Hello all. I don't post much here so I hope this is the right place for this. I searched the forum and couldn't find info, so here I am.

My issue is that I ordered Dish Network HD service and they came out two weeks ago and installed a VIP-222k receiver. I have a Sony KDL46V4100 LCD tv. About 15 minutes after the installer left I tried to use the remote and it wouldn't change channels, bring up the guide or do anything else - except control the Sony TV. Since then Dish has supplied me with no less that 3 sets of remotes and replaced the receiver once which I installed myself last Monday night. I did the setup in IR mode which took 40 minutes or so. I declared success when after a few minutes of watching a tv program the remote simply stopped controlling the Dish receiver again. Right back where I started. During the course of troubleshooting I noticed that if i turn the TV off and select a button on the Dish remote, then turn the tv back on, it is working. Appears that the tv is somehow washing out the IR. But why after the entire Dish receiver setup was completed?

I've tried moving the receiver, pointing it away, building shielding out of aluminum foil etc. No success. I can get it to work if I put the emitter on the remote against the IR receiver window on the VIP222, but other than that its completely unusable in IR mode. I am now running the receiver in UHF mode, but now my Harmony 890 won't work either.

I'm at my wits end here. What is the solution? Dish certainly doesn't know - or if they do they don't let on about it, and neither does Sony who claim they've never heard of this issue.

41 views to this message and no responses?:confused:

I grabbed the Harmony remote a little while ago and reprogrammed the receiver to IR mode, channel 1 using the Harmony 890. However, I had to put the emitter on the remote against the IR receiver window on the Dish receiver in order to do it. If I pull back even 6" it does not work. I just don't get this.

How was I able to program the entire setup of the Dish Receiver using the IR mode and after it got activated it stopped working or has become attenuated in some way?

41 views to this message and no responses?:confused: ...,
It's a saturday for crying out loud. :rolleyes:

Googgle on " lcd interference " and read the first return. LCD sets commonly cause IR interference...

Well I don't know about the Saturday thing, I have a RJ not related to HT during the week:). Seriously though I sincerely appreciate your response. You definitely pointed me in the right direction! The problem appears to be fixed!

I taped a small piece of printer paper, 1/4" x 1.25" over the Dish Receiver IR window and wallah! Success. Dish remotes and the Harmony are all in, well IR harmony.

God knows how much money Dish and Direct have spent trying to resolve these issues across the country. All fixed with a tiny piece of notebook paper. Thank you. This site is awesome.

Yesterdays enthusiasm morphed into another bout of frustration. After declaring success yesterday by pasting a small paper window over the Dish Receiver IR receiver window, yesterday afternoon, I turned the system off and drove to pick up my wife from work. Approximately 40 minutes later I was demonstrating my limited intellect for the wife by turning on the tv and trying to select 'Guide" on the remote control. Nothing... Nada... What the...? Blush. She got really mad when I looked at her and asked " are you radioactive?" As you can guess, that didn't go over well at all. Took her out to dinner and smoothed that over.

Assumption: It appears that when my Sony Bravia is first turned on the room is saturated with IR from the fluorescent tube warming up. After an hour or so the spurious IR calms down to the point that my paper filter worked.

Why the other equipment in the room is not affected by this anomaly is a mystery to me, but I assume the Infrared receiver section of the Echostar/Dish Network VIP-222k receiver circuitry is a piece of crap.

Spurred on by yesterdays limited success, this morning I began the search for a suitable IR filter for the Dish receiver IR window. For each piece of sample materials tested I would turn the tv on from cold state and tried selecting the Guide from the remote. After each failure I would turn the tv power off. This way ensuring maximum IR saturation of the room for each sample.

I tried paper of various kinds, colors and thicknesses. No joy

I tried a piece of 35mm camera film. Film is coated with a silver oxide so I didn't have a lot of faith in this and sure enough it didn't work.

I tried a piece of a conductive ESD bagging material - the 3M kind with the sprayed nickel. This stuff is an electrically conductive Faraday cage and I didn't expect it would work and sure enough it didn't.

I cut apart an old pair of plastic clip-on sunglasses - the kind Walmart sells. These are polarized for UV protection and I've no idea if they provide any IR filtering, but at any rate it didn't work.

I took the glass out of my welding helmet and surprisingly had limited success, lending credence to posts saying that smoked glass in an entertainment center seemed to filter IR. Unfortunately, this is very dark glass, and I had to be within 3 ft of the receiver for this option to work. Since my sofa is 10 ft away this is not a practical solution for me.

More failures: Plain black plastic, clear glass, clear plastic, old pair of eyeglass lens, red plastic from the end of an old remote control. Clearly pulling at straws at this point and almost ready to throw up my hands.

Finally I broke apart an old floppy disk and cut out a small piece of the film and covered the Dish receiver window using clear tape. Turned the tv on and low and behold it works! From 1 ft to 15 ft, anywhere in the room I now have consistent and full control of the satellite receiver.

This is what you need to do to fix your issue. You need to get another tv 2 remote from dish network for your 222k receiver. One you get that remote, you need to take the batter case off, and pull out the plastic chip on the bottom that has a blue '2' on bottom. Flip that chip upside down and put it back into the remote so you see a green '1' showing. Put the battery case back on with batteries in the remote of course. Use the buttons on the front of the receiver to get into the system information screen.
- menu
- 6 system setup
- 1 installation
- 3 system information

Take that new number one remote which is an UHF remote and hold down the satellite on the top of the remote (its the clear/white button). Hold it down until all mode lights on top turn red. Pick a remote address that is unique, not being used by tv 2. Like 5, so after all lights turn red press the 5 key on the remote, then press the '#' key on the remote, then press record a couple times until the IR next to tv one turns to UHF and the address changes to '5' if you used my example. Everything should work if you do this.

You miss my point. I knew it would work in UHF mode. I just didn't want to use it in UHF.

There is no reason the VIP222k shouldn't work in IR mode- as its designed to do, except the IR receiver window doesn't do a good job of filtering the fluorescent backlighting from my TV. Poor design if you ask me.

Since affixing a piece of floppy disk media filtering material over the receiver IR window it has not so much as hiccuped.

You miss my point. I knew it would work in UHF mode. I just didn't want to use it in UHF. ...

No, you miss the point. You've been informed that some LCD TVs cause IR interference on some STBs. You've been give a 100% effective fix to your problem.

And then you come back with the above? :rolleyes:

I had the same problem with my 722k and my 40inc sony bravia, i have found out if i keep the room lights on (10) recess lights the remote works fine, iv also herd the IKEA stained glass enclosures also solves the problem.... You would think dish would have a fix for this sense LCD tvs are cheep now. Pm me if you find a fix please. Im going to try the ikea glass sense i need an enclosure anyway for my new set up i will keep you posted.

I had the same problem here. The strange thing is though, Mine was working fine for a year. 6 months or so with a Samsung 37" LCD, and the 6 months with an LG 42LH40. All of a sudden, two days ago, it stopped working. I thought it was the batteries. Replaced those, worked fine for 2 minutes, then stopped.

Then I looked around for solutions, and tried the white paper solution. Essentially just placed a small rectangular piece of white paper over the IR receiver sensor. It seems to work flawlessly now. I can't explain why it had stopped working all of a sudden, but it seems to work now with the white paper over the IR sensor.

I will report back if I see any other issues.

@ gastj2003 -
Similar problem with a VIP222K - i just want to use the HD output from the reciever in another room than the reciever is located (Via HDMI from output 1), and use the SD output next to the reciever based on the wiring setup in the house (via output 2). I see how the above solution would allow me to use the RF remote to control output 1, but will that allow me to use the IR remote to control output 2?

If you're saying that your second TV, not the one with the receiver nearby, has remote control trouble when trying to use the supplied 'bedroom' (or wherever) remote the best fix is to move the antenna into the bedroom and let the installed cable carry your commands back to the receiver.

The fix is all over the net and consists of buying two splitters and making a couple of changes to how your second TV receives it's signal from the receiver.

This diagrams in this thread pdf link shows specific splitters but most any old cable splitter will work just fine. http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-technical-discussions/98221-extending-uhf-range.html#post917064


Try a little thoughtful googling and you'll find any number of descriptions of the very same thing. Doing this can't hurt anything and solves the problem forever.

@KRS -
Thanks for the thought and the prompt reply. I was just trying to be what my wife calls frugal, and what i call cheap. I think i can make the HD output work from the VIP222k with the RF remote based on the post (the ultimate goal). After that, i might just have to get another RF remote for the SD output which is local to the reciever. Your response seems logical, and overall, might be a better solution.

@KRS -
Thanks for the thought and the prompt reply. I was just trying to be what my wife calls frugal, and what i call cheap. I think i can make the HD output work from the VIP222k with the RF remote based on the post (the ultimate goal). After that, i might just have to get another RF remote for the SD output which is local to the reciever. Your response seems logical, and overall, might be a better solution.

I had the problem with our VIP722 DVR - the upstairs remote worked intermittently, at best. I think it has to do with the trend to changing out household lights to flourescent bulbs but it could have simply been too far to hope that the RF could reach through the walls and whatnot between the two sets.

Whatever was the cause, the upstairs remote has worked flawlessly since I did the described setup and I havn't noticed any degradation of picture or sound quality from either installation.