TCL Television + DirecTV Remote

by Christopher

This is a quick post that will hopefully help someone else out there.  I just bought an inexpensive (very inexpensive) 40″ television from Amazon, built by TCL.  Getting it to work with my DirecTV universal remote has been an hour of life wasting headaches that I have finally resolved.  I figured this was going to be difficult, since the TCL manual says “this TV utilizes new remote control signals and may not be compatible with your existing universal remote…”  Awesome.

Anyway, I have the “standard” DirecTV universal remote, model RC34 (shown at the top left of the remote in small print).  I found that the RCA code “11547″ gets the TV to work with power on/off and volume; the only two features I needed (simple setup).  By the way, I did try the built in DirecTV receiver programming options and nothing helped.  Enjoy!

{ 19 comments }

Marcos A Pellicer March 1, 2012 at 1:39 pm

need the 5 digits code to program my directv sender on my TCL 46″ Led.

Christopher March 1, 2012 at 7:06 pm

Does the code above not work for you?

Marcos A Pellicer July 6, 2012 at 4:13 pm

No, it did not.

Marc July 6, 2012 at 7:04 pm

Saved me the headache. Worked on RC64. Much appreciated.

Randy August 6, 2012 at 12:54 am

Thanks so much, this worked perfectly!

michael August 29, 2012 at 6:50 pm

thanks so much the code worked on mine

Christopher August 29, 2012 at 7:19 pm

Good to hear all!

Lobsang September 17, 2012 at 11:38 pm

The code works mostly fine, but when I press the ‘off’ or ‘on’ buttons, things go bad. Did you guys experience the same? Pressing PWR works, but I have to switch to the TV to turn it off/on and then switch to the directv receiver and do the same. The automated ‘off’ switch (which should turn off both DTV box and TV) only turn off the DTV box. The ‘on’ switch is equivalent to the ‘TV’ switch on the original remote.

Christopher September 18, 2012 at 8:43 am

I didn’t have this problem specifically but a friend of mine who has a TCL brand, had some issues with my code as well (volume, specifically). All I know is, the TCL brand of televisions use a different type of IR for remote controls. All of this to say, it leaves us consumers scrambling to find solutions. So aggravating.

Gillian November 17, 2012 at 5:07 pm

I have a TCL 32″ TV I tried a universal remote to operate the TV. The original remote was damaged. but I could not find a code that worked. Any ideas what I can do or where I could buy a replacement TCL remote?

Christopher November 19, 2012 at 10:30 am

Hey there Gillian. I haven’t really looked for a TCL replacement personally, but a quick search on Google showed plenty of places that you could buy one. Good luck!

tammy December 6, 2012 at 12:14 am

Thanks for the help, the code worked great on the volume, but the on/off is different, it doesnt’ turn the tv off but when you turn the receiver back on it changes the mode to cable and you have to move the bar across to tv and channel back up to the hdmi mode…any help with this would be appreciated.

Christopher December 26, 2012 at 11:09 am

Hi there Tammy. I’m not sure what else to tell you here, other than to try different codes. These TV’s don’t use standard IR technology, so they make it way more difficult on the rest of us to use universal remotes. :(

Jake December 24, 2012 at 2:50 pm

Thanks…also just purchased a 43″ TCL and 11547 worked also

Andrew January 1, 2013 at 9:44 pm

Did not work for my 40″ inch with my rc65

Christopher January 2, 2013 at 11:07 am

Thanks Andrew. These TCL TV’s kind of suck – not sure why they used a different IR tech (probably cheaper). Anyways, thanks for the reply – the more info we have here, the better we can help others.

mark January 11, 2013 at 4:06 pm

I have TCL 32″ model L32HDF11TA and Direct TV remote RC65. Set up remote by pressing menu, then settings and help then settings then remote. Choosing RCA, select L32HD31R as the specific RCA model. In satellite mode (switch to far left) press select choosing OK. Make sure you point the remote at the receiver until the message changes on screen. While working the green light on your remote should be flashing during the download. Test by pressing the power “off” (far right) not the PWR button.

MIke January 29, 2013 at 8:18 am

Just bought the 48″ TCL LED HDTV from Samsclub. The code 11547 worked for me FOR THE MOST PART. like Lobsang above, the only problem is that the OFF button on the RC65RX remote does not turn off the TV…have to use the TCL remote. The RC65 DOES turn on the TV and set top box however, just doesn’t turn off the TV

guy February 8, 2013 at 8:08 pm

interesting comments.

i have a tcl 32 inch just barely a year old. called customer service after remote did not work and went through three different types of batteries prior to that and did re-set ups too.

after talking with them, they sent me to another number for remotes, could not transfer me. after getting hung up on or not answered three times, i got through only to find out after a test with her that my remote was out and just the t.v. is covered by two year warranty, not the remote.

they wanted 35 bucks plus shipping and handling. i declined. went to radio shack, picked up a 9 dollar rca remote, had issues with codes- entered all rca codes, got all to work except for the on/off working that was mentioned above. re-did the code 11547, hit tv on the remote and on and off and it worked.

then for some reason, the new remote works without having to hit the t.v. button and volume and on/off was all i needed as i have a cable remote for channels, and of course a dvd remote for that too.

pain, disappointed in tcl but the price was good off of amazon, can be a throw away i suppose in time.

thanks for all the input people!

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