IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
LAK20
Enthusiast - Level 2

I'm curious if anyone has had success setting their Fios TV One remotes up when using an IR Extender (Flasher) with the box in another room.

It is my understanding the remotes use Bluetooth for some of the features, but I'm getting stuck on the pairing.  I've tried calling several VZ support reps and they had no experience with this.  The last conversation I had said that even the pairing used bluetooth so I can't pair when I am using an IR extender. 

While it sounds like that might be the case, I can't imagine designing a box incompatible with those who do not keep the boxes in the same room?  I did get a workaround to partially work  - and that was as soon as I was in pairing, I ran to the room with the boxes and paired directly with the box, and then brought the remote back into the room.  I can live with that now, but not if the remotes continuously look for updates or unpair. 

Just a note:  I'm using the same IR flasher I used on the old boxes (to same location) so that should not be the issue.  The old remotes are working on the TVs so the extenders are working.  And I set up another box without the IR extender in a different rooms so I don't think its me.  

This is what I'm using and it is working with the older VZ remotes and working after the "work around" above, it just wont pair the remote:  https://www.snapav.com/shop/en/snapav/episode-reg%3B-electronics-ir-flasher-with-led-feedback---sing...

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Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
clem21
Community Leader
Community Leader

I believe the Fios One boxes rely on bluetooth from the NEW remotes to work. They do however work with IR from the old remotes. The new remote sends box commands via bluetooth,  TV and other devices via IR for compatibility. Once you pair the remote to the box you should be able to use it at least 1 room away from the box as long as there isn't any serious interference. If you do have issues,  ask Verizon for an old remote which should work with your IR blaster. You did exactly the right thing by pairing the remote close to the box, then moving to the other room. Updates shouldn't affect the pairing.

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Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
clem21
Community Leader
Community Leader

I believe the Fios One boxes rely on bluetooth from the NEW remotes to work. They do however work with IR from the old remotes. The new remote sends box commands via bluetooth,  TV and other devices via IR for compatibility. Once you pair the remote to the box you should be able to use it at least 1 room away from the box as long as there isn't any serious interference. If you do have issues,  ask Verizon for an old remote which should work with your IR blaster. You did exactly the right thing by pairing the remote close to the box, then moving to the other room. Updates shouldn't affect the pairing.

Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
Edg1
Community Leader
Community Leader

Like clem said the remotes are using bluetooth not IR. People that have the boxes in another room using IR extenders are using high end remotes like logitech or control4. Not the Verizon remote. 

Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
LAK20
Enthusiast - Level 2

Klem & Edg - 

Thank you.  This is tremendously helpful.  Wish VZ told me about this before paying the $50 because I've spend hours on the phone with them trying to resolve - should have started with this forum.

I guess my challenge with these new boxes, the way they are - is if they do get out of sync, then I have to attempt to do this process all over again.  (even those I have paired every so often a popup comes up about the remote pairing) And if I can't get the value of the "voice remotes" is it even worth keeping these boxes?  

I can tell you that I have already had more issues with these boxes than I ever did with the old ones:

- The remote pairing

- The remote updating

- The resolution has been causing issues with my receiver

I'm wondering are these boxes, remote excluded, any better and worth the $50 i paid for them?  Because at this point given the number of times I get these pairing messages on the boxes (Even the boxes I have paired), they seem to be more of a pain than they are worth...

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Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
clem21
Community Leader
Community Leader

Can't say if they are worth it, but it seems about par for the course for other providers too. You should fight to get the $50 back. Live with the remote or ask for the old remote and use the IR blaster. Unfortunately there have been some updates recently, not too often normally. What resolution issues are you having?

Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
LAK20
Enthusiast - Level 2

I had been having issues with my receiver saying unsupported resolution but the next time I turned it on it was fine. I dropped it to 1028 just in case And it hasn’t happened since. 

However sports look horrible on all of the TVs and I don’t remember the older boxes this bad.  But I could be just looking for the issues - however it looks much worse than steaming the same channel on YouTubeTV

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Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
clem21
Community Leader
Community Leader

For the best picture quality you should look for a passthrough option in the resolution settings. It was supposed to be in the latest firmware update,  but it hasn't been distributed everywhere yet. That way your TV does all the upscaling,  which is most likely better than the Fios box doing it. Hopefully you are looking at channels from 500 up. Anything below 500 is SD. Also several sports channels like ESPN are in 720P. Remember that if you upgraded from a 1080 HD TV to 4K, the TV now has to upscale everything except true 4K sources, so it wont look as good as it did on the 1080 native TV. Is you receiver 4K capable?

Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
LAK20
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thanks so much for all of your assistance and the note.  Yes they are all Samsung 4K Ultra HD TVs.

The ones where the set-top are connected directly (no receiver), they all load ok, but the picture quality, especially in sports, just seem quite "bad" - very rough and streaky around the individuals on the screen.  And the quality is much worse than Netflix/Disney/etc.   In fact, it just feels like the quality is worse than before I upgraded the boxes (they also did the ONT at the same time since my older ONT only supported up to 100GB)

The one connected via a receiver, about half the time I turn on the TV it says the signal not supported.  The other half it works fine.  So for that I just assume its how I set up the receiver

I'm not quite sure how to change all of the settings to drive the upscaling on the TV, what would I change on the box resolution and then for the TV, it appears to automatically convert, but not sure if there is something else I'll need to do. 

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Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
clem21
Community Leader
Community Leader

If you go to the Fios One menu, look in audio and video settings, video, look for resolution. If there is a passthrough option select that. If not first try 1080, then try 2160, and choose whichever looks best. As far as the receiver goes, is there a menu option on the inputs for enhanced, or 4K or something like that? If so enable it for the input that the Fios box feeds. Check for something similar on the TVs too. Also what brand and model is the receiver?

Re: IR Extender (Flasher) with Fios TV One Remotes? Has anyone had success in pairing?
JCruthers
Newbie

One of my televisions is on a different floor than the box. is this too far for the bluetooth voice remote?

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