What to do with Direct TV receivers and remotes?

Is there a way to test if a TV's (remote) receiver is working/broken?

• My family recently got a (very) old Sanyo TV from my dad's friend (to replace another old TV we had that got fried in a blackout) and we first tried to just use the universal remote we all ready had, but none of the Sanyo codes worked. We buy another run of the mill remote from Wal-Mart and none of it's codes worked either. We now suspect that perhaps the part that receivers the remotes IR signal is just broken. Is there a way to confirm this (that a lay-person could do)? For now we're just turning on the VCR attached & using the VCR's channel-changing but we're still curious.

• Answer:

  The key fact in your question is "very old." Remote codes supplied with universal remotes don't cover every model of every manufacturer that was ever made with a remote function. I saw my first TV with a remote in 1957 (okay, I was quite young, but we had a Packard Bell TV with a remote). Anyway, it's most likely a simple matter that your Sanyo is too old to be included in the code list for a modern universal remote. You might try a Google search of the model number to see if there is an original equipment remote out there somewhere. That frequently works. ------------------- Per your additional details: FWIW, I also had a 27 inch CRT (picture tube) TV--a 1999 Zenith. And it would be too old for just about any modern universal remote. Lacking any specific evidence that something is wrong with the IR receiver/processor in your Sanyo of the same vintage, I'd still go looking for an OEM remote as suggested above.