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DirecTV RC64 Volume Controls Don't Work


ankurgupta1

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I just received my flirc today and I am truly impressed! This little bugger does almost exactly what I wanted it to do (I explain the almost below). Congratulations on such an amazing product, Jason. Definitely money well spent.

So my setup is that I am using the SlingPlayer desktop application and wanted to pair an old DirecTV remote (RC64) with it so I don't have to be at my computer to control it.

I got all the buttons mapped to SlingPlayer keyboard shortcuts via the flirc GUI except for the Volume Up/Down, Mute, and TV Input (I was using this button to control a different part of the application) buttons. I ran the Flirc Utilities application to see what was happening when I pressed those buttons and I noticed that those 4 buttons all were doing the same thing. Whatever I mapped to one of those, the other 3 would end up doing the same thing. I thought maybe the remote was bad so I tried my current DirecTV remote (RC65R), which has the same layout, but the same issue occurred.

I'm not sure why this is happening, but my guess is that flirc can't seem to decipher between the IR signals of those 4 buttons for some reason. Jason, do you think this may be the issue or have any suggestions or what else could be the issue?

In the meantime, I mapped those commands to the red, green, yellow, and blue buttons since SlingPlayer can't use those buttons properly anyway, but this isn't a very convenient workaround as I have to remember that blue = volume up and yellow = volume down :P

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Hi Ankurgupta1, glad you're liking your flirc.

I would agree with your conclusions with regards to volume control. I'm not sure what can be done.

Not sure if you've considered it but could you map the volume button to your TVs volume button (control the TV volume)

Pleasant regards,

Chris!

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Well the way my set up is the TV (pc monitor) volume isn't being used. The audio is outputted to my desktop speakers. Eventually, I want to try and get it to work with the media keys built into Windows, but first I need to get flirc to see that each button press is different.

I did some more research and it seems to be an issue with all DirecTV remotes in the way they handle volume controls. I'm trying to see if there's a way I can get the remote to send a different signal for volume up, volume down, and mute.

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  • 5 months later...

I'm having the same problem with an RC65X remote, but I think this pertains to all DirecTV remotes. I think the problem with the volume up/down, mute, and TV input buttons is that for these buttons the remote sends a DirecTV receiver IR command prior to sending the IR command for the button itself. When you press those buttons you will see the LED on the remote flash indicating transmission of the DirecTV receiver command flash right before it flashes again indicating transmission of the TV command. I believe the flirc only records the first command for the receiver rather than the whole sequence. Since this first command is probably the same, the flirc interprets all four buttons as being the same. I'm guessing there is a timeout in the firmware to catch the end of the IR signal, but is it possible to make this longer so that it sees both IR commands?

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I'm having the same problem with an RC65X remote, but I think this pertains to all DirecTV remotes. I think the problem with the volume up/down, mute, and TV input buttons is that for these buttons the remote sends a DirecTV receiver IR command prior to sending the IR command for the button itself. When you press those buttons you will see the LED on the remote flash indicating transmission of the DirecTV receiver command flash right before it flashes again indicating transmission of the TV command. I believe the flirc only records the first command for the receiver rather than the whole sequence. Since this first command is probably the same, the flirc interprets all four buttons as being the same. I'm guessing there is a timeout in the firmware to catch the end of the IR signal, but is it possible to make this longer so that it sees both IR commands?

Very interesting theory. Makes sense to me.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I figured out a hacky solution for the volume controls on my DirecTV remote. Basically, vsu is correct that the volume buttons send two commands in sequence so you have to get the Flirc program to record only as the second command is being sent. Whereas most buttons only light up the top-left light on my remote, the volume controls light up the top-left then the top-right immediately after and that seems to indicate when each command is being sent. My solution is to:

 

1) Hover the mouse cursor over the desired key to record in the Flirc program

2) Press the desired volume button on the remote

3) Wait as the first light blinks and then click the mouse as the second light turns on so that only the second command is recorded.

 

You may have to try a few times to get the timing right, but I now have volume up, volume down, and mute all working with the DirecTV remote through Flirc. If you click too late, just click again to cancel the recording and try again. Strangely the XBMC "mute" button preset didn't work so I had to manually set it to F8 in the keyboard controller.

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  • 2 months later...

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