Auto-launch Channels client?

[VTTom]

I feel like I've seen this discussed here, but a search did not turn up any threads.

I have elderly parents who watch a lot of TV. But their CATV subscription is costing them a fortune. I'd like to ditch all that and get them setup with an antenna, an HDHR tuner, and ChannelsDVR + Channels client. I hesitate, though, because they can barely operate a traditional cable box. They don't know what smart TVs are. They don't know what apps are. They don't know streaming is.

So, ideally, I'd like to setup their TV client (and I'm open to platform, like Google, Amazon, Android, Apple, etc.) so that only the Channels client runs in the foreground all the time, making it look to them mostly like a traditional cable box UI.

Has anyone out there accomplished this? If so, what client platform did you use? What kinds of hacks did you need to do to get there? How reliable is it (I live hundreds of miles away, so I can't just pop over there to fix it if things so South).

[Edwin_Perez]

Google play store look for "launch on boot".

[Flt505]

I think the thing they will not like is this: NO numbers buttons on remotes to go directly to a channel.
You have to use the Guide to scroll up and down to find your channel.
At least Channels DVR on Walmart Onn boxes has Channel UP/Down rocker key to bypass using the Guide,
very useful.

[Jean0987654321]

You could get an universal remote with numbers and that should work with Channels

[slampman]

I did the same thing when my Dad passed. My 80 year old Mom is technology challenged.
She had $330/month cable/internet bill with Cox. I switched her to VZ fios as well as YoutubeTV and brought her bill down to $120/month. I didnt want to put a server onsite so i just added a channels docker container on my server just for her. I have 12 HDHR tuners so no capacity issues.

She is used to apple products so i got her an appletv. I made the channels icon appear in the top row on the left. It was still a little bit of a learning curve though. I finally got her to understand by saying the channels icon was the cable box app. Somehow that clicked for her.

Having her server housed in my network is nice because when she gets confused by creating a pass, i can fix it for her. Or if she missed a recording or something i just download it and put it on her server.