Can I tell DirecTV remote to NOT send volume down on volume up to soundbar?

A few months ago, the DirecTV remote started to mess with our Klipsch sound bar.  When you hit volume up on the remote, the TV indicator would start to go up but then immediately start going down all the way to 0.  The only way to turn the volume up was to get the TV's remote and use Volume up command on that.

So we thought it was a bad remote- maybe the volume toggle switch was flaky.  Not an unreasonable though since we've had the remote for some time.  DirecTV shipped us a brand new remote, and I followed the on screen wizard to pair it up.

The same problem happens though.  If the Klipsch sound bar sees the DirecTV remote's IR Volume Up (or down) command, it must be telling the TV over HDMI CEC to lower the volume.  If I block the IR sensor on the sound bar so it can't see DirecTV's IR- then the volume control works normally.  Up turns it up - all the way to 100 if you could stand it, while down turns it down.

So we keep the IR sensor covered, but sometimes the felt sticky falls off, and cats play with it, knock it around etc...  I never really need the IR on the sound bar anyway - it has physical buttons on it if I want to change inputs to bluetooth, etc...  Plus there's also an app to control it, which by the way says the firmware is up to date (it always says that for the last 3 years).

So now I have a piece of paper colored with a dark marker and packing tape covering the sound bars IR eye.  Low-tech fix for a weird issue that just started happening out of nowhere a few months back.

Nothing in our setup has changed except manufacturer firmware updates in the TV (Sony) DirecTV HR44, etc...  Things have been power cycled, cold booted, etc...  Its ONLY the DirecTV remote.  Could there be a code to program in the DirecTV remote to not send Klipsch volume down IR command when the volume up button is pressed?  As far as I know I didn't setup any audio systems in the remote.  I dont really have to because if the TV itself gets a volume command; it controls the sound bar over the HDMI 3 (ARC) connection.