My Philips DVDR, model DVDR3576H (160 GB), only 3 years old, stopped
responding to my remote.

Replaced the batteries. No better.

Used the universal remote that doesn't have all the commands, only
on/off, numbers, play, stop, etc. No better. That remote still
works fine with a tv it's also set up for. (Up for which it's also
set.)

Turned the DVDR off for hours, no better. (The remote has nothing
to do with any logic circuits that can get confused, anyhow, right?)

Moved the factory remote around 1/2 inch from the IR window and kept
the 1 button down for a while and finally got a 1 to show in the
channel display. Got a 5 the same way. Can't make an 11, and no
other buttons work either.

Could the problem be the thing behind the IR window, which I can
probably buy or scavenge and already have one in my used-parts drawer
too? Or is it more likely to be some small part on the circuit board?

Is this fixable at a reasaonable price, or even under 100?

Is it fixable by me, who used to fix a tvs fairly successfully before
they went to IC's and propietary boards

Thanks.



Background:
After 3 years, they are making no improvements to this model and there
is no other model quite as good with a digital tuner and harddrive. I
use only the harddrive 99% of the time. I don't foresee anything
better for years to come, since they concentrate on cable and sat.
customers.

IS THERE SOMETHING NEW i DON'T KNOW ABOUT? (The other brand starts
with M, iirc. Magnavox?)

I paid 300 or a little more, and 20 refurbished previous models are on
ebay new at $205! There's a used one, my model, on ebay at $76 with 4
more days to bid. I could buy one of these and when it breaks in a
few years I might be able to use the IR sensor or the board it
connects to to repair this current one.

Deep, deep background, that is, unneeded info for the curious. There
are a lot of flaws in the design of this, but this is still the best
model for OTA, one of the 2 latest models I know of DVDRs with an ATSC
tune and hard drive.

But: It doesn't save the program name or description, only the time
and channel and length that it was recorded. It doesn't let you look
at the program info when you're recording the program. The live info
display doesn't show what time the progrram starts or ends, like the
set-top box I have does. If program scan includes channel 2.1, it
must also include 2.2, 2.3 etc. If you set it to record for two
hours, but you have a pre-set recording starting in the middle of
that, the pre-set takes preference, unlike my good VCR. And lots of
smaller things, all of which could be corrected I think with a
firmware upgrade, but they only wrote one firmware upgrade for one big
problem at the start, and no more. As to physical stores, these were
only sold at Walmart, because everyone else has cable, I guess. (It
does permit editing that I will never do.)

There is even a still older model, broken, that he wants 120 inc s&h
for parts!!!

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:18:43 -0400, mm wrote:

My Philips DVDR, model DVDR3576H (160 GB), only 3 years old, stopped
responding to my remote.

Replaced the batteries. No better.

Used the universal remote that doesn't have all the commands, only
on/off, numbers, play, stop, etc. No better. That remote still
works fine with a tv it's also set up for. (Up for which it's also
set.)

If you changed transmitters (remotes) and the problem stayed with the
receiver (DVDR) then the problem is most likely with the DVDR, not the
remotes.

AFAIK, most IR receivers use pulses (of various encoding schemes)
modulating a carrier of something near 38 KHz. If the receiver module
has croaked, there are replacements.

Lots of the receiver modules look like
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=751-1385-5-ND
some like
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=425-2022-ND
or
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=425-1994-ND

While it's best to match the transmitter's carrier frequency with the
center of the bandpass on the receiver, the receivers are generally
fairly forgiving. That's why the "universal" remotes are effective, too.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:05:54 -0400, Rich Webb
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:18:43 -0400, mm wrote:

My Philips DVDR, model DVDR3576H (160 GB), only 3 years old, stopped
responding to my remote.

Replaced the batteries. No better.

Used the universal remote that doesn't have all the commands, only
on/off, numbers, play, stop, etc. No better. That remote still
works fine with a tv it's also set up for. (Up for which it's also
set.)

If you changed transmitters (remotes) and the problem stayed with the
receiver (DVDR) then the problem is most likely with the DVDR, not the
remotes.

AFAIK, most IR receivers use pulses (of various encoding schemes)
modulating a carrier of something near 38 KHz. If the receiver module
has croaked, there are replacements.

Lots of the receiver modules look like
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=751-1385-5-ND
some like
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=425-2022-ND
or
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=425-1994-ND

While it's best to match the transmitter's carrier frequency with the
center of the bandpass on the receiver, the receivers are generally
fairly forgiving. That's why the "universal" remotes are effective, too.

Well, I can certainly replace this part. I hope that's it. Thanks.

On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:02:27 -0400, mm wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:05:54 -0400, Rich Webb
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:18:43 -0400, mm wrote:

My Philips DVDR, model DVDR3576H (160 GB), only 3 years old, stopped
responding to my remote.

Replaced the batteries. No better.

Used the universal remote that doesn't have all the commands, only
on/off, numbers, play, stop, etc. No better. That remote still
works fine with a tv it's also set up for. (Up for which it's also
set.)

If you changed transmitters (remotes) and the problem stayed with the
receiver (DVDR) then the problem is most likely with the DVDR, not the
remotes.

AFAIK, most IR receivers use pulses (of various encoding schemes)
modulating a carrier of something near 38 KHz. If the receiver module
has croaked, there are replacements.

Lots of the receiver modules look like
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=751-1385-5-ND
some like
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=425-2022-ND
or
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=425-1994-ND

While it's best to match the transmitter's carrier frequency with the
center of the bandpass on the receiver, the receivers are generally
fairly forgiving. That's why the "universal" remotes are effective, too.

Well, I can certainly replace this part. I hope that's it. Thanks.

If you have access to a 'scope *and* can get to the legs of the receiver
module, you may try probing it to see what kind of output you get. The
ones I've seen have power, ground, and an open collector output that may
or may not have an internal pull-up.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:29:18 -0400, mm
wrote:

Are you distingishing the IR receiver from the rest of its circuit?

Yes. The front end (IR detector, amplifier, BPF, wave shaping)
circuit is usually integrated into something like this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049727
http://www.google.com/search?q=ir+receiver+module&tbm=isch
I don't know what's inside the DVDR3576H but it will probably be
something similar. You should be able to connect an oscilloscope to
the output, and see pulses generated by the remote. You can also take
an IR receiver module, and turn it into an IR remote tester. Build up
a circuit to supply power and connect to the output to a scope.

However, it still might NOT be the remote, since you can see the IR
with a digital camera. I question whether it's the IR detector module
since you claim:
"Used the universal remote that doesn't have all the
commands, only on/off, numbers, play, stop, etc. No better."
Since the DVDR3576H works with the universal remote, it can't be the
IR receiver. You have a partial contradiction here, which makes
little sense.

One remote possiblity is that the remote has drifted in frequency
sufficiently to make it unreliable. You would still see the output on
the digital camera, but since it's off frequency, it won't control the
DVR. Can the original remote operate any OTHER device besides the
DVR? You did mention that the universal remote was able to control
other devices, so I'll declare that one working.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:58:26 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:29:18 -0400, mm
wrote:

Are you distingishing the IR receiver from the rest of its circuit?

Yes. The front end (IR detector, amplifier, BPF, wave shaping)
circuit is usually integrated into something like this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049727
http://www.google.com/search?q=ir+receiver+module&tbm=isch
I don't know what's inside the DVDR3576H but it will probably be
something similar. You should be able to connect an oscilloscope to
the output, and see pulses generated by the remote. You can also take
an IR receiver module, and turn it into an IR remote tester. Build up
a circuit to supply power and connect to the output to a scope.

However, it still might NOT be the remote, since you can see the IR
with a digital camera. I question whether it's the IR detector module
since you claim:
"Used the universal remote that doesn't have all the
commands, only on/off, numbers, play, stop, etc. No better."

"No better" than the factory remote worked. That is, it didn't work.
Sorry.

Since the DVDR3576H works with the universal remote, it can't be the
IR receiver. You have a partial contradiction here, which makes
little sense.

I don't know why I specified what commands the thing had when it
worked.

The universal does work fine with a TV that it is also set up for.
Maybe that's what misled you.

One remote possiblity is that the remote has drifted in frequency
sufficiently to make it unreliable.

It was working fine until it wasnt' working at all, except for those 2
singles-digit numbers in the middle of loads of unsuccssful testing.
Where I held the button down for a long time, though I've done that
too plenty of times without getting anything. Maybe I should hit the
thing.

You would still see the output on
the digital camera, but since it's off frequency, it won't control the
DVR. Can the original remote operate any OTHER device besides the
DVR?

No. Only designed for this one thing.

You did mention that the universal remote was able to control
other devices, so I'll declare that one working.

Okay, but not for the DVDR.

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:11:00 -0400, mm
wrote:

"No better" than the factory remote worked. That is, it didn't work.
Sorry.

Ok. Then the problem is in the DVR and probably the IR receiver
module. Drag out the oscilloscope and dive in. There's probably a
test point near the IR receiver module, or just check the leads for
data. This should be easy (famous last assumptions).



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:18:43 -0400, mm put
finger to keyboard and composed:

My Philips DVDR, model DVDR3576H (160 GB), only 3 years old, stopped
responding to my remote.

Moved the factory remote around 1/2 inch from the IR window and kept
the 1 button down for a while and finally got a 1 to show in the
channel display. Got a 5 the same way. Can't make an 11, and no
other buttons work either.

The uP inside the DVDR gets its user input from either the decoded IR
stream or the buttons on the front panel.

If one of the buttons were to stick, then that could produce the
observed symptoms. Can you still control the DVDR from the front
panel?

Alternatively, have you checked for IR interference, such as from your
lighting?

Is there a cockroach in the IR window? :-)

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.