Remote control is useless

[biohazardx9]

Ahh the older mini box.

You will need to upgrade to the newer mini box or the Pro box. Both use Bluetooth to control the box and not ir. 

Responsiveness is much much better as well. 

Mine is quick and I get around very good with it. 

100% something is interfering with the box's ir signal on your existing. 

What you can do is boot up a camera on your phone. Point it at various devices and look on your screen, if anything is emitting ir signals you'll see it on your screen. Old hack I use myself to test if remotes are working well. 

[ericf]

I have just read these comments trying to fix my frustrating remote. Like everyone else I have spent a lot of time trying to get some sort of proper use from it.

I now have something to share. I'm afraid I don't know what model box I have but hopefully when I describe mine you will have some idea.

This is a very simple remedy which makes absolutely no sense at all. Turn your box around so the rear points out towards you and you can see the cables. On mine there is the aerial, HDMI and Ethernet cables. There is also something which has a red light with the letters SPDIF. I use the red light as something to point at.

This works for me and I hope it works for you.

[Midnight_Voice]

@ericf 

Oh, it makes sense.

Though what you are pointing at is the Optical Out of the YouView box, and the red light is the data stream from it. But I am afraid this red is a herring 😢

I guess that even with the box turned round, enough of what is coming from the remote is being caught by the magic eye on the front of the box, and so operates it. But whatever was blocking things before isn’t registering with the magic eye any longer.

For testing, turn the box back the normal way round, and consider:-

Is it a plasma TV? They do this blocking.

Is there a fish tank involved? These can do it also.

Have you tried the phone camera trick described above to see if anything else in the room is spewing out optical interference?

Have you tried drawing the curtains and turning at the lights off? If that improves things, turn the lights back on one by one until you find the culprit, and finally see if pulling back the curtains makes a difference.

[ericf]

A fair point.

However after so much time trying find out whatever was causing the problem, I'm just happy to accept it works.

Not really a technical cure but the box was in danger of becoming a frisbee thrown out of the window. It's not round but I'm sure it would have flown far enough.

[Midnight_Voice]

@ericf 

YouFlew? 😛

[ericf]

😁