# New Here! 811 IR Question/Problem



## DakotaTimber (Dec 28, 2005)

Hello,

I am new here so if I mess up please let me know, nicely! :grin: 

I have an DN 811 that I am trying to use a Sony RM-AV3100 to control along with the rest of my HT. I also have a second 811 hooked to another TV in the house.

I am having trouble with the Remote learning signals from the IR Blaster. I could get it to learn a couple of things but it would not learn very well. I finally gave up and reset the 811 remote address to 1 and changed the second 811's address to 2. I then cleared the STB device in the AV3100 and used the preset Echo Star 3010 code. Basic control was attained.

Two days later: I started loosing control with the AV3100. It would power on the 811 but it took several button pushes before the 811 would respond. If you got into the guide you were stuck and had to revert to the UHF remote. My first though was week batteries. I put in a new set of fully charged NI-MH's and again I regained control. The very next night the multiple button push was back. I had charged the original set of NI-MH batteries and so I replaced the batteries again. This time the AV3100 did not gain control over the DN 811.

Here is the questions: Does anyone else have trouble use the IR blaster/IR Sensor on there 811's? 

I tried programming the AV3100 from the second DN 811 IR blaster but one again ran into the same issues I had with the first DN 811. If I worked hard enough I could get one code entered. I have never had any devices with such a poor IR sensor. One other thing, both of my 811's were made in Mexico.

The IR unit on my DVD player is picky about charged batteries, but not near this picky. Typically my batteries last a month occording to the DVD player, and in all case here, the AV3100 controlled the DVD player fine.

Question 2: Does any one have the Logitech Harmony 880 controlling there 811? If so: Does it work well? Where is your 811 made?


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## gdarwin (Jan 31, 2005)

First change out the recharable batteries with Duracell Ultras. I have had mine in over a year without changing them.

The AV3100 will only control the 811 using remote channel 1. I also have mine set to Echo Star 3010 and as you have found out some functions do not work well. To get out of the guide select a channel then hit ok.


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## DakotaTimber (Dec 28, 2005)

gdarwin said:


> First change out the recharable batteries with Duracell Ultras. I have had mine in over a year without changing them.
> 
> The AV3100 will only control the 811 using remote channel 1. I also have mine set to Echo Star 3010 and as you have found out some functions do not work well. To get out of the guide select a channel then hit ok.


"Exit" is One of the keys I did get set from the "View TV" on the DN remote. It just won't accept the signal. Also I forgot to metion that I tried using some Energizer e2 Lithium batteries. They were not brand new ( less than one month in a weather station and checked out on the multimeter ), but they also operated every device expect the 811. :nono2:


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## lifterguy (Dec 22, 2003)

Dakota - I have an 811 and a Harmony Remote Control. I had a problem similar to yours when I first setup the Harmony Remote. I ended up calling tech support for the Harmony, and they took me through programming steps that resolved the issue. Unfortunately I don't remember the details of what we did (it was well over a year ago), but I think it had something to do with changing the data stream sent by the remote from the standard to "raw."


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

:welcome_s DakotaTimber

First off. I have a Pronto 3000NG that has been communicating with my 811 for about a year and a half. My 811 is behind glass and I have not had any of these issues. I know a lot of people using Universal remotes with the 811 with success. 

As for the 880. Well I have one arriving today and hopefully I will have it working by this weekend so I will let you know. Jason ("811 Guy") also has an 880 but I am not sure if he is using it with his 811. 

It sounds like the commands from the 811 to the remote might not have taken properly. I would try relearning the remote if you have not already tried it. I personally have not used the learn remote feature so I dont' have any personal experience on how well it works. 

It has been ages since i programmed my 3000, but I believe i used the 921 or 721 remote to learn the commands. I could be wrong here but you might be able to use one of those remote to learn the commands.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Hello DakotaTimber,

I have a Pronto Pro 7000, Harmony 659, and a Harmony 880. I have been able to program all 3 using the 811's IR Blaster. The key behind this is to have the learning remote less than a foot from the blaster.

On the Harmony's, I have only tried Remote address 1 with the 880. I will experiment a bit more when I get some free time. I have also used a 301 remote and a 522 TV1 remote to program remotes for the 811.

Not sure what your question about where the 811 is made has to do with anything. AFAIK all production units were assembled in Mexico by JVC.

Hope this helps.


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## DakotaTimber (Dec 28, 2005)

Jason Nipp said:


> Hello DakotaTimber,
> 
> I have a Pronto Pro 7000, Harmony 659, and a Harmony 880. I have been able to program all 3 using the 811's IR Blaster. The key behind this is to have the learning remote less than a foot from the blaster.
> 
> ...


It definitely addresses one of the issuses. There is no way I was less than a foot from the IR Blaster, when I was trying to learn from it. Both 811's are in cabinets and I would have been at least two to three feet away. The IR blaster is not like a remote where you can set it face to face. 

Any ideas on the IR sensor's sensitivity? I would really like it to be more sensitive to IR signals. I would hate to spend the money on a Harmony 880 and still have a signal strength problem like I have using the Sony RM-AV3100 controlling the 811.

Perhaps someone could suggest a better solution than the Harmony 880 for the 811. I don't want to go over the 880's price tag. For equipment in my HT, I have a

Yamaha RX-V530 - want sound field control
Sony KDL-V40XBR1 - want direct input control ( HDMI / Composite / S Video )
LG LDA-511 - poor IR sensor but not near as poor as the 811's
Sony Hi8 VCR EVC-200? - want additional controls like Hi Speed Rewind etc
Pioneer F-40? CD jute box - want disk and track control
DN 811 - want full control 
Known future devices Yamaha RX-V2600, a DVD recorder / jute box.
Want KDL-V40XBR1 input control and wide control on all video devices.

The made in Mexico comment is because my installer had told me he had installed units from Japan, China and Mexico. He may not have been specifically talking about the 811 though.


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## tonyp56 (Apr 26, 2004)

I had problems with this as well, the problem lies with the delay between you pressing the command on your UHF remote and the 811 relaying that via IR blaster. Slow down your steps, what I mean, when you press the button on your 811 remote, give your learning remote more time (before and after!) so that the delay doesn't effect it. Like others have said you have to be close to the IR blaster on the 811, pointing your new remote directly towards the 811, at the same level, etc. so that it don't through it off.

What I ended up doing after messing with the 811's stuff, was I used my 301 remote to program my other functions that my remote didn't do after putting in the code for DN receivers. I was able to teach it 2 or 3 commands, but it is a major headache, especially if you've got lots of commands to teach (via 811's menu commands). I have a One For All 8810.


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## DakotaTimber (Dec 28, 2005)

:nono2: Thanks Tony P. I finally took the time and got every control I wanted programmed. I don't mind being patient when I have the time. I got everything working properly by patience and repetition. However, it still sucks that you have to be just as patient USING the programmed IR remote control. A remote controlled device is supposed to respond when you send the signal the first time, not the forth or fifth time like my DN 811s are.

Conclusion: the IR sensor/blaster on the Dish Network 811 is so bad it should have never been documented for the public and DN should have not called this unusable feature out as a feature of the 811.

Question: Is there a good learning remote that can handle UHF as well as IR?



tonyp56 said:


> I had problems with this as well, the problem lies with the delay between you pressing the command on your UHF remote and the 811 relaying that via IR blaster. Slow down your steps, what I mean, when you press the button on your 811 remote, give your learning remote more time (before and after!) so that the delay doesn't effect it. Like others have said you have to be close to the IR blaster on the 811, pointing your new remote directly towards the 811, at the same level, etc. so that it don't through it off.
> 
> What I ended up doing after messing with the 811's stuff, was I used my 301 remote to program my other functions that my remote didn't do after putting in the code for DN receivers. I was able to teach it 2 or 3 commands, but it is a major headache, especially if you've got lots of commands to teach (via 811's menu commands). I have a One For All 8810.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

Harmony just announced a new remote that does both RF and IR. Expensive tho!


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Pronto has one also and there is another company that is sliping my mind. There is also a company Universal control inc that make MX-XXX models. I have heard good things about them also. 

There is some active remote forums at avsforum.com you might want to check out. 

I personally now have 3 Harmony 880s and I like them alot. Still have some tweaking to do, but they are working great for me. However they are not RF.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Pronto has one also and there is another company that is slipping my mind. There is also a company Universal control inc that make MX-XXX models. I have heard good things about them also.
> 
> There is some active remote forums at avsforum.com you might want to check out.
> 
> I personally now have 3 Harmony 880s and I like them alot. Still have some tweaking to do, but they are working great for me. However they are not RF.


That would be Home Theater Master, They also market as Universal Remote Control (URC-100, URC-200, and URC-300).

There are other brands, but the prices really get high. Take it for granted I believe the user asked if there was a learning remote that could learn and retransmit a UHF Pro RF frequency...And if that was the question, I do not know of any. But I believe remotes that have RF extension/repeater capabilities should work for your application


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

I have a Univrsal MX-500 learning remote (About $100.00) It learned all the 811 commmands no problem but executing them is slow. For some reason some commands take a second or two to execute. For instance I can scan down the guide fine, but if I scan up I have to wait a second or two between presses. Very strange. 
I think they have a MX800 that will do both RF and IR, but it may just convert the IR commands to RF.


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## steelhorse (Apr 27, 2004)

I have the 811 and the harmony 880 running the 811, samsung dlp, onkyo reciever, pioneer cd changer, toshiba dvd player.
No problems at all. Just the tedious setup through the web site, but all works well after the download.
The harmony runs the 811 at the same speed the original remote did.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Jason and I also have the 880... Web site first time takes some getting use to. I am also very happy with the remote. Not RF though. 

If you think the 880 is tedious, try a Pronto. The 880 is simple in configuration compared to laying out an pronto. I have a Pronto 3000NG and I much prefer the 880. The Pronto is more flexiable in terms of layout, but the 880 is much less tedious to get you up and running. 

I have 3 880s. First one took about 2 hours to get up and running. Some of the time was learning the web interface and I did not have my equipment and what inputs each was written down. Most of those 2 hours was figuring out that having my 921 on remote addy 8 was not a good thing. 

The 2nd and 3rd setups took less than 30 minutes each.. I could have never accomplished this with my Pronto. So I guess moral is tedious is relative.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

The 5.1.2 standalone frontend GUI is a bit less tedious than the Webbased frontend GUI of 4.4.0. 

I also have a Harmony 659 and a Pronto Pro 7000. The Harmony GUI and ease of programming is no where near as labor intensive as Pronto edit or Neoedit. The Pronto is definitely more customizable, but I can recall it taking me in the months time frame to accomplish programming the Pronto in a way I liked, where as it took less than an hour to get the 880 where I wanted it to be.

Tedious is definitely a word that coincides with the experience of the user and the exposure he or she has to the other platforms.

I have heard good things about MX and URC's, but not as many as I have with the Harmony's. All in the eye of the beholder.

And the timing can be tweaked on most of these remotes. I believe I have heard the MX's timing can be as well. To the user that says the MX is slow, I would recommend looking into adjusting command timings.


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## tonyp56 (Apr 26, 2004)

My remote works just as fast as the 811's UHF remote--can't go through walls though .


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