# Remote only works from 3 feet away



## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

All of a sudden last night and this morning my HR20 IR sensor only responds from about 3 ft away. Anybody else run into this? I've tried rebooting. Had the problem last night on EF (though it had been working fine on EF before that) and also this morning on FA.

I do use the HR20 with a IR extender from a different room sometimes, and the IR transmitter sits right in front of the HR20 to work from a different room. But then when I want to watch in the room the HR20 is in, I move the IR transmitter out of the way to control it by line of sight. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but it shouldn't. Think it's possible that the IR sensor has been damaged?


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## Carbon (Sep 22, 2006)

Did you try some new batteries?

Also you have FA already? On the east coast even.


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## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

Carbon said:


> Did you try some new batteries?
> 
> Also you have FA already? On the east coast even.


Not the batts and not the remote. Tried new batts and tried 2 different D* remotes and my Harmony. Nothing unless I'm right up close.


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## sbcale (Aug 19, 2006)

I had this problem a few years ago with a DirecTV Tivo. In my case it was the IR transmitter. It was interfering with the IR signal from the remote even if I moved it out of the way. The only thing that worked for me was to actually unplug the IR transmitter. I hope that helps.


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## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

sbcale said:


> I had this problem a few years ago with a DirecTV Tivo. In my case it was the IR transmitter. It was interfering with the IR signal from the remote even if I moved it out of the way. The only thing that worked for me was to actually unplug the IR transmitter. I hope that helps.


Good idea, but I have already tried that. Thanks anyway.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

I just got my HR20 yesterday and the remote worked fine. Now the ir remote only works from about 1 inch away from the sensor in the HR20. Tried new batteries. It works with the TV just fine from across the room.

Thinking the sensor in the HR20 must have gone bad. My remote that came with my HR20 has a RF mode. I switched to the RF mode and it controls the HR20 from another room.

Anyhow, looking like I may need a new HR20. Funny thing is that it just downloaded a software upgrade just before it stopped working. Wondering if that could have anything to do with it?

Bret


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## Igor (Jan 3, 2005)

eengert said:


> All of a sudden last night and this morning my HR20 IR sensor only responds from about 3 ft away. Anybody else run into this? I've tried rebooting. Had the problem last night on EF (though it had been working fine on EF before that) and also this morning on FA.
> 
> I do use the HR20 with a IR extender from a different room sometimes, and the IR transmitter sits right in front of the HR20 to work from a different room. But then when I want to watch in the room the HR20 is in, I move the IR transmitter out of the way to control it by line of sight. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but it shouldn't. Think it's possible that the IR sensor has been damaged?


Did you add a new television to any of these two rooms? Did you move the IR receivers in any of the two rooms and pointed towards sun light?

Puting aside the issue, you could use the remote in RF mode and sell your IR repeater in the eBay


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## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

Vitor said:


> Did you add a new television to any of these two rooms? Did you move the IR receivers in any of the two rooms and pointed towards sun light?
> 
> Puting aside the issue, you could use the remote in RF mode and sell your IR repeater in the eBay


Nothing changed.

Don't want to use the D* remote...I have 10 components in my system. I use a Harmony to control everything, and it doesn't do RF. I just want the HR20 to work.


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## maccur (Dec 7, 2005)

eengert said:


> Nothing changed.
> 
> Don't want to use the D* remote...I have 10 components in my system. I use a Harmony to control everything, and it doesn't do RF. I just want the HR20 to work.


Try a small, thin cloth, like those used for cleaning eyeglasses. Drape it over the HR20's front panel sensor and see what happens. I have experienced remote interference from my LCD television (Sharp) and the cloth filters that interference without a negative effect on the remote.


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## Koz (Sep 16, 2006)

Similar to what maccur said above, I had IR interference from my Sharp LCD. I had to put 2 or 3 layers of Post-It notes over the IR receiver to get it to work. I use RF now, so it's not an issue. I'm guessing some kind of shielding will work for you. Hope it does.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

Yesterday I tried my remote with my Sharp LCD TV with the ir mode again. It was daytime and it worked fine. As it got darker out the ir mode with the remote didn't control the TV anymore. RF mode works fine.

Seems that when it gets dark out the LCD screen on the Sharp LCD interfears with the ir remote feature. I'm betting that the Sharp LCD emits light close to the same frequency as the remote on the HR20. Didn't have that problem with my old RCA DVR and remote with the sharp TV.

The problem seem to be worst with the back lighting turned up high. I now will use the RF mode on the remote for now on. The good news is that there seems to be nothing wrong with the HR20 and I will not need a new one. 

If you have to use the ir remote mode with the HR20 and your sharp TV you may want to try and turn back lighting down below the half way mark. I don't like the way the picture looks with it set that low, but it may help some.

I'll have to try the paper over the sensor trick. That was my last thought last night that this problem was with the sensor in the HR20 and not with the remote control. The remote seems to have plenty of power in the daytime.

One test I did last night when my remote wouldn't control the HR20 from any further than 1 inch away was this. I got a tube from a paper towel roll and put it over the HR20 sensor. Then I shot my remote down the tube at the sensor. It controled the HR20 perfect. As soon as I took the tube away the remote wouldn't work with the HR20 from the 1 foot length of the paper towel tube. 

Anyhow making a long story longer,:lol: Try the paper trick over the sensor in the HR20 or use the RF mode in the remote.

Bret


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Another source of IR interference is compact fluorescent light bulbs (the ones meant to replace normal light bulbs.) They used to have warning labels regarding use near IR controlled equipment.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Tom


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

tibber said:


> Another source of IR interference is compact fluorescent light bulbs (the ones meant to replace normal light bulbs.) They used to have warning labels regarding use near IR controlled equipment.
> 
> Happy Thanksgiving,
> Tom


Good point! I used to have that problem years ago with one of those bulbs. Now I never use them near a TV with IR remote.

Bret


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## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

Thanks guys, but so far nothing has worked. But I did add the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player to my cabinet the day that I noticed the HR20 not working well with IR. Seems pretty certain that this is the culprit. I could probably test by unplugging the HD-A1 and trying. However, that would be moot since I'm not going to remove or unplug the player. And the paper over the sensor didn't work. For now what I've done is added a second IR extender receiver right in my AV cabinet. So I have one in the basement with the "remote" tv and one in the family room right in the AV cabinet. Then I have the transmitter right in front of the IR sensor on the HR20. That works fine.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Bret,

Welcome to the forums. :welcome_s

Happy Thanksgiving,
Tom


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## Wildcat_1 (Oct 7, 2006)

I am having problems with my remote as well. I can hit play no problem as well as guides etc. I cannot hit pause on live TV or REW/FF, anyone else ?


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## AlexCF (Oct 14, 2006)

Strange, I also have a Sharp Aquos, and I also have the remote control 2' range. It worked fine this weekend, but it was daytime and light in the room. Makes me wonder if I try it tonight if the remote will be crippled again.

Stranger yet, when it gets like that, the remote will eventually start working from far away after 20-30 minutes or so. It's like something has to get warmed up first.

It's most certainly not a battery issue. It controls everything else fine, and I've also replaced them with fresh batteries. Nothing that would interfere in the room, incandescent lights usually dimmed quite low.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

Thanks Tom!

There really seems to be some big problem using the sharp lcd with the HR20.
Really strange!

Bret


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

The problem with the Aquos has been well-documented in some other forums. It's the backlight emitting extremely high levels of IR. So during the day you don't have a problem, when it gets dark and the backlight automatically switches on,the IR overwhelms the remote - pretty well all remotes, not just the DirecTV one. 
I don't know if Sharp is working on a solution, or maybe they have found one - you need to talk to them. But there is not much that DirecTV can do about it I think...


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## AlexCF (Oct 14, 2006)

texasbrit said:


> But there is not much that DirecTV can do about it I think...


Perhaps, but I never had a problem with the remote on my old RCA DirecTV receiver, nor the AV/DVD changer sitting right underneath the HR20. Seems silly that they wouldn't be able to fix it when it's working fine on other, similar appliances.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

I too had no problem with my old Directv RCA DVR. Everything worked fine. The only thing that doesn't work fine is the HR20 at night. 

texasbrit hit it right on the money with that one. I figured the backlight has to be on the same frequency as the HR20 remote. All the other things I control with the HR20 remote work fine. Including the Sharp TV.

What you can do is run the remote in the RF mode. That controls the HR20 with no problems at all. The plus is in the RF mode you can control the HR20 from up to 200 feet away. At least that is what it says in the manual. Haven't checked it out.

Don't see them fixing it. As mentioned in post 9 and 10 above. Using paper over the IR eye on the HR20 could be one other fix. Didn't try that but it would be worth a try using different color filters over the remote and the HR20 IR eye. Maybe green, blue or yellow filters would help bypass the light frequency that the TV is sending out. Fun experiment for someone to try. I'll just use the RF mode. Works great for me.

Bret


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## drtbar (Nov 27, 2006)

bret4 said:


> I just got my HR20 yesterday and the remote worked fine. Now the ir remote only works from about 1 inch away from the sensor in the HR20. Tried new batteries. It works with the TV just fine from across the room.
> 
> Thinking the sensor in the HR20 must have gone bad. My remote that came with my HR20 has a RF mode. I switched to the RF mode and it controls the HR20 from another room.
> 
> ...


How did you get an RF remote with your HR20? Anyone else have the RF remote included with their install? All I got was the IR.


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## hasan (Sep 22, 2006)

texasbrit said:


> The problem with the Aquos has been well-documented in some other forums. It's the backlight emitting extremely high levels of IR. So during the day you don't have a problem, when it gets dark and the backlight automatically switches on,the IR overwhelms the remote - pretty well all remotes, not just the DirecTV one.
> I don't know if Sharp is working on a solution, or maybe they have found one - you need to talk to them. But there is not much that DirecTV can do about it I think...


The circuitry for a lot of backlights (even remotes) use a switching power supply (to step up the voltage for the backlight) and these are known to be horridly dirty...they generate all sorts of RF interference, and who knows what kind of IR interference). If I have an AM radio sitting next to my Harmony remote and hit any keys (and the backlight comes on), it will wipe out even the strongest AM signal until the backlight goes back off.

This is VERY poor design. It will be interesting to see if Sharp can come up with a "practical" fix for the problem. (Cell phone chargers...many but not all, have the same problem) Switching power supplies, unless carefully designed to suppress such noise, are horribly noisy...I mean REALLY dirty. It is not hard, or expensive to correct the problem (I have a 25 amp switching supply in my basement that is perfectly quiety)...but every little nickel and dime in cheap consumer electronics adds up to lost profits, so without regulation (FCC), they companies produce this shoddy work.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

drtbar said:


> How did you get an RF remote with your HR20? Anyone else have the RF remote included with their install? All I got was the IR.


My HR20 came with the RF remote. They can also be ordered from directv's site here for $25

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=2700002

Bret


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## AlexCF (Oct 14, 2006)

My IR remote worked fine last night in the dark with the Sharp, yet it was an every day problem.

Backlight level probably does have something to do with it. I noticed last night that the Sharp feature that automatically adjusts the picture settings was off, I know it was on before. Maybe it was automatically cranking the backlight on me and I didn't even realize it.

It's set to +1 now.


If the problem comes back, that remote looks like a bargain.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

I was pretty sure that all the remotes shipped with the Hr20 did RF. Just go into the HR20 menu, down into settings, into remote and select RF. I think the HR20 should then respond to the remote using RF....


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## Hilbe (Oct 10, 2005)

I don't know if anyone has suggested this or not, but why not sit closer to the TV?


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## Edmund (Apr 17, 2003)

drtbar said:


> How did you get an RF remote with your HR20? Anyone else have the RF remote included with their install? All I got was the IR.


To tell if you have a RF remote or not, look for FCC sticker on the back of the remote, if its there, then remote is RF.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

That's right, my remote has the FCC sticker and it is the RF model. The model number of my remote is in the top left on the front of the remote. It is RC24.

Bret


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## drtbar (Nov 27, 2006)

texasbrit said:


> I was pretty sure that all the remotes shipped with the Hr20 did RF. Just go into the HR20 menu, down into settings, into remote and select RF. I think the HR20 should then respond to the remote using RF....


Yup you're right. The installer just set it up for IR and I didn't even think to check it until last night. It is indeed an RF remote.


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## qubit (Mar 17, 2006)

I found the IR with this unit to be not anywhere near strong enough. All of my other devices worked from twice as far away as this one. I had to switch it to RF so I didn't go out of my mind.


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## hasan (Sep 22, 2006)

qubit said:


> I found the IR with this unit to be not anywhere near strong enough. All of my other devices worked from twice as far away as this one. I had to switch it to RF so I didn't go out of my mind.


Hmmmm...I found just the opposite. The range of the IR remote (including the original one, but I now have the RC32RF backlit remote from D*) is OUTSTANDING. I can use it from 25' away, OUTSIDE the house, shooting through a window...works very reliably.

My bet is you have some sort of IR interference in your setup, or a defective remote/remote receiver. I'd look for IR interference first.


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## labsnabys (Dec 1, 2006)

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have found this thread. I thought I was losing my mind with the intermittent problems with my remote and the HR20 (we have a Sharp Aquos as well). I'm off to try all of the useful suggestions here and look for that FCC sticker on my remotes. Thanks so much, folks.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Welcome to the forums! :welcome_s

Glad we could help, let us know how it goes.

Cheers,
Tom


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## labsnabys (Dec 1, 2006)

Thanks for the welcome, Tom. I set up my remote to work RF, and so far so good. This after we had already replaced the HR20 once believing it was the IR sensor gone bad. Between this fix and learning how to dim the blue light show, I already feel like I've hit the jackpot finding these forums!

Regards,
Lisa


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## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

eengert said:


> Thanks guys, but so far nothing has worked. But I did add the Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player to my cabinet the day that I noticed the HR20 not working well with IR. Seems pretty certain that this is the culprit. I could probably test by unplugging the HD-A1 and trying. However, that would be moot since I'm not going to remove or unplug the player. And the paper over the sensor didn't work. For now what I've done is added a second IR extender receiver right in my AV cabinet. So I have one in the basement with the "remote" tv and one in the family room right in the AV cabinet. Then I have the transmitter right in front of the IR sensor on the HR20. That works fine.


In case anyone still cares, I did some rearranging in my AV cabinet tonight...after moving the HD-A1 to the other side of the cabinet from the HR20 (with a partition in between), the HR20 now responds to the remote just fine from normal distances. Strange but true.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

eengert said:


> In case anyone still cares, I did some rearranging in my AV cabinet tonight...after moving the HD-A1 to the other side of the cabinet from the HR20 (with a partition in between), the HR20 now responds to the remote just fine from normal distances. Strange but true.


Glad you found a simple (sounding at least) solution.

Cheers,
Tom


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## ekimatuan (Nov 14, 2006)

We just got back from vacation and are having remote issues. My in-laws were watching the pets and house for us and said the problem started the day we left (11/29 or so). We are using a Harmony 880, but the three Direct TV remotes exhibit the same issues.

The problem is that the Channel buttons, the direction buttons, and probably other buttons aren't working. It will turn on, the guide works, etc. As I said, everything was working fine remote wise until this problem. And again, this same issue is happening with the Harmony and the Direct TV remotes.

Any suggestions as to how to fix this problem. We just came back from a vacation so there is a lot of recorded shows I would rather not lose from a reset.


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## ekimatuan (Nov 14, 2006)

ekimatuan said:


> We just got back from vacation and are having remote issues. My in-laws were watching the pets and house for us and said the problem started the day we left (11/29 or so). We are using a Harmony 880, but the three Direct TV remotes exhibit the same issues.
> 
> The problem is that the Channel buttons, the direction buttons, and probably other buttons aren't working. It will turn on, the guide works, etc. As I said, everything was working fine remote wise until this problem. And again, this same issue is happening with the Harmony and the Direct TV remotes.
> 
> Any suggestions as to how to fix this problem. We just came back from a vacation so there is a lot of recorded shows I would rather not lose from a reset.


I ended up doing a red button reset and the problem cleared up. Hopefully this experience will help anyone else who also sees this issue...


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