head and become just some random noises.

I had become good at ignoring it generally but it was unbelievably frustrating when a movie or something else was playing. Especially when there is no ability to rewind and watch again. The news was just crap and I didn't have to follow it.

This was also the time when I was not able to sit on the wheelchair. I would be moved out to the living room (usually from 1:00pm ~ 3:00pm). I would be plonked on the wheelchair as a transfer mechanism and made to sit on the sofa in front of the TV. It would take a good 10 minutes after to make me sit ok, support my hand with pillow, make my back straight by adjusting the cushions, prop my head etc.

The TV in the living room is a smart TV. Connects to the wifi and could play stuff without casting. It opened up new possibilities.

The nurses would not operate the TV though. I am pretty sure it was not technology challenges - they would be on their phones all the time and I would hear references to various social media and apps. 'pubg' figured regularly in very animated conversations. I think they were simply wary that something might go wrong and the liability will fall on them.

After being seated on the sofa, my wife usually would ask what I wanted to watch. She would suggest many good movies flicking across them and I would nod yes to something else. Our criteria was different. She was suggesting movies based on content whereas all I was looking for was the content duration. It had to fit within 2 hrs for me to finish viewing and be shifted inside. If it was longer, I couldn't complete it and mostly the end - the climax was not seen.

While she suggested many good series also, there was a different problem. It auto plays the next episode. If I was in the middle of an episode and got shifted in, I would not know where to start again. I started keeping track of the episode number but it was a big task to communicate next day with nods which one to play from. I have seen several episodes twice. It was easier to watch again than try to say "not this but the next one". After a while, I got good at rationing and I would stick to 2 episodes a day. They had to switch off the TV so that it doesn't roll over to the next episode.

These were the good old pre-pandemic days. So the kids would go to school. They wouldn't be around to help.

Most days (almost everyday), my wife would wait till I am shifted out, put on something for me to watch and then go out for anything (work appointments, home chores,etc.)

This time of the day was very precious to me. The only real entertainment time and I would look forward to it. I would get very upset if that window became short for some reason.

This was in the afternoons, hot most days. The power would go off. We have a backup DG in our apartment - but takes 10-12 seconds to start, switch over and kick in. Enough for the TV to restart and get back to the home screen. So that would be the end for me that day! The nurses would give the remote to my hand. I would struggle to hold it and have no strength in the fingers to press any button. That was even more torturing.

We had one guy, a bold nurse who actually knew the TV and bold enough to operate it also. However, when the power went, the Wi-Fi router would reboot and it takes 4-5 minutes to restart, re-establish connection and broadcast the network. So even though the TV came on, there would be no connection. He would browse around, check various apps, encounter the 'not connected' message few times in the first 2-3 minutes , give up and get back to his phone. It was ultra frustrating to sit there, know what was happening and not be able to do anything. All I wanted then, was the ability to somehow indicate "try now" after 5 minutes so I could continue to watch. It was not to be....

Today we have a UPS connected to the wifi and TV. It doesn't even switch off when there are power failures. I am able to operate the remote or cast anything I want from the phone...

Yet I am able to conveniently forget these wonderful times and complain about what I have today... 

I continue to surprise myself...