I’ve just acquired a used TV with no remote control. It’s a big, old mama jamma crt kind, but a great luxury to me after watching a thirteen inch screen for the last two years.
It has no user’s manual but I fumbled my way through enough to get it to work. I can change the channels with my cable remote and my DVD player has its own remote. The only problem is I can only operate the TV itself mannually. Not a huge deal; jeez, I’m not that lazy, but it would be nice to be able to operate the volume and switch to DVD mode via remote.
I’ve been futzing around with the universal remote for a few hours to no avail. The instructions aren’t all that complex so I think I’ve been doing it correctly but I can’t get it to work. I saw on one of the user manuals online that some Samsungs don’t work with universal remotes “for unknown reasons”. That could be the problem, I guess, but I can’t get it to work with my DVD player either.
Could it be a problem with the way I have the TV set up? I know it’s hard to diagnose something when you’re not actually looking at it and I’m not sure what I could tell you that would be helpful.
If anyone has experience / knowledge with this I would be ever so grateful. I wasn’t able to find a resource to purchase a replacement remote (they’re all on “national backorder”)so if you have any bright ideas in that direction, that would be equally appreciated.
The TV is a Samsung, model # TXK2766 ( I may have transposed the K and the X) and the remote is an RCA. There are several numbers on the remote manual so not sure which one is crucial.
It occurs to me that I’ve never used the original remote for my previous TV, always using the one provided by the cable company, so now I’m more puzzled than ever. Additionally, I moved said previous TV into another room where I used to have a television, also always operated by the cable remote, and now I can’t operate the TV in there either; just switch channels.
I feel like it’s something painfully obvious but my complete electronic ignorance is harshing my mellow, man.
You didn’t mention what cable company you have service with, but if you go to their website, they should have a code to program the cable remote to operate your TV. There are codes for all different brands of sets, and some brands have more than one code, but if you follow the instructions, you should be able to program the remote pretty easily.
Many thanks, guys( or girls?); I did contact my cable provider and they were able to solve at least half of the problem. I sincerely appreciate you and anyone else who read my post and took the time to think about / respond.
I shall now resume watching the Rays kill the Yankees. . .
There are “dumb” universal remotes which ship from the factory with a fixed set of codes, “smart” universal remotes which can be updated with varying degrees of difficulty (see JP1 remote for an example), and “learning” universal remotes which can mimic a code they learn from another remote (usually the device’s original single-function remote, though they can learn from another universal remote).
Most of the cable / satellite company remotes are of the first or second type. They have a database of codes (which works since most gadgets from the same company use the same set of codes). So you’ll see something like “SONY - 176-183, 192” which means that that particular universal remote’s database thinks your SONY product might be controllable via code set 176, 177, … 183, or 192. Note that some other cable box remote may use different numbers to represent those same code sets.
All of the “intelligence” that tells you “press menu and setup at the same time, then press 176. Now try turning your TV off and back on with the remote. Did that work?” is actually in the cable / satellite box. It isn’t actually telling your remote anything. It is telling you to try code set 176 and see if it works.