I know that there's a thread somewhere around here about it, but I can't seem to dig it up. Cable box RF remotes. We had the same problem when the satellite remotes had to be either or RF or IR, but couldn't be both. One of the cable companies in the area I server has rolled out new cable boxes with, you guessed it, RF cable box remotes. I am an RTI dealer and one of my most popular little sales is the two button in-wall "System On/System Off" which turns everything on and puts it into a predetermined state usually with the display on the Golf Channel or CNN. Now I can't control the cable box with IR. Have any of you guys come up with a work around?

I haven't heard of any providers having boxes that accept RF only. If that is truly the case, that is pure horsesh1t.

Some Directv boxes are one or the other. Newer ones don't seem to be an issue. The Comcast X1 and Cox Contour2 (same system btw) have RF remotes. From what I have seen of the Contour2 boxes, they take IR and RF simultaneously. The RF remotes provided by Cox are set RF only, but I recall seeing a thread here that tells you how to make them do IR if you need to teach a control system. Otherwise the codes are in URC's database.

Huh.... I checked the remote for IR and it wasn't emitting any cable commands and talked to the Comcast guy who said they were all RF. I was so pissed at that point that I didn't think to see if the cable box would still receive IR, although I also couldn't find an obvious IR receiver location. I'll have to do a little more exploring. Glad Directv fixed that issue with their boxes. I'll report back. Thanks for the replies.

Press and hold setup button until light turns green, enter in 987. Now the cable remote is set to IR.

To follow up: I went back and was able to get it to work with IR codes as well as the RF from the stock remote. That window is completely invisible though! It was through trial and error and dumb luck that I was able to find a spot that worked well enough. Another gotcha was that the "Cursor Enter" and the "Enter" button are not the thing. That took less time to figure out, but longer than I'd care to admit. Thanks for the replies.

I swear, it is like trying to hit a constantly moving target.

Can confirm the newer Directv boxes will do both. I set up any non distributed video with HDMI passthrough enabled on the AVR and the Directv remote setup to control the display.
Kind of a backup plan in the event of a control system issue (like if the client forgets to charge their remote).