# Why does my universal remote do what it do?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-universal-remote-do-what-it-do/530387
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 25, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-universal-remote-do-what-it-do/530387 "2010-02-25T15:03:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dobieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dobieman)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-universal-remote-do-what-it-do/530387/1 "2010-02-25T15:03:07Z")
My cable decoder box came with a universal remote which I have also set up to control my tv. If I want to change anything on the tv I have to point the remote 90 degrees to the right where it is aimed at my curtains (light color, thick material, large pleats). If I point it directly at the tv…nothing. If I point it to the left into the room…nothing. Yet, if I point it directly at the cable box it works. And if I use the tv’s remote pointed directly at the tv, it responds. Why this most peculiar difference? (BTW, the tv sits at a 90 degree angle to the curtains as does the decoder box below it.)
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### Author:  [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-universal-remote-do-what-it-do/530387/2 "2010-02-25T16:47:20Z")
Clean the plastic over the IR receiver on TV. Is anything even remotely blocking the path from the remote to the TV?
Otherwise, call the local physics department… something is amiss in the rules of your IR spectrum. 🙂
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### Author:  [@dobieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dobieman)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-universal-remote-do-what-it-do/530387/3 "2010-02-25T17:14:03Z")
Shucks. That seems to have done the job. Apparently when cleaning it earlier this week I inadvertently got some house fuzz in the little opening.
Darn…and here I thought I was in some special vortex or something.