[Electronics-Talk] Accessible cable TV

Wed May 20 22:34:59 UTC 2026

You should check on the price of YouTube TV yourself, but a quick look on the web looks like it’s currently $83 a month.

—
Christopher (AKA CJ) Chaltain
chaltain at Outlook

On May 20, 2026, at 8:14 AM, Matthew Chao via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

If one gets YouTube TV, can you get channels normally on cable, such as the Smithsonian Channel or Military History Channel?  May consider cutting cable if I can get everything on YouTube TV.  And BTW, how much do you pay for YouTube TV?

Thanks.--Matthew Chao

On 5/18/2026 1:03 PM, Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk wrote:
Thanks everyone.  I'll keep all this in mind.
A person on the NJTech listserve had the Optimum cable box until a couple months ago, and she says it does have accessibility; the workers just have no clue about it.  She told me exactly what I need to know to get the accessibility turned on, so I can tell the cable guy to do it when he comes.
So we're making an appointment to get the new box and see how it does.
And I'll think about Youtube TV.
Tracy

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Gerald Levy via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2026 10:26 AM
To: Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Gerald Levy <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Accessible cable TV

No, a smart TV won't solve your problem because the voice guide feature that announces channel number and program name and DVR commands is controlled by your cable box.  If you want to use the built-in voice guide feature of a smart TV (most Samsung models have this feature), you would have to give up Optimum Cable so that you could bypass the box and either receive TV channels over the air using an antenna or else sign up with one or more streaming services, which could actually wind up costing more over the long term than Optimum's cable service.  And unless you have another cable operator in your area, you are stuck with Optimum, which may be an absolute monopoly where you live.

Gerald

On 5/18/2026 9:16 AM, Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk wrote:
For a long time, we had software on our Optimum cable box that would
announce the channel and what was playing, and I could also use it to
access the DVR.

Optimum doesn't support it anymore, and their new cable box doesn't
have any accessibility at all.

They think that maybe a smart TV would have it, but I don't know.

If I buy a smart TV, and turn on Talkback or whatever it has, will it
tell me what's playing on a channel and have ways to access the DVR?

For instance, I was able to move through the shows on a channel until
I found the one I wanted to record, then hit record.  Later, I could
go into the DVR, scroll through the recordings, find the one I wanted,
watch it, then go through the menu to either keep it or delete it.
Imagine that.  Can I get those same features on a smart TV?

I have 0 interest in using Alexa.

It's extremely annoying that Optimum had accessibility, and then just
ditched it completely.

Tracy

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