Hey all... mostly thrilled new 976 owner here. Unfortunately the included remote is driving me up a wall. Is it inconsistent for anyone else at normal seating distances?

Specifically, if I'm any more than 2 feet away, most button presses aren't received consistently by the processor. For example holding the volume button doesn't smoothly raise the volume... it seems to pause and stutter on its way up. Even worse, often switching inputs causes the volume to go up or other random behavior! Everything is terribly inconsistent.

Batteries are fine, so I feel the problem is more with the IR generation or keypad itself. What's really telling is that I've swapped in my old 990 remote, and the processor works great when I use that instead.

Am I the only one? Did I get a bum remote?

Mine works perfectly from 12' away which is as far as i can get. Has not failed a single action, so im guessing you got a bad one

You are the second person on the forum to mention potential problems with the remote. See this post

In the past I've had remotes where the IR diodes were bent during manufacturing and were pointing at the case instead of out the little window. Can you see if the diodes are pointed correctly?

Kiwi -- thanks for the data point. From 12' I could get the power to turn on, but had to walk closer before the volume even registered.

EEman -- thanks for linking that post. Adrian's experience sounds very similar. I'm including some quick photos of the IR diode, which looks about as well aligned as one would expect.

976 IR Remote Diode

Quirky Remote...last night while watching a number of Blu-ray movies and concerts, I noticed that when I pressed the volume up button on the remote, the volume actually went down. I pressed the same button again and it continued to go down. I then pressed the volume down button, and it continued to go down. Not sure what caused this, but this is probably the 3rd time it has happened over the last week. Thoughts on a fix for this intermittent problem?

Also, I will be receiving my IR repeater today, and will update the forum on that...but I did confirm that there is definitely a narrow approach angle on the 976 remote when aimed at the 976. Again, very similar to my TiVo remote (TiVo Roamio OTA 1 TB DVR).

As far as sound, the 976 was outstanding on each of the various Blu-rays I played: Gone with the Wind, Les Miserables, new Pearl Jam, Sargent Pepper's Lonely Heart Band 1978 (Frampton and the Bee Gees)...evidencing wide original variety of recording quality/remastering, and the 976 handled them all with no need to adjust Trim Level's. This was not possible with my Denon 3808 Ci.

My remote is fine, and will actually work by reflexion when pointing it at the opposing wall!

Sounds like some remotes are fine, and others not so much!

Hi Drue, As previously mentioned every single remote's signal strength gets checked. This happened while we were at the factory. If I have a free minute tomorrow, I will upload a quick video of the process. Some people's environments are not quite ideal.

Ask Peter about his situation with all the spurious IR in his room that was interfering with his Model 975...

If you'd like to download the video, it can be done here

Hi everyone, I remember ages ago that Plasma TVs were occasionally found to be sources of IR interference. You can double check this by trying your 976 remote with your panel turned off.

(google "plasma interference ir remote" for supporting documentation)