# Blue light on HR22 - How to turn off



## gator1234 (Jul 21, 2007)

On the HR21 you push four times on both sides of the blue light and it goes out. This does not seem to work on the HR22. Anyone know how to turn this light off?


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## MIKE0616 (Dec 13, 2006)

gator1234 said:


> On the HR21 you push four times on both sides of the blue light and it goes out. This does not seem to work on the HR22. Anyone know how to turn this light off?


Masking tape does wonders. Also, it comes off fairly easily so you can return the unit to D* when you exchange the unit eventually.

Advantage of this is that each time unit is reset you don't have the "close encounters" experience until you kill the lights manually.


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## CTJon (Feb 5, 2007)

Just a question and not trying to be a wise guy. Why do people leave their units on when they aren't watching? There have been several threads over the year about dimming or turning off the blue lights when they aren't watching. Why do people leave the unit on? When it is off it still records programs, gets updates, gets locked up by D*(sorry couldn't resist today), etc. The only thing it doesn't do is show blue lights and you can't actually view stuff or change things. It starts up a lot faster than my TV does. So when I'm done watching I shut it off. 
What am I missing here? Thanks,


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## 1999cobra (Jan 21, 2007)

I have an HR22 light goes out when i shut the unit off - huh...


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

CTJon said:


> Just a question and not trying to be a wise guy. Why do people leave their units on when they aren't watching? There have been several threads over the year about dimming or turning off the blue lights when they aren't watching. Why do people leave the unit on? When it is off it still records programs, gets updates, gets locked up by D*(sorry couldn't resist today), etc. The only thing it doesn't do is show blue lights and you can't actually view stuff or change things. It starts up a lot faster than my TV does. So when I'm done watching I shut it off.
> What am I missing here? Thanks,


what if you're watching it late at night and lights bother wife?


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## MalibuRacing (Mar 2, 2007)

David MacLeod said:


> what if you're watching it late at night and lights bother wife?


The wife is bothered by the blue light on the receiver but not the light and sound from the TV????  :lol:


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

oddly enough, yes. the rotation of it bugs her.
those lights get bright.


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## amawlin (Sep 16, 2008)

The blue light is annoying. It's way too bright and interferes with the image on the TV. We usually turn it off using the button method after it reboots. Not sure why, but last night it rebooted and the silly light woke up the wife (its in the bedroom). I think I'll add the masking tape. Thank you for the suggestion Mike.


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## bigwad (Oct 19, 2006)

The blue light is bright! I like to turn the light off so I know when something happens. Rebooted both my HR20's yesterday and dimmed the light. Woke up this morning and my bedroom was aglow. Both units reset during the night. I haven't checked yet to see if it missed some recordings.


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## Starchy77 (Jul 18, 2008)

gator1234 said:


> On the HR21 you push four times on both sides of the blue light and it goes out. This does not seem to work on the HR22. Anyone know how to turn this light off?


I have an HR22-100, and the light shuts off just as you described (the same way it shuts off on my HR21-100's). Maybe you didnt hit the buttons at the same time? Try it again - it should work. If not, can you confirm if it is a -100, -700, etc?


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## MalibuRacing (Mar 2, 2007)

I agree the blue lights are too bright, especially in a dark room. I turn off the lights on the receiver in the bedroom because of that. The receiver in the family room is well below the TV, so it doesn't cause any issues. 

Maybe I just misunderstood by thinking your wife was attempting to sleep while you were watching TV, LOL.


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## whitepelican (May 9, 2007)

Starchy77 said:


> I have an HR22-100, and the light shuts off just as you described (the same way it shuts off on my HR21-100's). Maybe you didnt hit the buttons at the same time? Try it again - it should work. If not, can you confirm if it is a -100, -700, etc?


I can't speak for the OP or his HR22, but on my HR21-100 it is *very* difficult to turn off the blue ring. It works fine on my HR20-100, but the HR21 takes me about five minutes each time I try to do it. I end up bringing up all sorts of menus/whatnot on the screen because it doesn't recognize the two buttons being pushed at the same time. I still haven't figured out the pattern, whether one of the buttons is always slower than the other, or whether I need to hold them down longer (or shorter), or push them faster or whatever. It's pretty damn frustrating, but eventually I usually get it to work.


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## RACJ2 (Aug 2, 2008)

gator1234 said:


> On the HR21 you push four times on both sides of the blue light and it goes out. This does not seem to work on the HR22. Anyone know how to turn this light off?


Thanks for posting this. I read the manual that came with my HR22 and on page 5 #9 it says "Press & hold the left and right arrows to dim and turn off the lights". I pressed both buttons and held them and nothing happened. I thought as you held the buttons, it would gradually dim and then go off.

After reading all the posts, I now understand that you press both arrows at the same time for a second and then release them. Each time you do this, it dims a bit and after 4 times, it finally goes off.


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## edmartin (Nov 15, 2006)

gator1234 said:


> On the HR21 you push four times on both sides of the blue light and it goes out. This does not seem to work on the HR22. Anyone know how to turn this light off?


It works on my HR22. I did notice that I had to push the buttons harder on the HR22 than I did on the HR20.

As for the lights themselves, put me on the "way too bright" list, too. I particularly hate them when we get an update overnight and the one in our bedroom lights up the room. We tend to leave the DVR on at night when we use the timer on the TV to shut off.


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## dsm (Jul 11, 2004)

The ring is way too bright in my home theater. Up until 2 or 3 releases ago I would only have to reset the ring on a software update. Then we had a software release that started causing reboots about every other night on both my units and it's never gone back.

I'm sick to death of resetting the ring. It was a joke for a while with me and my kids, but now it's not funny anymore. I really want a configuration option to keep the damn ring turned off or at least persist the setting across a reboot. My wife wants the one in our bedroom moved out because of the ring after a reboot. Turning it off when I walk into our home theater is bad enough, but having to find the remote or get out of bed at 3 in the morning when it pops on is ridiculous.

I know this is minor compared to missed recordings, but D* should be trying to mitigate the impact of their buggy software that is causing so many restarts. I understand that off isn't much different than on in reality, but how many appliances persistently turn themselves on every night? 

steve


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## n6nfg (Feb 1, 2008)

CTJon said:


> Just a question and not trying to be a wise guy. Why do people leave their units on when they aren't watching? There have been several threads over the year about dimming or turning off the blue lights when they aren't watching. Why do people leave the unit on? When it is off it still records programs, gets updates, gets locked up by D*(sorry couldn't resist today), etc. The only thing it doesn't do is show blue lights and you can't actually view stuff or change things. It starts up a lot faster than my TV does. So when I'm done watching I shut it off.
> What am I missing here? Thanks,


We have an RF modulator attached to watch stuff in other rooms, and there is a good chance someone else wants to watch something somewhere else, which doesn't work if the unit is switched off.


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## thekochs (Oct 7, 2006)

n6nfg said:


> We have an RF modulator attached to watch stuff in other rooms, and there is a good chance someone else wants to watch something somewhere else, which doesn't work if the unit is switched off.


You RF Modulate HD ?...please say it isn't so. :nono2:


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

When I dim my blue ring, I press and hold the left button, then press and release the right button four times. That turns it off every time.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

That's what I do as well.


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## n6nfg (Feb 1, 2008)

thekochs said:


> You RF Modulate HD ?...please say it isn't so. :nono2:


No, just ordinary SD, but it does look pretty good anyway. Modulator is taking the composite outputs.

Sort of like poor man's MRV


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## gator1234 (Jul 21, 2007)

edmartin said:


> It works on my HR22. I did notice that I had to push the buttons harder on the HR22 than I did on the HR20.
> 
> Yes this did work. Pressing very hard was the answer. Thanks.


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

small drill bits work too, take out every thrid led or so and it dims right down


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## Hotscot (Sep 25, 2008)

It worked on my HR21's. No delay. However I hate leaving fingersmudges. Surely the remote should be sending out the same signals as received by your fingers?

On another point. I don't believe there's any consumer RF HD senders. Or am I wrong here. Isn't there a lot of development in HD over wireless and isn't that the same thing?

I can't keep up. The technological singularity approaches.


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## sangs (Apr 2, 2008)

gator1234 said:


> edmartin said:
> 
> 
> > It works on my HR22. I did notice that I had to push the buttons harder on the HR22 than I did on the HR20.
> ...


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

sometimes its all in the timing of the presses too, and sometimes the difference is so slight it makes it impossible to do it with consistency.


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

Hotscot said:


> It worked on my HR21's. No delay. However I hate leaving fingersmudges. Surely the remote should be sending out the same signals as received by your fingers?


No. In fact, pressing two buttons at the same time on the remote likely won't work at all. It will either cancel out the IR transmission completely or cause the remote to send a different code. It depends on which buttons and how the underlying contacts are mapped in the grid that is interpreted by the logic circuit.



> On another point. I don't believe there's any consumer RF HD senders. Or am I wrong here. Isn't there a lot of development in HD over wireless and isn't that the same thing?
> 
> I can't keep up. The technological singularity approaches.


There are ATSC modulators out there, but they are quite expensive ($$thousands). I would guess that they may eventually drop in price, but because they require some significant computer processing power, probably never to the point of simple analog NTSC modulators.


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## HDinMA (Aug 29, 2008)

gator1234 said:


> edmartin said:
> 
> 
> > It works on my HR22. I did notice that I had to push the buttons harder on the HR22 than I did on the HR20.
> ...


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## cartrivision (Jul 25, 2007)

whitepelican said:


> I can't speak for the OP or his HR22, but on my HR21-100 it is *very* difficult to turn off the blue ring. It works fine on my HR20-100, but the HR21 takes me about five minutes each time I try to do it. I end up bringing up all sorts of menus/whatnot on the screen because it doesn't recognize the two buttons being pushed at the same time. I still haven't figured out the pattern, whether one of the buttons is always slower than the other, or whether I need to hold them down longer (or shorter), or push them faster or whatever. It's pretty damn frustrating, but eventually I usually get it to work.


I press and hold the left button in, and then press and release the right button 4 times (or fewer times to just dim) while continually holding the left button in. Always works first time, every time.


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## cartrivision (Jul 25, 2007)

rudeney said:


> No. In fact, pressing two buttons at the same time on the remote likely won't work at all. It will either cancel out the IR transmission completely or cause the remote to send a different code. It depends on which buttons and how the underlying contacts are mapped in the grid that is interpreted by the logic circuit.


I originally thought that too, but you can dim the blue ring on the R15s by pressing the two keys on the remote, so that concurrent keypress on the remote puts out a unique IR code that the R15s respond to by dimming the ring.

Given that fact, I see no reason why the HR2x DVRs couldn't be made to be dimable by remote too.


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

cartrivision said:


> I originally thought that too, but you can dim the blue ring on the R15s by pressing the two keys on the remote, so that concurrent keypress on the remote puts out a unique IR code that the R15s respond to by dimming the ring.
> 
> Given that fact, I see no reason why the HR2x DVRs couldn't be made to be dimable by remote too.


Hmm, I'll have to try that. I have an R15 as well as HR20's. It would actually have to be something in the remote's firmware to allows that as you can't send two IR signals simultaneously like that.


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

I can't make it work with hr21, maybe I'm pressing wrong buttons. r15 was just thrown away so I never tried that to see.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

cartrivision said:


> I press and hold the left button in, and then press and release the right button 4 times (or fewer times to just dim) while continually holding the left button in. Always works first time, every time.


I've always just pressed both each time, which I find awkward.

I'll have to try this one out.

Mike


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## compac (Oct 6, 2006)

I dim for 2 reasons...
most importantly to let me know the rec'r was reset, new software... ring of blue fire, too bright light are on again.


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## ld4946 (Oct 20, 2008)

When I push the left then the right it takes 5 or 6 times to turn it off. When I push the right then the left it goes off after 2 or 3. 

This is on a HR21.


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## benmusic (Jul 18, 2005)

This is how I fixed mine so that you never have to push those dimmer buttons again. Get yourself a piece of 20% window film from your local auto window tint shop. Cut 1 or two small squares and tape them over the blue ring.
Problem solved.

Ben Music


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## Steve Robertson (Jun 7, 2005)

Worked like a charm for me thanks to everyone now I am no longer blinded by the blue light


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## Miggity (Aug 10, 2007)

There needs to be an option to adjust the blue ring in the software or to permanently disable it!


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

Found this thread on a search--Works great on my HR22-100 (New to me) hold down the left side of the BRIGHT blue ring and push the right side of the blue ring and it goes OFF! While still holding the left side down it will cycle thru (BRIGHT) and then three levels of Dimming - to off.

Works Great :beatdeadhorse:


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## ebockelman (Aug 16, 2006)

WestDC said:


> Found this thread on a search--Works great on my HR22-100 (New to me) hold down the left side of the BRIGHT blue ring and push the right side of the blue ring and it goes OFF! While still holding the left side down it will cycle thru (BRIGHT) and then three levels of Dimming - to off.
> 
> Works Great :beatdeadhorse:


Since you are just learning this, you'll want to remember that you need to do this after each reboot. It's one of those long-standing annoyances on the HR2x that could easily be fixed, but hasn't, so it continues to give the platform one more strike against it.


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## WestDC (Feb 9, 2008)

ebockelman said:


> Since you are just learning this, you'll want to remember that you need to do this after each reboot. It's one of those long-standing annoyances on the HR2x that could easily be fixed, but hasn't, so it continues to give the platform one more strike against it.


Being a Long time Windows user, That's not a problem for me! I leave all my D* boxes on all the time, If I had it in the bedroom it would be an issue,I don't use TV as a toy in the bedroom  so it won't wake me.


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## mahyde30 (Jul 6, 2008)

thekochs said:


> You RF Modulate HD ?...please say it isn't so. :nono2:


I do:lol: The HR21 is in the bedroom and I have a HD TV in the office and a LG Refrigerator ( LCD TV built in the fridge door). We have another HR21 in the family room downstairs.

I am waiting for the MRV.


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## jahgreen (Dec 15, 2006)

ebockelman said:


> Since you are just learning this, you'll want to remember that you need to do this after each reboot. It's one of those long-standing annoyances on the HR2x that could easily be fixed, but hasn't, so it continues to give the platform one more strike against it.


Actually, that's a feature as far as I'm concerned--it tells me when the box has rebooted without my knowledge. So why fix what's not broken?


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