DVR box missing presses from remote...

[ak46]

This has been occuring before and after the 1.6 upgrade.  Thought I would ask if others experience the same thing or maybe I just have bad hardware (a commonplace thing it seems by this board).

On my DVR (with home media option) if I channel surf it often seems to miss button presses from the remote.  The red LED does blink, but the box doesn't change channel, or go to the next screen, or whatever function I just pressed.  I then press it again and it usually works fine.  This doesn't happen with every press, but often enough to be terribly annoying.

On my HD box without DVR it never misses a keypress...works the way you would expect it to.

I have swapped remotes and the problem stays with the DVR.

Is this a normal issue that everyone is dealing with?

Thanks!

-ak

[generet]

Wether the box is with or without DVR, time delay or non-responsiveness to remote is a known Verizon problem. I don't think it's restricted to what version you may be running, they just need to write a fix to improve remote response. I notice it when I am using the search function and surf titles and scroll - I'll get no response and then 3/4 will quickly occur. Just have to deal with it for now.     

[ak46]

Thanks for the reply generet.  I need to revise my description of the problem a little.  I was feeling more frustrated with the problem so I moved the box closer to the TV so I could see the red LED that lights up when receiving an IR signal and the TV itself.  Ends up when it misses key presses the LED does NOT light up.  It happens ~ 1 in 8 presses when pushing the button quickly.  (For example, pressing the channel up button repeatedly.)  If I do the same action by using the channel up button on the box itself, it is fast and never misses a keypress.  If I do the same action on my non-DVR box, its fast and never misses a keypress.

Anyone see this issue before?  (If it matters....I have a 6414.)

Thanks

-ak

[matcarl]

It happens to me quite often too. My wife complained about it the other day also.

[Justin46]

ak,

Yep, ever since I got FiOS TV 3 years ago. For some reason the 6416 DVR is far more sensitive than my 2500 SD STBs to where the remote is aimed. I have moved remotes around just to see if it was the remote, nope, they all work great on the SD boxes, terrible on the DVR. One thing I have found is that if I turn the remote 90 degrees either way, it seems to improve operation, I have no idea why.

I guess I have just learned to live with it. Since my wife has an SD box on her TV, no complaints from that part of the house!

Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.5.0
Keller, TX

[ak46]

Thanks for the replies.....

Kinda sucks to pay more for some very cool tech only to have something so simple be a common problem.  I did try different angles, and also held the remote right up to the window on the front of the box.  No improvment.  It just seems that the box "stops listening" for a moment when you send commands quickly to the box.

Anyone with the newer box (7xxx) have this problem as well?

-ak

[Keyboards]

---

@ak wrote:

Thanks for the replies.....

Kinda sucks to pay more for some very cool tech only to have something so simple be a common problem.  I did try different angles, and also held the remote right up to the window on the front of the box.  No improvment.  It just seems that the box "stops listening" for a moment when you send commands quickly to the box.

Anyone with the newer box (7xxx) have this problem as well?

-ak

---

Probably (and this is conjecture) overflows the IR receive buffer and has to wait to recognize more button pushes.  Supposedly the 72xx series has a faster processor and maybe it will be able to handle the "fast" pushes better - again just conjecture on my part (still using an old 6416-2).

[GPGG1]

I don't have the 1.6 update but I am experiencing this same issue.  This issue is only with the DVR not the the HD STB

[ak46]

GPGG...

  Happened before and after 1.6 for me.  I only had 1.5 for about 10 days before the update.  I can also confirm that its only on the DVR unit.  The HD box on my other TV works perfectly.

  I'm getting close to calling about it.

-ak

[Techman28]

ok guys we have found the problem and are currently speaking with Motorola regarding this issue

Motorola is testing the IR chip for specification performance.

[ak46]

TM28,

  Great to hear that the issue has been recognized and is being looked at!  What does this mean for a fix?  Is it months of waiting for some kind of IMG patch or a hardware swap?  Just want to set expectations....the problem is really driving me crazy.

Thank you...

-ak

[spangreen]

My kids are always hitting this, trying to change channels (bug #1).   Then when they press too many times, thinking that will help, the STB winds up accepting an illegal channel number and redirects them of all places to channel 1951 (Urge Radio - Adult Content)  (Bug #2 - see my other post on this issue)

[NotarySojac]

Ah - glad to hear it.

We have has this problem since we got FiOS, but the 1.6 update appears to have reduced the problem for us somewhat.

We were seeing it most often when managing the DVR. Since the default selection in so many menus is DELETE, we had lost many recordings and schedule setups when the DVR suddenly executes all the stored-up button presses, and when you have been repeatedly pressing the OK buton in case the box had not registered the press so it suddenly zips ahead so fast you have no idea what it actually set up or got rid of. We learned patience gairly quickly and when the box decides to act unresponsive we simply sit for a minute or so between presses to be sure it is really not registering instead of just queing them all up.

[Keyboards]

---

@ak wrote:

This has been occuring before and after the 1.6 upgrade.  Thought I would ask if others experience the same thing or maybe I just have bad hardware (a commonplace thing it seems by this board).

On my DVR (with home media option) if I channel surf it often seems to miss button presses from the remote.  The red LED does blink, but the box doesn't change channel, or go to the next screen, or whatever function I just pressed.  I then press it again and it usually works fine.  This doesn't happen with every press, but often enough to be terribly annoying.

On my HD box without DVR it never misses a keypress...works the way you would expect it to.

I have swapped remotes and the problem stays with the DVR.

Is this a normal issue that everyone is dealing with?

Thanks!

-ak

---

Set your expectations low and you won't be disappointed .  Verizon tends to take a long time to integrate and test fixes before releasing (bugs in V1.5 from January of this year were just fixed in the recent release of V1.6).

[Techman28]

Seeing as how the issue seems to be with the IR chipset its something we have forwarded off to Motorola.  I do not have a timeframe on that fix at this time. I do know that some things do take time as from Keyboards post we want to make sure everyone has the best experience as possible.

[randonee]

I'm a new FIOS subscriber and this has been the worst thing about the experience from switching to FIOS TV from DirecTV. I have the QIP-72161. When the installer was setting up my box he couldn't get the remote to respond so he left me a second one and attributed it to the box getting it's initial updates. I had a bad feeling when he left and I was right. I've never used a more frustrating remote in my life. The buttons on the remote always light up, but you can see that the green light to the bottom right of the clock on the STB (that signals the remote link) doesn't always light up. When pressing the buttons on the remote it takes at least 3 - 4 presses on average to get a response and I have had to push a button up to 20 times to get it to work! When you're manually entering channel numbers some times it will stall out and instead of say channel 222 you'll get channel 22. At this rate the remote will only last about a month before it wears out because of the excessive button pushing. This is really a frustrating and horrible bug and I can't believe that this was rolled out to customers. Something this obvious should have been revealed in any reasonable testing program.

Message Edited by randonee on 10-18-2008 12:51 PM

[matcarl]

It just seems to have started this behavior a few weeks ago. I've had it for almost two years and I can't remember this problem as much as recently.

[Techman28]

I would have to agree with Matcarl here as I have had the service for almost 3 years now and this has just started happening to me. Verizon has asked Motorola to look at the IR Chip to determine the response time.

AK

It hasn't been determined as to how this issue can fully be resolved so its tough to say.

Message Edited by Techman28 on 10-18-2008 08:44 PM

[ak46]

Ive only had the service for 3 or 4 weeks and its been doing it since I got it.  So for me this is the normal and it stinks.  I can only hope that if it was broke because of a minor update, it can be fixed with a minor update.

-Andy

[Remote]

Same thing, I am new customer of 2 weeks my Tech came out and swap'd boxes and remotes still the same problem. Sucks to change a channel, Can't view a widget, can't scroll basically I have a TV with a box that does not work to change the channel. Should this keep up I am breaking my contract on Faulty equiptment and telling others to say away from the product. Why get FIOS if I have to get up and walk to change the channel this defeats the purpose.

[spangreen]

My guess is that this is not a problem with either the remote or the IR receiver.   It appears that button presses are seen by the STB but the processing is delayed.   This causes untold grief when scheduling a DVR recording or just trying to navigate the IMG in real-time.   It's likely a problem with the priority to which the embedded SW in the STB manages user interactions.  These boxes have a lot on their plate managing ongoing DVR recordings, current channel buffering, etc, but that's no excuse for poor performance.  They need to have enough horsepower to keep up with everything including being responsive to user input.