I don't know if this will help but we use three remotes. Use the "cable" remote to turn on the tv. Use the TV remote to switch the input to cable or fios whatever you have. On ours you have to press input and scroll to your choice.

Sounds like you may need to press the Source button on the TV remote and switch to right option for the TV. In my case I select TV but I have no cable so not sure if yours is the same.

Amen!! I could have written your post!

Whenever I've finally learned how to sync the various remotes there is some upgrade or change that brings me back to square one. I've written down instructions to use when DH travels and it almost always leads to the frustration you expressed above.

Sorry I cannot offer advice, but I do understand. Amazing to me, too, that with all the improvements in technology this seems to be getting worse, not better.

You need a universal remote. We went from ~3-5 remotes to this Logitech Harmony.

Thanks debark and 3katz. I guess I'll have to learn to use these three remotes. I would be blissfully happy, though, if there were simply a power button on the tv itself. I want a Siri for my tv, something that will be as easy and mindless as the television shows!

I'm off to look at the Logitech Harmony! At least I know how to use my computer!

Tell your DH to get an XBOX One with Kinect and run your cable box through it. Then you can control it via voice. You can tell it XBOX put on TNT (or whatever channel) and it will do it as long as it is hooked to your cable box. You can also get Netflix and all different kinds of apps on the XBOX so you don't ever have to switch inputs and can watch BluRays using it. You can tell it what movie you want, and it will find it across different sources (Apple TV 4 will do this too and it literally HAS Siri but it would require you to switch inputs to it. Although you CAN use Apple TV to turn on your TV if you enable CEC on the TV)

When you say XBOX on, that will also turn on both your TV and your XBOX. You can also tell it XBOX off but will need to confirm via the controller or the optional XBOX media remote.

Oh, I feel your pain! Our adult kids set us up with roku, hulu, and Netflix so we wouldn't have to have our awful cable any more. The thing is we cannot manage to switch from one to the next, so we never did cancel the cable and are scared to use the others unless one of the kids is coming home that day! All those remotes! These two old dogs can't seem to learn new tricks.

Good luck to you. Keep smiling!

Ahh, I see some good suggestions posted while I was writing. Still will need the kids to get us going, though.

Comcast cable. We have 3 remotes also. If the tv is on roku, get your tv remote. Ours has a button for 'imput'. push on imput and drag from HDMI 1 up to tv and push in. If the tv doesn't come on, make sure your tv is set to channel 4 with that same remote. Also make sure your power on the cable remote is on.

My husband just walked by and asked what I was doing. He laughed and said it's like the blind leading the blind. Good luck.

You have to think of your television not as "tv stations" but rather as a viewing device. Turn it on and tell it what do you want to do. Watch tv stations? from what? (fios, cable, antenna), Go online?, Play a game? Stream video? from what? (hulu, netflix etc), play a DVD? I can't figure out my smartphone but did master the three remotes LOL

I'm checking out the xbox! Sheesh, we have the Roku because our son gave it to us as a gift and left us to flounder. We were supposed to get rid of our cable too. Chickadee, my husband just came home and we now have news! We have Comcast as well and he did the input thing. (Not that there's anything much to watch it seems. Sticking with the computer and my book.) Nice to know I'm not alone. I'll have this thread to go back to the next time there's just the tv, my dog, and me. (The dog wasn't much help.)

I'll second the universal remote. This was our world, with TV, DSL, roku. Oh, and all of it run through the stereo, so if that wasn't set right, I could get picture but the wrong sound. DH recently found a universal remote on a clearance table. Now I can generally stumble on the right combination of buttons.

But the FM radio doesn't work. I have to use my little portable boom box for that. :)

We use Harmony Companion whole-home control. Simple life for my wife. :)

Yeah, one false move with any of those remotes and we're sunk till a kid comes home. Not good. Brushworks, Harmony Companion, eh? Have to look into that.

If you have a Smart TV, the hub will usually offer access to all streams like Hulu, Netflix, etc. So if you can turn on your TV, access is just one button away.

You guys made me laugh. I am also a member of the club. All those buttons on the remote and most no one uses. I remember my parents struggling with the VCR. Am I old now too? I can do cable, netflix, amazon, and on demand, but don't ask for a DVD. The craziness with remotes seems more like the dark ages than progress. It seems to me that progress should be streamlined. Remember when watching TV was easy?

I have the same problem with our 4 remotes for cable, surround sound, tv, and the blue-ray player.

If my 12 year old is home she'll help me but I went a whole weekend once just watching roku because she and DH were out of town and I couldn't figure out how to switch to cable or the blue-ray :)

Santa brought DH a universal remote, trying to help me out, but it hasn't been programmed yet!

Divorce vastly simplified my electronic life. When I was married, my husband had all the gadgets--Roku, DVD, VCR (it was a while ago), surround sound, etc. I have a TV and a blu-ray player that has Netflix and a access to a bunch of other services built in. No cable. No broadcast. I have two remotes, but since all the TV inputs come through the blu-ray player, it's always the same. TV remote controls TV on/off and volume. Blu-ray remote controls content. Every once in a while I accidentally hit the "input" button on the TV remote and it goes looking for something else that I don't have, but I just have to switch it back to the one HDMI input that works.

I am hopeless with remotes as well. I finally wrote everything down in the notes in my smart phone. Roku to cable TV, cable TV to Roku. The process is only a few steps but it was never intuitive for me.

For instance, sometimes "ok" moves the selections around and sometimes the arrows move the cursor. How am I supposed to know which one works? :)

I've floundered since our dear friend who was a techie genius died a few years ago-he used to set things up, troubleshoot, etc in exchange for home cooked meals and treats. My husband is a systems analyst but a determined Luddite when it comes to anything household electronically oriented and both kids have moved out so I'm basically done here.

I managed to connect my new smart(er than I am) tv to a sound bar when I got it but have never managed to figure out how to get the sound bar to work with anything other than UVerse channels. So whenever I watch anything on the smart(er than I could possibly ever become) tv like Netflix, Amazon etc. the sound is awful. Fortunately my daughter is as addicted to Orange is the New Black as I am so I make her come binge with me and translate the mumbled dialogue. Sigh.

indygo, I completely understand your frustration. I have been in that exact place. My ex-husband liked to re-wire our system every six months or so. So even when I created written instructions for myself on how to turn on the TV using at least 2 remotes and a third remote to change the sound level, he would then change a wire and my notes were useless. So frustrating.

I have one more layer of complexity - DH is an audiophile so we have all the TV gear setup to run through a stereo system. Once in a while a little lever gets moved on the audio system remote and there's no sound. That was the last glitch I've had in getting it all to work but I think I have that figured out now.

We have a basket full of remotes - TV, audio system, Roku, Apple TV, DVD player and now that we moved we also have a fireplace remote. Add to that a typical evening with a laptop, an ipad or two and a couple iphones....kind of crazy....