HR20-700 Remote not working

[bobinchico]

A month ago I bought my sister and her family a bigger LCD HDTV. They upgraded to the HR20-700.

They have had FOUR HR20-700's (all reconditioned) and not one of them has the remote control (RC23) worked for more than a couple of days. The remote didn't work at all on two of them. Right now he has three of these receivers stacked in his garage, soon to be joined by a fourth. As soon as he gets up the energy to call again.

He's obviously becoming quite frustrated. He's talked to third and fourth level tech support and is about ready to run screaming down the street. I can almost guarantee you when his contract is up in 18 months he will no longer be with Directv.

Any suggestions I can give him? I'm a E* subscriber myself so I don't have much knowledge about this type of problem with the HR20 700. Does Directv have anything like E* (ceo@dishnetwork.com) where you can email problems to and have a good hope of them being resolved? I was also thinking he should demand a NEW receiver be sent and not a reconditioned one.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jimbo]

A month ago I bought my sister and her family a bigger LCD HDTV. They upgraded to the HR20-700.

They have had FOUR HR20-700's (all reconditioned) and not one of them has the remote control (RC23) worked for more than a couple of days. The remote didn't work at all on two of them. Right now he has three of these receivers stacked in his garage, soon to be joined by a fourth. As soon as he gets up the energy to call again.

He's obviously becoming quite frustrated. He's talked to third and fourth level tech support and is about ready to run screaming down the street. I can almost guarantee you when his contract is up in 18 months he will no longer be with Directv.

Any suggestions I can give him? I'm a E* subscriber myself so I don't have much knowledge about this type of problem with the HR20 700. Does Directv have anything like E* (ceo@dishnetwork.com) where you can email problems to and have a good hope of them being resolved? I was also thinking he should demand a NEW receiver be sent and not a reconditioned one.

Thanks in advance

Have him call them and tell them he will accept ONLY a NEW unit.
You were real vague as to what type of problems he was having outside of the remote not working correctly, D* will gladly send you another one or you can pick one up for $ 20 at CC or BB.

The HR20-700 is getting better and better all the time, D* has worked diligently to improve the unit with regular updates.

Hook one up and let it go thru the loading process, then check to see what software version is on it, it should be something like 0x12a, maybe 12b can't remember.
Each time D* send a new update out it improves the stability of the unit.

Lot of people have had trouble from time to time, but most are pretty happy with it now.

I have had very few problems with mine, I've had mine for 6 months now.

btw, with D* it's a 24 month commitment, unlike E*'s 18 month.

Jimbo

 

[bobinchico]

Sorry. I should have added the receiver does not accept any input from the remote. The only way he can use the receiver is to walk up to it and manually press buttons and controls.

 

[texasbrit]

Sorry. I should have added the receiver does not accept any input from the remote. The only way he can use the receiver is to walk up to it and manually press buttons and controls.

....!

It's almost certainly the TV, not the HR20. Some LCD TVs (Sharp Aquos is the most often reported, but there are others) generate masses of IR interference from the backlight, it overwhelms the HR20 remote (it's obviously just at the right (or wrong!) frequency. The backlight is sometimes controlled by a sensor, as it gets dark the backlight switches on and the remote stops working. If you switch off the backlight the problem will go away.
You should call your TV manufacturer and complain.

Possible solutions are:
switch off the backlight
switch the remote control to RF instead of IR

Some people have had success putting a tube over the HR20 sensor to screen it from the IR coming from the TV.

 

[Jimbo]

....!

It's almost certainly the TV, not the HR20. Some LCD TVs (Sharp Aquos is the most often reported, but there are others) generate masses of IR interference from the backlight, it overwhelms the HR20 remote (it's obviously just at the right (or wrong!) frequency. The backlight is sometimes controlled by a sensor, as it gets dark the backlight switches on and the remote stops working. If you switch off the backlight the problem will go away.
You should call your TV manufacturer and complain.

Possible solutions are:
switch off the backlight
switch the remote control to RF instead of IR

Some people have had success putting a tube over the HR20 sensor to screen it from the IR coming from the TV.

I hadn't considered your position on the issue, but it's a good one.
The OP didn't say that it would work when usingthe buttons on the reciever until after my previous post .... with that info, I would also look elsewhere.
I wonder what he's doing with the other HD DVR's he has, I could use another one !!!

Jimbo

 

[bobinchico]

....!

...Some LCD TVs (Sharp Aquos is the most often reported, but there are others) generate masses of IR interference from the backlight, it overwhelms the HR20 remote (it's obviously just at the right (or wrong!) frequency. The backlight is sometimes controlled by a sensor, as it gets dark the backlight switches on and the remote stops working. If you switch off the backlight the problem will go away. ...

I bought him the Sharp Aquos LCD-37D42U. I'll give him the tip on turning the backlight off on the TV and see if this does anything.

He watches very little TV during the day. On the fourth receiver, when the Directv installer guy came, it was in the daytime and it worked. It may have stopped working when he tried to next watch it at night.

 

[bobinchico]

... I wonder what he's doing with the other HD DVR's he has, I could use another one !!!

Jimbo

He asked the installer what to do with all the receiver's that are piling up. The guy told him Directv probably doesn't even know about them, as they've never sent any return tags yet. If he still has them in a month or two I'll look back here and contact you about sending you one. If he OK's it.

 

[Jimbo]

He asked the installer what to do with all the receiver's that are piling up. The guy told him Directv probably doesn't even know about them, as they've never sent any return tags yet. If he still has them in a month or two I'll look back here and contact you about sending you one. If he OK's it.

You know, you might want to check his bill and make sure that he's not leasing all them, if so D* will want them back, and you won't want to continue leasing them if they are not working for you, get them off your bill.

Jimbo

 

[texasbrit]

I bought him the Sharp Aquos LCD-37D42U. I'll give him the tip on turning the backlight off on the TV and see if this does anything.

He watches very little TV during the day. On the fourth receiver, when the Directv installer guy came, it was in the daytime and it worked. It may have stopped working when he tried to next watch it at night.

I would be very surprised if switching off the backlight did not solve the problem. If I can tell from the symptoms that he has a Sharp Aquos that's a good indication that IR interference is the problem.
It seems to be such a common problem, I do not know whay the DirecTV CSRS don't ask the TV question straight away when people are having remote issues.

 

[bobinchico]

I would be very surprised if switching off the backlight did not solve the problem. If I can tell from the symptoms that he has a Sharp Aquos that's a good indication that IR interference is the problem.
It seems to be such a common problem, I do not know whay the DirecTV CSRS don't ask the TV question straight away when people are having remote issues.

Won't find out until Sunday night as he's out of town. I think he's going to take one of the re-conditioned ones down to CC or Best Buy and get a NEW one for $20 as suggested by Jimbos. When I talked to him last night he's been putting off calling Directv.

If he changes the remote from IR to RF, so the backlight will still work on the Aquos, is this on the Sharp or the RC23 remote. If it's on the Sharp there should be something about how to do this in the manual. If it's on the RC23 how do you change it from IR to RF? Is there anything in the HR20 manual?

It is amazing that something like this IR interference isn't known by the CSR's. Even the 3rd and 4th level ones!

Thanks for all the suggestions and I do believe the IR interefernce is the problem.

Jimbos - I've already told him to check his next two bills carefully to make sure he's not getting charged for more than one HR20.

 

[Jimbo]

If you want to change the remote to RF it's done with the remote and the rec.

Go to Menu -Set up - Remote - IR RF set up.

Read thru the instructions carefully BEFORE doing it, it's much easier to understand what tneeds to be done that way,
It's not hard, you just need to access the right sections before hitting the codes.

Jimbo

 

[texasbrit]

Won't find out until Sunday night as he's out of town. I think he's going to take one of the re-conditioned ones down to CC or Best Buy and get a NEW one for $20 as suggested by Jimbos. When I talked to him last night he's been putting off calling Directv.

If he changes the remote from IR to RF, so the backlight will still work on the Aquos, is this on the Sharp or the RC23 remote. If it's on the Sharp there should be something about how to do this in the manual. If it's on the RC23 how do you change it from IR to RF? Is there anything in the HR20 manual?

It is amazing that something like this IR interference isn't known by the CSR's. Even the 3rd and 4th level ones!

Thanks for all the suggestions and I do believe the IR interefernce is the problem.

Jimbos - I've already told him to check his next two bills carefully to make sure he's not getting charged for more than one HR20.

He will need an HR20 remote, set to operate on RF. I'm pretty sure the RC23 is not RF capable, my HR20 (and my H20 receiver) came with the RC24 which is RF capable, but recently it seems most people are getting the RC23. Since he has had several HR20s I hope there is at least one RC24 around somewhere, or he can get probably get one at BB.
Page 77 of the HR20 manual (at least, the one I have) explains how to change to RF.

 

[bobinchico]

He finally got around to trying all suggestions. Nothing worked. He bit the bullit and called Directv again. Got some guy to suggest he go in to setup for the remote on the receiver. He got disconnected from tech support but he pursued it on his own from there.

All appears to be working for the past two days.

 

[texasbrit]

He finally got around to trying all suggestions. Nothing worked. He bit the bullit and called Directv again. Got some guy to suggest he go in to setup for the remote on the receiver. He got disconnected from tech support but he pursued it on his own from there.

All appears to be working for the past two days.

I assume then he managed to set up the remote to work on RF, as per Jimbos suggestion........

 

[bobinchico]

He just went into setup mode for the remote and entered, I believe, code 185 or something like that and it has been working fine. He says he made no other changes.

He now has three remotes, a:
RC23
RC24
RC32 or RC34

Which one should he keep?

 

[texasbrit]

He just went into setup mode for the remote and entered, I believe, code 185 or something like that and it has been working fine. He says he made no other changes.

He now has three remotes, a:
RC23
RC24
RC32 or RC34

Which one should he keep?

The RC23 does not work on RF.
The RF-capable remotes are the RC24 and some models of the RC32 and RC34. Some RC32 and RC34 are labelled RF. If they are not, look for an FCC sticker on the back - if there is one, its an RF remote.

So he needs to be using an RF remote, after that it's a matter of personal choice. The RC32RF has backlighting as I remember so it's the most convenient to use.