Help with IR Blaster!/ Changing channels (1 Viewer)

I bought a ReplayTV last December and I love it. I have absolutely no complaints about it, except for one thing: it only changes channels correctly about 90% of the time.
If i am watching a movie or something and I am about to tape an important show, I find myself watching the cable box like a hawk to make sure all 3 digits are inputed.
It seems to sometimes leave the first or middle digit out at random. I have lost a few shows this way and it is so frustrating to go watch a recorded show and have it record the last channel it was on instead of the correct channel (on the recording I can see the didits of the cable box, but it goes away if only two are entered.) For instance, I will see 07 when it should have recorded 079.
Is there anything I can do to make this more reliable? I wish I had the peace of mind to know it would record my shows guaranteed, but it seems like once every 1 or 2 days I have to hurry up and change the channel if I see it didn't change channels correctly and obviously I can't monitor it at all hours (nor should I have to!).
My cable box has an IR input that looks similar to the IR Blaster that goes into the Replay unit. I stehre a way to hook the machines up directly through that if I could purchase some kind of adapter plug?
Is it my cable box that sometimes just doesn't respond right away? I was thinking of changing cable boxes as I have another one upstairs that appears to be a slightly different (perhaps newer) model.
I have moved the IR blaster around a few times to try and get it as directly as possible on the remote sensor, and it does work more accurately than it did at first.
I haven't heard anyone else on here complain about this, but this is my main complaint on the system. I was wondering what I can do to get this work all the time?
Anyone have any tips? Thanks!
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Jodee/Andy

The problem is most likely with your cable box. Do you have a General Instrument box, by any chance?
You can fine tune the IR blaster to correct the problem:
Go through the Setup screens. On the screen labeled Code Set Selection, hit the Replay Zones button on the remote. This will give you a screen with fine tune adjustments. The values for General Instruments DCT-1000 and DCT-2000 boxes are as follows:
Enable Fine Tuning: Yes
Codeset: 4476
Send Enter: Yes
Minimum digits to send: 3
Interaction delay: 0400ms
Response delay: 0200ms
Pre-command delay: 0400ms
Inter-command delay: 0401ms
This should fix the problem. If it's still flakey, try tinkering with the "delay" values.

Thanks Michael!
I would have never known that screen was there or how to access it. I do have a General Instruments box, I think its a DCT 2244. I had set it up as code 0476 which worked the best, but I changed everything else in that screen how you said.
So far it's working great! Before I always had problems changing the channel through the channel guide (I used to have to do it at least twice to get it to work) but so far that's working like a charm.
Thanks again. I've been suffering with this problem for a few months now, and I had just about resigned myself to the shortcomings of the technology. If this can record shows reliably I will be one happy camper!
I couldn't find any info on this trick on the ReplayTv site, so you are truly a savior with this info!
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Jodee/Andy

Greetings Michael,

Would those instructions also work for the Motorola DCT-2000 cable box? I have a similar issue with a Toshiba VCR that has the capability to change the channel on the cable box.

Although, the issue that I am having is that the Motorola is not listed as one of the cable box codes in the manual. Therefore, I am unable to use that feature. I have tried all 100 codes and none of them seem to work.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Keni

Keni,

Same instructions should work fine. General Instrument and Motorola are the same boxes. Additionally, the DCT-2000 and DCT-2224 boxes use the same remote and code set.

Jim L

Jim,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did check the setup menu but there was no option for Code Set Selection. Incidentally, I had called the cable company's tech support people a while back regarding this issue. Although, they didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about. Maybe I'll just go back to satellite TV, as the VCR has no problem changing the channels on the sat receiver.

Thanks for the assistance.

Keni