Sonicview 1000 Remote Fix

[aszurski]

*****starting rant mode******** ok, so i received my new sonicview sv1000 today to replace my vs2000 platinum (platy is going to the bedroom). Before ordering i read this forum to make sure it is a decent piece of equipment and i saw mostly positive comments in regard to the sv-1000 so i was fairly confident in my purchase. So try and imagine how happy i was when the mailman showed up this morning with my new toy! i could barely wait to see the 7-day epg and snappy user-friendly menus......but..... Nope!!! after booting the sv1000, i firmly (but gently) depress the menu button to see what lies forth... But .. Huh? ...nothing!?!?! what? i must have forgot the battery's?? nope, not that... Let me try again. So i get all clint eastwood on it and aim right for the sonicview and once again firmly press the menu button **oh!!! the suspense!** yup! i nailed it!! the menu pops up and i whimper and sigh of relief. So i get my finger ready to start cruising the menus and i start going at it but the sonicview just does not seem to want to follow orders. That's when i realize my fatal mistake!! i bought a receiver with a pos remote!! fak!!!!!!! this thing has to be lined up within 1/20th of a degree before it will respond. I hate that!! i'm the type of guy who wants to bounce the ir beam off the walls and not even bother pickup the remote to up or down the volume, i wanna reach over and press the button while it sits on the table.. Ok, so i'm lazy.. But i like being lazy!!!! thats why i got 1000+ channels! so i can sit on my ass! i don't want to have to jump up to aim my remote around an obstruction!!! fak that! so at this moment i decided that if this sonicview was going to screw with my way of life, i'm going to screw it back!! literally! *******rant mode over********** *******tutorial start*********** i started off with the discovery process, i had to figure out why it sucked. Here is what i discovered and how i fixed it. 1. First i focused my attention on the remote itself but more specifically the ir-led that flashes an ir signal to the receiver. I figured it must be defective or lacking in some way. Upon a quick compairison to my other remotes, i noticed that the anode/cathode are deeper down in the led, after some quick research (google rules) i discovered that this probably meant it was a led with a lesser beam angle than my other remotes. This would mean that the beam is less visible from the sides than my other remotes! this must be why it sucks!! so i find a few old junk remotes with nicer looking led's (wider beam angle). I check them by pressing on the buttons on the junkers and checking out the led with my digicam at varying angles to see which remote has the most intense flash at the greatest angle. After finding the best remote, i cracked it open and ripped out the ir-led and prepped it for a transplant. After ripping open my brand new sonicview remote i discover a second problem, but more on that later!! (see #2) so i snip out the old ir-led and solder in the new one and give it more lead so that it sticks out of the hole more. Result: after snapping it back together with the new ir-led installed i immediately noticed a significant difference! i could now aim +-40degrees away from the receiver and it would still work! yay!! but it was still not good enough, i was not able to bounce the beam off walls like i could with most remotes!! why??!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!? (go check out #3 and the pics) 2. While exploring the innards of my new remote and those of my old junk remotes i discovered a simpler solution than transplanting the ir-led, the original unit was poorly installed because it was poorly designed! what's up korea?!? you guys are supposed to be smarter than us.. Wtf? basically, every junk remote i opened had the leads coming off the led cut short (2-3mm) and bent in a way to make them more sturdy in their position while the sonicview remote has a good inch of lead before it's soldered to the board!! so depending on how the person assembling the remote bends it to fit in the hole of the remote it could end up functioning better or worse!!!!! that is a prime example of horrible design!! leaving the functionality of the product upto the person installing the components is a bad idea! so, in short.. If you pop open your remote and bend the lead from the led straight, you could gain some functionality!! sweet!! free mod!!! results: i decided on staying the course with my transplant so i was unable to determine the benefit of such a modification, but i would imagine it would have been noticeable on my remote but may be less noticeable on others depending on how the assembler of the remote was feeling that day. =p 3. Best for last sucka! so after ripping apart my new remote and a whole bunch of old junk ones, i was still missing something. Then it hit me when i saw my reflection in my brand new sonicview!!! that facken stupid mirror finish they added on the display!!!! the ir receiver must be hidden behind it!!!! those stupid unnecessary langugage!!! the receiver that was looking for flashes of light in the room was sitting behind a mirror!! could they be sooooo stupid?!?!?! yup!!!!!!! i pulled out my handy screwdriver and pried off that stupid panel, and there it was!!!! the ir receiver, sitting right next to the display!!! i could not believe the stupidity!!! it's like driving late at night with sunglasses on! this is when things got fun!! i tried using my remote while the mirror panel was off and it was like a whole new receiver!!!! i ran to the kitchen (next room over) to test my theory, and it worked !! i was turning the unit on and off without even being able to see it!!! yay!! so, am i supposed to live with a receiver that looks like a stripped down car so that i can use the remote the way it's supposed to be used?!??! hell no!!! get out the power tools kiddies!!!!! don't tell daddy!! i lay the removed panel on a stack of old newspapers with the mirror side facing down and got out the biggest drill bit i had!! a few seconds later and my problems were solved (well, my tv problems.. Not the mental ones).. I am glad to say that my sonicview now behaves like it should have when i received it!! check out the pics guys!!