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Sam Neall

Audioholic Intern
When controlling my TV, the up and down buttons on my universal remote turn my LED back lights on and off. I have to unplug them if I want to control the TV and not get a light show haha. Is there anything I can do about this?
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
When controlling my TV, the up and down buttons on my universal remote turn my LED back lights on and off. I have to unplug them if I want to control the TV and not get a light show haha. Is there anything I can do about this?
Can't tell if you don't include the brand and model of the TV and remote.

The codes are clearly wrong- who programmed it? Was it the kind that requires learning everything, a computer with editor,......?

If it's URC, RTi or Logitech/Harmony, this can be fixed pretty easily.
 
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Sam Neall

Audioholic Intern
The TV is a LG 50UK6500AUA. The remote is a Logitech Harmony 350. I didn’t program it to control the lights. I have a separate remote that will change all the colors and patterns. I prefer to use the separate remote for the lights. I just can’t control my TV without also controlling the lights. The remote has an IR reciever on the back and it just copies the code that you put into it and replicates it. I didn’t need to do this when programming the TV because it did it automatically. It’s a simple remote and doesn’t really require any skill to program it.
 
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Full Audioholic
Short answer is no, Sam. The lights are the problem. I have the same issue. They don't follow the international standards for IR control. I have 3 coloured lights, 1 Philips and two generic, in the room and basically all the remotes for the Tv, Amp, projector and Logitech can change the colour and turn them off or on, depending up the actual device function I am trying to use. The Philips is the only one which works correctly with it's own remote.
 
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Sam Neall

Audioholic Intern
Ok thanks. Do you know of any brands that do follow those standards? I’d be fine to buy some new ones.
 
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Full Audioholic
Name brands usually,, especially if they already do other electronics, and of course more expensive. They actually should all comply to avoid this, but some companies just don't bother.
 
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Sam Neall

Audioholic Intern
OK I had an idea and was wondering if it will work. What if I get an RF remote and reciever and plug it up to my existing lights? The IR signals sent from my universal remote shouldn’t interfere with the light’s reciever than, right? I can get only the reciever than hook it up to the lights that I’ve already installed.
 
Montucky

Montucky

Full Audioholic
OK I had an idea and was wondering if it will work. What if I get an RF remote and reciever and plug it up to my existing lights? The IR signals sent from my universal remote shouldn’t interfere with the light’s reciever than, right? I can get only the reciever than hook it up to the lights that I’ve already installed.
That would probably be the best way to do it actually. Directly plugging the lights and TV, effectively abandoning actual IR use, would certainly take care of any possible interference.

Might be time to step it up to something like a Harmony Elite which is a great control for the money, BUT if you want to guarantee good results, I'm a big fan of RTI (ProControl if you need something more affordable),but many people choose to use URC, Control4, etc. All are pro install solutions, but I really like going all IP and RS-232 when possible. Maybe that's all overkill for what you're going for, but either way I do believe you're on the right track with your logic of going the way of an RF remote/receiver setup.

EDIT: If the receiver transmits the same IR codes as before, and it's your LED lights that share that code, something like a Harmony Hub could land you in the same predicament since it just blasts out whatever command is being inputted out of both IR ports at the same time. That's where something like an RTI processor comes in handy since you can designate what IR port is being used for what purpose. If you don't need/want a fancier control solution, then you honestly may be cheapest off going with a different brand of backlights as suggested above that uses IT'S OWN set of proper IR codes. Haha.
 
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highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
The TV is a LG 50UK6500AUA. The remote is a Logitech Harmony 350. I didn’t program it to control the lights. I have a separate remote that will change all the colors and patterns. I prefer to use the separate remote for the lights. I just can’t control my TV without also controlling the lights. The remote has an IR reciever on the back and it just copies the code that you put into it and replicates it. I didn’t need to do this when programming the TV because it did it automatically. It’s a simple remote and doesn’t really require any skill to program it.
I guess I misunderstood 'back lights' to mean the TV has this, not something you added.

The short answer- IR transmitters/receivers are made by a limited number of manufacturers, so it's possible that the LG TV and Phillips lighting use the same chips, with the same codes. I saw this with a security camera DVR and Pioneer commercial plasma TV and Harmony's tech support looked at the codes to see why the commands from one would control the other.

The easiest way to eliminate this problem would be to buy a Harmony Companion remote kit with the hub and place the IR emitter on the TV, where it won't affect the lights. It also allows using your smart phone to control the system. It would also allow you to control the lights separately, using the buttons on the remote that have light bulb graphics as well as integrating Alexa, if you want.

Don't use the blaster if you get a hub- use the small IR emitters. The hub has 2.5mm jacks, but adapters are easily available.
 
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highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I would use lights that are controlled via RF, not IR. If they're the Hue lights, I think they can be controlled by the Logitech Hub.
 
Montucky

Montucky

Full Audioholic
What brand/model lighting kit are you using? I'd be curious if we can dig up the IR codes for you to see if that and your model TV do indeed have a conflict in that department.
 
S

Sam Neall

Audioholic Intern
What brand/model lighting kit are you using? I'd be curious if we can dig up the IR codes for you to see if that and your model TV do indeed have a conflict in that department.
The brand is TOPLED I believe.
 
Montucky

Montucky

Full Audioholic
While I do not know what model specifically you have, from what I could tell from a quick search, it seems the included remote/IR receiver module that Topled typically includes is fairly standard across the industry. Haven't found the specific codes yet since I don't know what exact model you have, but you should probably be ok to keep using that setup with a bit of tweeking. At least with the receiver module on the LED backlighting I was using on my screen, I plugged into its IR port directly from my RTI processor using the 3.5mm jacks. Easy peasy.
 

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