# TIVO remote does not work in the evening



## sugarshack33 (May 3, 2012)

We just got rid of our DirecTv box and happily returned to Tivo on DirecTv. The remote works great all day and stops working sometime between 6pm and 7pm every evening. We installed on Saturday and it is now Wednesday and this has happened every single day. We also have a a Logitech Harmony remote set up with the devices and it works beautifully all day and also stops controlling Tivo every evening. Has anyone else experienced this? It is as if Tivo gets tired. Then it resets at night and works again until it is again exhausted. That is just my speculation. I believe it is the Tivo itself (or the problem is with DirecTv?) because both remotes work perfectly all day and both stop working at the same time and the Harmony continues to control other devices.


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## Runch Machine (Feb 7, 2002)

Is there a change in the room lighting around that time? It sounds like something is generating light that is interfering with the remote signal. Once my brother had a remote that was stuck between the couch cushions that was stuck on and it blocked other devices from seeing remote signals. I believe something is causing interference in the room. If you hold the remote right in front of your Tivo and press buttons, does it respond then? What other devices are around the Tivo?


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## Gary McCoy (Jun 4, 2003)

It sounds to me as if you recently swapped in some CFL bulbs in the lamps in the room with your TiVo and HDTV. These CFL bulbs often produce significant infrared radiation on frequencies that interfere with infrared remote controls.

You can confirm this by switching off all the room lighting with CFL bulbs, and see if the remote works again. Then the cure would be either use incandescent bulbs, or use an entirely different brand of CFL, or use LED bulbs.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Or is it possibly an intererence issue with natural light? Is the sun angling into the room in the early evenings? If it hit the right spot I guess it might be able to blind the TiVo's IR receiver.

As a test you could try closing any blinds or whatnot and see if blocking the sun fixes the issue.


Just throwing out troubleshooting ideas


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## sugarshack33 (May 3, 2012)

Tonight the remotes stopped working at 6:20 when it was still light outside. If we point the remote within inches of the box it takes 15-20 pushes of each button to get any response. 
An additional problem: One show tapes at 8pm till 8:30. At 8:29 it is still taping while we watch Kings hockey on another channel. Tivo tells us it needs to change the channel away from the Kings to begin taping 30 Rock at 8:30. No, it doesn't. Why doesn't it know that it can switch over on the other receiver, since that show will end at 8:30? Completely annoying, especially since the remote will not respond to our request that it not change the channel.


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## rifleman69 (Jan 6, 2005)

change batteries


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

My tivo gave me the same message when recording back to back shows on the same network. What I didnt realise is that we get that network on two different channels and I had programed the back to back using two different channels.


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## pL86 (Oct 11, 2009)

sugarshack33 said:


> Tonight the remotes stopped working at 6:20 when it was still light outside. If we point the remote within inches of the box it takes 15-20 pushes of each button to get any response.
> An additional problem: One show tapes at 8pm till 8:30. At 8:29 it is still taping while we watch Kings hockey on another channel. Tivo tells us it needs to change the channel away from the Kings to begin taping 30 Rock at 8:30. No, it doesn't. Why doesn't it know that it can switch over on the other receiver, since that show will end at 8:30? Completely annoying, especially since the remote will not respond to our request that it not change the channel.


My computer monitor interferes with the Tivo remote. Every time the monitor wakes up from sleep, the Tivo remote stops working. I can either wait 10-15 minutes after which the remote works again or do as you do and bring the remote very close to the Tivo and press buttons.

As for your other problem - were you taping Big Bang Theory before 30 Rock? Because if you were, CBS always adds an extra minute to the show so that it runs till 8:31, meaning your second tuner was still recording at 8:30 when the Tivo was set to start recording 30 Rock. The Tivo does give priority to the channel/tuner you're watching and will try to avoid tuning away from it by using the second tuner but it can't do that if recording times overlap. I'm obviously speculating but are you sure your first recording stopped at 8:30 and not 8:31?


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## Marrelli (Jan 12, 2007)

sugarshack33 said:


> Tonight the remotes stopped working at 6:20 when it was still light outside. If we point the remote within inches of the box it takes 15-20 pushes of each button to get any response.
> An additional problem: One show tapes at 8pm till 8:30. At 8:29 it is still taping while we watch Kings hockey on another channel. Tivo tells us it needs to change the channel away from the Kings to begin taping 30 Rock at 8:30. No, it doesn't. Why doesn't it know that it can switch over on the other receiver, since that show will end at 8:30? Completely annoying, especially since the remote will not respond to our request that it not change the channel.


But as Jonathan_S mentioned, it could be how the natural light is angling in from outside at that time.


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## sugarshack33 (May 3, 2012)

@PL86 - thank you. I will check to see if there is a relationship between the computer and the remote failure. @Marrelli, thank you - we were watching Big Bang and that solves that mystery. It's day 9 and we continue to have the same problem: remote stops working every evening between 6pm to 7:15 and works fine again the next morning and the following day. The only time it fails is every single evening for the entire evening.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Is the TiVo seeing the remote command? Does the yellow light flash?


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Gary McCoy said:


> It sounds to me as if you recently swapped in some CFL bulbs in the lamps in the room with your TiVo and HDTV. These CFL bulbs often produce significant infrared radiation on frequencies that interfere with infrared remote controls.


<Sigh>
CFL bulbs - and indeed all fluorescent lamps - produce almost zero infrared radiation, especially when compared with incandescent bulbs, more than 70% of whose radiation is infrared. (The near total lack of IR radiation from fluorescent bubs is the whole reason why they are favored over incandescent bulbs.) Certainly they produce less infrared radiation flux per square cm at the detector than the IR emitter in a remote control. When CFL lamps produce interference with remote controls, which can happen, it is not due to their emitting IR radiation. It is due to their producing AF modulated noise in the visible or UV region that drives the IR receivers nuts. Note that "IR receiver" is a bit of a misnomer. So called IR receivers are simply light detectors that are designed to work with IR emitters. They are not highly selective, and will detect radiation across a fairly broad spectrum. They are not very selective when it comes to the light's wavelength, that is. They are, however, very selective when it comes to modulation frequencies, and the lightwave carrier has to be modulated at a fairly specific set of frequencies to be detected by the IR receiver. Some CFL bulbs do produce significant amounts of noise in that region, which is typically well below 2 MHz. (IR radiation is around 10,000,000 - 100,000,000 MHz.)

In this article is a typical spectrum from a CFL lamp. As you can see, in the infrared region (above 700nm), the CFL lamp produces nearly zilch.

Here is an article that compares an incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb. The spectrum does not extend into the infrared, but one can clearly see the radiant flux is still rising sharply for the incandescent bulb at the edge of the infrared region, while the fluorescent lamp's flux is already very low and dropping rapidly as it approaches the infrared region.



Gary McCoy said:


> You can confirm this by switching off all the room lighting with CFL bulbs, and see if the remote works again.


This will indeed confirm for the OP whether or not the CFL bulb is producing interference. It will not confirm the interference is in the infrared spectrum.


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

When I replaced the bulb in a living room lamp with a CFL, the LED on my remote extender would light solid when I turned on the lamp. It would stay on for a few minutes until the lamp warmed up, then would go off. But it did not interfere with my remote control at any time.

Indeed, CFLs (and plasma displays) are known to cause interference with IR remote controls. But I agree with lrohrer that it isn't IR spectrum itself that is the issue.


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