Remote control commands not working, or delayed? Here's one known issue and fix!

[ciscoz]

Short answer...  the XG1v4-A box has a problem with the HDMI-CEC compatibility!  Long answer... I recently upgraded my Home Theatre amplifier from a Yamaha RX-V1075 amp, to the new RX-A4A (Aventage) amp. I'd had NO problems with my Shaw remote control operations with the old amp, however upon connecting my new amp to the Shaw cable box, (an XG1v4-A box), I began having strange issues. It worked fine initially, but if I changed inputs from the Shaw cable box to my Amazon FireStick, or CD player, or Sirius radio, and stayed on the other input for any length of time, when I returned back to the Shaw input the remote seemed like it wouldn't work to pull up the Guide, change channels, or activate Voice commands, but would still work to control volume. I discovered thru trial and error, and patience, that the remote was actually still working, but that the commands were being delayed in the cable box, and were stacking if you kept hitting buttons trying to get it to work. So eventually each command button you pressed would start to work and if you had hit numerous buttons, each button command would start to activate in sequence, one after the other, until they all cleared. The delay seemed to depend on how long I stayed on the alternate input. If I changed inputs for only a couple minutes the delay was barely perceptible, only a second or two. If I was on the other input for half an hour, the delay was approx 5 minutes. If an hour or more, the delay was up to 10 minutes. If I unplugged the Shaw box and let it re-boot, the problem would be fixed, until I changed inputs again. I spoke to numerous Shaw technicians on the phone and none had any solutions. I had a Shaw Tech come to my place and test the equipment, even installing a different XG1v4 box, and it did the same thing. So I figured it had to be one of the settings that was conflicting. Hours of Google searches finally revealed a forum on XFinity in the U.S., who also uses the XG1v4 cable box, where some customers complained of the same issue. One customer discovered the problem as being the HDMI-CEC setting. So I checked this setting on my Shaw box, and sure enough, it was set to "ON" as a default. I had turned this setting off on my amplifier in my search for a solution, but hadn't turned it off on the cable box. Once I turned this setting "OFF" in the XG1v4 box settings, the remote control problem was cured and has not returned in over 2 months of operation. It seems this is an issue with a few of the newer home theatre amplifiers, including Yamaha and Denon. I advised the Shaw Technician about my discovery, and told their Tech department over the phone, but haven't seen any other discussions on this forum about this so figured I'd post here in case anyone else experiences this issue. 

[mdk]

@ciscoz wrote: when I returned back to the Shaw input the remote seemed like it wouldn't work to pull up the Guide, change channels, or activate Voice commands, but would still work to control volume.

Yes, the remote control was customized, when you did the initial setup, for your specific manufacturer/model of TV, so that some of the functions (TV on/off, mute, volume up/down, source) are sent DIRECTLY to your TV. The other functions (voice-input, Guide, channel-select/rewind/fast-forward) are processed by the Rogers box.

Anyway, you made a good point about "CEC" getting in your way.

[rstra]

@ciscoz I have a similar setup, Denon receiver connected to CEC and the XG1v4 and FireStick connected to the regular HDMI. I haven’t had any issues but I will keep this in mind. Thanks.

[shagir]

I can’t find this setting in my cable box settings.  Can you advise where I can find this setting please?

[rstra]

@shagir 

Settings / Device Settings / Power Preferences / HDMI Device Control (HDMI-CEC)