# How do I make the buttons on my remote light up?



## skiguy32 (Mar 24, 2010)

I have tivo S3 that I bought about a month ago online and I noticed that the remote lights up sometimes when I press a button and allows me to see all the controls when I'm in the dark. (I really like that) This is not one of the tivo glo remotes I've seen on the tivo website ,these buttons literally have lights behind them! The thing I can't figure out though is it only lights up at random every once in while. Yesterday the lights worked all day and today it's not lighting up at all! So is there a code or menu setting that I need to set it to light up everytime I press a button cause I can't figure out what causes it to light up?


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

The buttons should only light up when it is dark in the room. There's a light sensor in the remote.

You can turn the backlight on and off using these sequences:

To turn the backlight off, press and hold the TIVO and the THUMBS DOWN buttons until the red light blinks three times, and then press CLEAR.

To turn the backlight on, press and hold the TIVO and the THUMBS UP buttons until the red light blinks three times, and then press ENTER.

(Info from here.)

I turned off my backlight because it eats batteries really fast, and after a while you don't really need to look at a TiVo remote to use it.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

skiguy32 said:


> This is not one of the tivo glo remotes I've seen on the tivo website ,these buttons literally have lights behind them!


The only Tivo remotes that light up, are the glo remotes.


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## oViTynoT (May 18, 2007)

If it's "not one of the TiVo glo remotes" and it lights up, then it's not a TiVo remote at all.


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## skiguy32 (Mar 24, 2010)

the series 3 remotes do light up!

My room has weird lighting. During the day my room is dark but appeartly it's not dark enough to activate the backlight in my remote. If I could figure out where the sensor is in the remote I would take it out or put a piece of tape over it or something cause I want the backlight to come on everytime I push a button regardless of how much lighting is in the room. How do I set it to do this?


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## oViTynoT (May 18, 2007)

> the series 3 remotes do light up!


That's because the Series 3 Remote *is* a glo remote.

I believe the sensor is behind the same window as the IR transmitter.


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## ilikeyoureyes (Jun 3, 2007)

You may just want to leave the light off. My glo remote was going through batteries in less than a week until I turned it off. Now it goes for months.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

ilikeyoureyes said:


> My glo remote was going through batteries in less than a week until I turned it off.


I turned the lights off on my glo remote as well, I couldn't take how fast it was using up batteries.

The problem is that Tivo chose to use AAA batteries instead of AA batteries. Triple A batteries will never last as long as Double A batteries for powering LED lights in a remote.


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## oViTynoT (May 18, 2007)

> Triple A batteries will never last as long as Double A batteries...


Well, duh! 

That's funny.


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## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

oViTynoT said:


> Well, duh!
> 
> That's funny.


How so?

My point was that because Tivo chose a battery that is not designed to last a long time with back lit remotes, it's the reason why we have such short battery life with the glo remote. Tivo could have just as easily used double A batteries instead, there is plenty of room in the remote.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Resist said:


> How so?
> 
> My point was that because Tivo chose a battery that is not designed to last a long time with back lit remotes, it's the reason why we have such short battery life with the glo remote. Tivo could have just as easily used double A batteries instead, there is plenty of room in the remote.


But you're not looking at the whole picture; they went from 2xAA to 4xAAA that's not a 1 to 1 swap, we went from 3v to 6v and that changes the available power curve. Had they used 4xAA that unit would have been a beast!

They've stated in the past it was done for better weight balance, and I think they had a point.
It's also noted that not everyone gets the horrendous battery life with it on, my battery life on them was 1 year with daily use in the evenings.

Diane


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## oViTynoT (May 18, 2007)

> How so?


I know what your point was; it was just the way you stated the obvious struck me as humorous. It's like saying "A Quart will NEVER be as big as a gallon."


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

dianebrat said:


> It's also noted that not everyone gets the horrendous battery life with it on, my battery life on them was 1 year with daily use in the evenings.


Mine went over 2 years with the Glo on.

--Carlos V.


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