Help! Can a neighbor's remote change channels in MY house?

[The Unknown Gomer]

Techie question for you folks who are technically minded. I sent an email to my boss, who knows about these things, but he's going to be shooting a deposition in Greenville all day tomorrow, so he may not be around to answer any too soon.

Is it possible for someone who has a remote that just happens to be tuned to the same frequency as you, but who lives, say, next door, actually change the channels on your unit when they're changing them on theirs?

I had programmed Shrek the Halls (and figured to pick up the Grinch too, since I had space on the DVD) on ABC to record from 8 - 9 (well, since our clocks are always off a bit, I set it for 7:58). It came on at 7:58 like clockwork, and on ABC as well, but then promptly at 8pm, jumped over to Fox News, and then started skipping up the dial through all the high end channels that come after fox news, like HGTV, the Food Network, SoapNet, FX, National Geographic Channel, etc. Just like someone had decided they didn't want to watch Shrek, and clicked into Fox News and then just started channel surfing up the dial at 8pm.

Can that actually happen? Or did I get a lemon of a machine that I need to trade back for another one? To be on the safe side, I changed my Panasonic remote number from 2 to 3, which, if I did pick up our neighbor's remote signal on remote #2, should block that, I'd think. And I was going to ask them tomorrow if they happened to be channel surfing at 8pm tonight with a Panasonic unit.

What do you think?

I'm not too concerned about Shrek, I can probably download it in a day or so and put it on DVD to save that way, but that's kind of scary when I actually programmed everything exactly right on the recorder, and STILL didn't get the program I was after.

I think I've heard that this was possible, an infrared remote signal bouncing into someone else's house, but maybe it's an old wives tale. Anyone know? I've had the unit for about a month or two now, and it's never happened before, however, usually we keep our shutters closed at night, but now with the Christmas tree up, we keep 2 of the 4 panels open. Could something have bounced in through the window that would normally have been blocked by the shutters?

Thanks.

~ Karen ~

[HotWireD]

It sounds credible.

How about trying an experiment - go outside and point your remote into your television room through a window and try bouncing it off the window and walls to see if the channels change...

...and hope your neighbours do not see you or they may think you are crazy. :eek:

[The Unknown Gomer]

Good idea! And if the neighbors happen to ask what I'm doing, it'll be the perfect opportunity to ask them if they happened to be channel surfing on a Panasonic unit at 8pm tonight.

But I know I've bouced IR signals off of walls before. Just out of sheer boredom, more than once I've faced the remote to the wall behind me and tried changing channels on the tv in front of me, and have had it work.

I just didn't think it could go through walls though. Didn't actually give the open shutters a thought until I was typing my post and remembered that those are usually closed at night while we're watching TV, and it would be more likely to go through the window than a brick wall.

Oddly enough, I'd really LIKE for the remote to work through the window, that would mean the machine isn't broken and I won't have to take it back. And that would also mean, hopefully that changing the unit setting from 2 to 3 (#1 is already reserved for my regular DVD player) would fix the problem.