# Remote Issue - Duplicate key presses



## Kirkla79 (Aug 15, 2015)

I recently bought a refurb roamio basic. Everything is working great, except I have an issue with arrow/directional buttons on the remote.

80% of the time it registers a single press as 2 or more presses. It makes doing anything that requires using those buttons almost impossible.

I also use my Harmony Ultimate remote, which does not have this issue. But since this is my first Tivo I have been using the Tivo remote until I am more familiar with the tivo software. Plus I always need a working remote for backup in case I forget to charge my Harmony.

So far if have tried:

1. Replacing batteries
2. Global reset of remote

But issue persists. 

Is there something else to try? Is the remote defective? Is there an issue with the box?

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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

Can't say I've had the arrows double press, but with the refurbished I got, I did notice that occasionally, when I pressed the info button, which is close to the right arrow, the right arrow sometimes would trigger as well.

In my case, I use a Logitech 650 in that room and don't use the Tivo remote.


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## thefisch (Jul 25, 2015)

Do you have another RF remote from a second roamio or mini to try on that box? The only problem I have noticed like this is thumb ratings - ususally pressing thumbs down once will quickly add two thumbs down. Not as annoying an issue.

I would contact Tivo and get them to send out another remote to try. If you are close to the end of your return period, then ask for an extension until this issue is resolved.


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## Kirkla79 (Aug 15, 2015)

I have no other RF Tivo remotes, so I will be calling Tivo later today to see about an exchange.

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## Vicini (Aug 28, 2015)

My Roamio has been doing this since I got it New about a year ago. It does this with the remote it came with and it does it with the TiVo slider remote I bought. Doesn't do it all the time. And it's not specific to arrow/directional buttons. It's any buttons that interact to TiVo. If I press the number 2 button, sometimes it registers it twice. Directional buttons, if I press down, it will go down two spaces. Even with the new TiVo slider remote, doing a search on the slider, pressing any letter will sometimes registers a letter twice. No issues on my TiVo Premiere unit.


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## worachj (Oct 14, 2006)

Maybe try switching between IR and RF. IF using IR, it may be reflecting off a mirror or object causing a double signal?



> To switch modes
> 
> Switching to IR mode
> 
> ...


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## Kirkla79 (Aug 15, 2015)

FWIW I called Tivo and they are replacing the remote. 

It does this behavior using RF, can't use IR since it is in a cabinet.

Today is the first day I have had to sit down play around with the Tivo and is doing this with the number keys too. Trying to enter a 4 digit channel is an exercise of futility. It's like there is interference from somewhere.

I thought maybe my dinovo mini on my HTPC might have been causing interference since its receiver is near the tivo but issue persists even when the dinovo mini is disabled. Not sure what else might be causing interference.


I really hope the issue is the remote and not the box itself. 

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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

The key bounce in TiVo remotes gets worse with each new generation. I've been a user for more than a decade, and as the remotes get cheaper and cheaper, the quality of the components used drops. 

What a surprise. 

My original Series 3 glow remotes (the ones that used 4 AAA batteries) NEVER had a key bounce problem. When I had to replace one with a newer model (the one that used 2 AA batteries), I had key bounce issues almost immediately. My Roamio Pro and Minis have a combined 4 remotes, and two of them are exhibiting key bounce after less than a month of use.

What is interesting is that a remote that is used all the time like the TiVo remote is, is incredibly vital to the user experience and opinion of the product. Make the remote fussy or unpredictable, and the entire experience suffers badly. It's the worst possible place to economize, and yet TiVo chose to do just that.

I won't even start to talk about the utterly pathetic IR range of the RF remotes. Well, OK, maybe just a little. I use mine to control my audio setup power and volume, and in all instances I have to point the thing right at the receiver or it won't work. It's like going back 20 years in technology.


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## DocNo (Oct 10, 2001)

Heh - I just looked an the two Tivo remotes I use the most are all from older Tivo's - as dougdingle said from the glow remote generation and older. I have a drawer full of them so I guess that's a good thing


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

None of the key bounce issues reported so far in this thread are acceptable behavior whether in RF or IR mode. TiVo support should be contacted. If it happens with two different remotes (of the type approved for the TiVo in question) then the TiVo box itself is suspect.

FWIW I've had my refurb Roamio basic for about ten days now and it doesn't exhibit remote key bounce issues.


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## Kirkla79 (Aug 15, 2015)

I finally had a chance to sit down and test the replacement remote.

The replacement remote works without issue.

It appears the remote that shipped with the roamio was defective.

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## kennylucius (May 20, 2009)

I have verified that the bounce problem is in the remote. If you put the remote into IR-only mode (press Tivo and C simultaneously) then you can see the double signal in the flashes. The remote will flash twice on the bounce keypresses. I can't see it in RF mode--perhaps because the RF signal is too fast to cause a detectable delay between flashes.

I have three Tivo remotes, and all of them have this problem. I got a replacement remote, and it exhibited this problem immediately. Probably they just sent me a "refurb" remote.

If I continue demanding new remotes, will I eventually get one that works?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

The -> key on my Roamio Pro remote definitely has a duplicate key press problem. VERY often, when using -> to go down to the bottom of a list, I go down and then back up. (Though I don't happen to notice it 30 second skipping, maybe because my pounding the key a bunch of times, for shows that don't have skipmode, prevents the 2nd bounce from happening.. or maybe it happens on the last one and I don't happen to notice since I almost always have to back up with 8 second backs anyway..)


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

I've seen remotes do the duplicate key press thing when they're getting low on batteries.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

tim1724 said:


> I've seen remotes do the duplicate key press thing when they're getting low on batteries.


I've got a remote that stutters all the time. Roamio says its batteries are 100%.


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## steve771 (Dec 30, 2011)

JoeKustra said:


> I've got a remote that stutters all the time. Roamio says its batteries are 100%.


Me too, and it's really weird. Sometimes it's very responsive and other times not. I'm wondering if it's not so much the remote but if has something to do with Tivo sending every selection to their servers (ala the recent BSC screw up).


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

steve771 said:


> Me too, and it's really weird. Sometimes it's very responsive and other times not. I'm wondering if it's not so much the remote but if has something to do with Tivo sending every selection to their servers (ala the recent BSC screw up).


My guess is they haven't changed the basic architecture on gathering and sending action information from the original TiVo's which would be uploaded during the normal service connection. The recent BSC issue seemed to be related to the images (someone blocked i.tivo.com which stopped the issue for them) which is an interactive action unless it's already in the cache.

Scott


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## plamumba (Mar 19, 2005)

I get this problem continuously. It doesn't strike me as a particularly demanding technology, as IR remotes have been around for decades. Tivo is the only remote that I find this with, and I have found it to be a problem for maybe 10 years. As I've come to expect from most of these companies, problems like this never get corrected. I have to assume the design is incompetent. I have piles of remotes sitting around from trying to find ones that work. The unusablility of the remote has given me a very low opinion of Tivo. At one time I called support, and they had some ridiculous routine to go through that made no difference. I assume it was just some scam they came up with to make people think they were doing something.


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

This won't be as helpful as I think. As I recall, all IR signals repeat in bursts, and the receiver checks to see if it has got a consistent signal. This double press problem often comes up because of interference in the room from sunlight or CFLs, sometimes fooling the receiver into thinking the later part of a single signal is a second signal. Some protocols, like the Roku, are sensitive to this problem. So if you have had a long standing problem with your Tivo, and few others do, it may be caused by your local environment. Close the curtains, turn off any CFL source, and see if that helps.

It can also be because the signal is too strong, although I think that is probably not your issue. I had double press problems with the IR GPIO receiver on my RPi that I solved by turning the receiver away from the remote, so it only picked up the signal indirectly. With the Rokus, some have solved it putting sunglasses on the Roku, or masking tape over the sensor. No joke, but the remote is strong enough to be seen through the filter, while the interference is not.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

The remotes have definitely been the weak link since the Roamio came out. I have a Roamio Pro and three Minis with a total of five remotes, and three of the five remotes have issues with remaining in RF mode and keybounce (although frankly, I think that issue is with the Minis themselves and not the remotes). Things seem to fare better when I use my IR-only universal remotes, a lot better in fact.

Chances of TiVo fixing any of this: ZERO. They don't seem to be fixing anything anymore except total show stoppers. I had my first really bad experience with phone support a few weeks ago when I called up to report a bug they had introduced with the last update where the Roamio audio switches to PCM from DolbyDigital overnight almost every night. First the support person tried to tell me that I must be mistaken, and when I pointed out that in a thread I started here half a dozen people reported the same problem, he said there was no difference between PCM and DD outputs. When I said that clearly wasn't true, he said the problem must be with my AVR, and I should connect the TiVo output directly to the TV, and if there was audio, I was getting DD. When I said _*that *_was not true, he hung up on me. A week later I was sent a survey to see how I enjoyed my tech support experience. I told them. The problem continues as of this morning.

So yeah, having been a big supporter for at least a dozen years, I've mostly lost confidence and having being a big evangelist in the past, I have now stopped recommending the device to anyone.


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