Weak remote control

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

Hello guys,

This is my first post as as of today I am a proud owner of the WD TV Live. Everything works as expected and I am very glad so far.

But unfortunately I have only one annoying problem with the remote control. It works only if I am at 10cm from the device. I have searched this forum for similar complaints, but did not find any.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

PS: My device is running the latest stable firmware

Thanks

Nikolay

2

lol 10 cm…im sorry but thats funny. i have not heard this one before :wink:

checked batteries?

3

Yeah, indeed, thats funny, but unfortunately true as well. Tried with brand new batteries and it was the same. I am clueless what to do :frowning:

4

There must be something faulty with either the remote or the HDTV Live.  The remote should work from 5m away!

If it’s new, then I would return it to the shop and ask for another.

If you have a universal remote, eg. Harmony One, you could try that to see whether it is the remote or the HDTV that has the problem.

5

Well, problem is not withing the remote, but something else. I managed to disassemble it and the problem turned out to be the plastic infront the leds. It is so thick, that it blocks the infra red. See picture below:

See how thick it is in the center. Once I removed it the remote control started working from any distance and angle. Seem design flow in my device. Has anyone else disassembled it as well?

Thanks

Nikolay

6

I just saw your post and was about to suggest that very thing but noticed you just discovered this for your self.

The protective sleeve ever the lens in front of the IR receiver acts as a filter to an IR signal and it doesn’t take much of the plastic film to cause a large attenuation to the signal.  If the lens becomes scratched, the scratches also acts as diffuser to the IR signal–remember that the frequency at which the IR device is operating is still light wave radiation, it’s just not visible to us because it is outside the wavelength our retina can detect.  

Think of this as you trying to see through the end of a soda pop bottle, the diffusion of the light would make it impossible for you to see any detail like printed words unless you were close enough to the printed material to overcome the diffusion.

Glad you found this one–but that was what caused it.  

7

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

But, well, this is a brand new WD TV live, so perhaps I have to ask for a replacement, because in order for the remote control to work, now I have an ugly whole with 2 leds powered :(. It is definetelly that the IR filter is damaged :frowning:

Thanks

Nikolay

8

I can’t imagine how you ended up with holes in the device?  I assume the holes you describe are in the player case–not the remote.  In either case–there should be no holes exposing the LED IR sources or the reciever in the player.

How did the holes get in either the remote or the player? 

The plastic film that may have been covering the plastic lense, which is part of the player case,  is simply a removable film–the IR receiver sits behind the plastic cover.  

If you have holes in the case, this would be quite rare and could present some warranty issues.

Best of luck.

9

jkb242 wrote:

I can’t imagine how you ended up with holes in the device?  I assume the holes you describe are in the player case–not the remote.  In either case–there should be no holes exposing the LED IR sources or the reciever in the player.

 

How did the holes get in either the remote or the player? 

 

The plastic film that may have been covering the plastic lense, which is part of the player case,  is simply a removable film–the IR receiver sits behind the plastic cover.  

 

If you have holes in the case, this would be quite rare and could present some warranty issues.

 

Best of luck.

He has a hole in the case where he removed the I/R window. (the piece of plastic in the photo above) This also covers the power on and usb led so now they are showing.

10

Yep, exsactly :). That is why I think I have to return it and hope that the next one will be with the correct plastic cover.

Thanks

Nikolay

11

There’s a good chance that the thickness of the filter window is correct and that you have either a faulty IR receiver in the unit itself or a faulty IR LED in the remote. Could be a number of other things as well, like not enough power getting to the LED in the remote for some reason (bad resistor?). If I were you, I’d package it back up to look like it’s supposed to and get an RMA. Or, if you got it at Best Buy, take advantage of the 30 day return and trade it in ASAP.

There were some problems with the IR of the Gen1 but it was fixed with the Gen2 and the Live (the remotes are physically different in fact) so this is the first time I’ve heard anything about the Live having these kinds of problems.

12

I’m glad to see this thread. I just purchased a WD TV Live at my local Costco and after hooking it up the remote appeared not to work at all. I swapped batteries and then discovered it would only work if I held the remote directly in front of the unit and no more than 10 inches away. I also programmed my Logitech Harmony 700 remote for the WD TV Live thinking it’s IR might be considerably stronger than the original small remote. It also worked in the same fashion, holding it no more than 10" away and directly in front of the the WD. ;( I will have to make a 30 mile round trip to the closest Costco that has inventory and give it another chance. Fingers crossed I don’t get another lemon… (i’ll post a followup as to my success or failure)

13

The IR receiver cover is normally that thick. It’s special plastic that doesn’t block IR. 

Can you send me a private message with the serial number of the unit that is having IR reception issues?

14

This will sound stupid, but you’d be surprised how often this is really the case.  

  1.  Check to see if you turn all Compact Flourescent Lights off makes a difference.  (Some emit low levels of IR that interfere with remotes.)

  2.  Check to see if there’s any remotes stuck in the seat cushions that have a button jammed.

15

For checking the actual output of the LED   point the remote at a cell phone camera,   digital camera or webcam in a darkened room . As long as it uses a CCD device it will work.  We can’t see IR light but they can. You may need to hold the remote directly in front of the camera depending on the device.

 you can also check a remotes internal operation with an AM radio.  Make sure it is set to AM and set it to an empty frequency, doesn’t matter what frequency. Hold the remote near the radio itself, not the metal antenna and you should hear beeps and noise when you press a button.  Works because remotes use crystals at a frequency of  455khz. that is internal to AM radio circuits 

16

Sorry I didn’t get your reply until after I had exchanged the unit at Costco. The new unit works fine both with the original remote at normal distances as well as the Harmony ONE remote. FWIW, there was no other IR in the room and no fluorescent lighting that might cause interference. The unit I had returned I had tried it in two different rooms with the lights off and still the remote would only work as described - no more than 10" away and pointed directly in front of the WD TV, if it was at any angle it would not work at all.

17

LarryInAz wrote:
Sorry I didn’t get your reply until after I had exchanged the unit at Costco. The new unit works fine both with the original remote at normal distances as well as the Harmony ONE remote. FWIW, there was no other IR in the room and no fluorescent lighting that might cause interference. The unit I had returned I had tried it in two different rooms with the lights off and still the remote would only work as described - no more than 10" away and pointed directly in front of the WD TV, if it was at any angle it would not work at all.

I looked into it and apparently a small batch of units from several months ago had defective IR lenses. You must have gotten one of these. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Exchanging it at Costco was the correct thing to do. If anyone else runs into the same problem, either exchange the unit at the store you bought it from or contact our tech support for a replacement.

18

I have two of the WD TV Live boxes. One required the remote to be less than 6 feet from the box to work while the other required you to be only a lousy 12 inches from the set. Turns out it’s that small 1 1/2" by 1/2" oblong plastic cover for the LEDs (w/ the Power and USB icons) that’s causing the problem. Once I removed those, everything worked fine.

Anyone know if there’s a way to get replacement covers that fix this problem? Before I had to aim the remote perfectly at the unit, now I can be across the room aiming anywhere (i.e. much better.) I’ve had these units for a few months now so I doubt I can return it (in fact, I had to return the second unit which was DOA - I figured the weak remote on the replacement was better than DOA.)

I can run the units without the cover so that the remote works well - problem is that it’s unsightly (the power LED is very bright) and there’s a hole. If I have to, I suppose I could drill a hole for the IR, but I’d rather not do that.

Kinda surprised that if there was a production problem with these a “few months back”, there might be a recall.

Thanks.

  • Nigel
19

Contact WD – they have been issuing replacements (apparently there was a “bad” batch).