Programming Your DISH Universal Remote For Your TV

I was given a TV from a family member but it did not come with a remote. But I knew that my DISH remote can figure it out, once you put the right universal remote code in.

I went online and found the directions for setting my code.  They went as follows:

1. Press and hold the TV Mode button until all four mode buttons flash, let go. The TV mode button will continue to flash.

2. Enter one of these 3 digit codes:

(I tried about 80 different codes)

3. Press # (pound)

4. Press the power button to see if it will turn off your TV. If not, go through again and try the next number.

WHAT a waste of time!


After hitting a unique frustration level, I found another resource that gave me the following directions:

It's called scanning the remote database and if I had found this sooner, I could have saved myself about an hour of remote punching buttons.

Turn on your TV (Or whatever device you're looking to control)

Press the 'Menu' button, then choose 'Settings' and slide over to 'Remote Manager.'

Select the 'TV Code' option.

Select 'Lookup Code.'

There is a 'Sort By' and 'Brand' Box. I did not use the 'Sort by' box but instead, scrolled down the my TV brand.

I chose my brand and a screen came up that said it had 19 codes to try. When the screen came up, it had already selected my first code to test, 0019 (In my case). I tried my volume and boom, first time out!

I selected 'Yes' to tell the system the code chosen worked and I was done.

That took all of five minutes. At most. Arg.

So in some (or all?) cases, going through this discovery mode may be a better first try than punching codes all night wondering when it will work.

Oh, by the way, the code that popped up was in no list that I found online.

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