I have a couple and I've never had them do what you mention. However, I rarely use the original remotes - I use a Philips Pronto for one and a TiVo remote for the other. Are both of them in the same room or otherwise hooked up to the same power circuit?
My main complaint with them is the very slow response they have to commands from the remote (even the original), and the joystick thingy in the remote. I have one like that in my Toshiba DVD player and it works like a charm. On the Hughes' it is very imprecise and vague.