does pvr 350 have IR blaster?

[aberson]

ok, I know this is a dumb question, but I guess worth asking:

I currently have a PVR-350 attached directly to cable. I'm thinking of switching to Dish Network in a few weeks, and from everything I read, the dishpvr stinks... so I want to see what it would take to make Sage work.

Do I NEED to buy an IR transmitter to control the DISH box (either the UIRT or the Actisys)? Are there any homebrew ones that work?

Or is it possible somehow that the PVR350 has the same IRblaster hardware built in as the 150, and I just need to build/buy the actual IR LED dongle... I need to take a closer look at my 350 card, but maybe somebody has already done so. I haven't found any posts. I see that the pvr150 has a separate connection for the IR blaster, so I guess it's pretty unlikely that the 350 has the hardware on-board.

How about if the mobo already has IRDA transmit and receive?

I know these are all long-shot questions, thanks for any replies!


Adam

[1972]

Hmmm, I don't know. But have you tried the Hauppauge forum?

[Wheemer]

The IR blaster for the 150 will not work with the 350... it doesn't have the capability. I am using the USB-Uirt with Sage's built in support, and it is working perfectly. You'll also be able to start using almost any remote you want to control sage through the UIRT.

It's a great device, I wouldn't was my time buying anything else. I started out with the myblaster and was very happy when I switched.

If your dish box has a serial port on the back you may also be able to control in via a serial cable, check that out for sure.

[aberson]

where's that (the hauppauge forum) - I couldn't find it?



after more searching, I discovered that WinLIRC could (in theory) control my Dish box with a real simple homebrew transmitter (IR LED + resistor... stuff I have lyring around).

So can Sage talk to winlirc for TRANSMITTING IR? Can sage talk to anything for transmitting IR, for that matter?

Winlirc has a command line program called transmit.exe to be used for transmitting IR. Could sage potentially interface with that? Alternatively, could the transmit.exe functionality be built into sage? I assume it's some sort of TCP/IP thing.

Looking at winlirc on sourceforge, it looks pretty dead, but what do I know.

[aberson]

According to this mythtv/lirc/dish howto:

"While most DirecTV receivers have rear panel RS232 ports which make interfacing to MythTV trivial, the majority of DISH receivers and cable boxes either lack a documented hardwired control port or the control port has been administratively disabled"


I realize the 350 doesn't have the 1/8" port for the blaster like the 150 has, but I guess I'm wondering if it might have the hardware/software somewhere in there and you just need to add the IR LED... The sorta thing that they just leave in there because it's simpler then maintaining 2 different software versions... though, I realize that the 350 and 150 are fairly different products as it is.

[Wheemer]

for winlirc you could use the external tuner plugin located on the bottom right of this page: http://sage.tv/configuration.html

Try to get a directv receiver with the serial control enabled if you can, apparently the channel changes are very quick using serial control.

[aberson]

ok, that external tuner plugin is pretty much what I'd need to use winlirc's transmit.exe program (assuming i can get that work). I'd need some sort of intermediate program to convert a channel number into a series of key presses, but that could be a bat or perl script. I wonder how much lag there would be with something like this... only one way to find out.

[Wheemer]

doesn't the trasmit program work like transmit.exe 125 would take you to 125? if so then that's how the exetuner plugin works.

[aberson]

According to the winlirc readme:

usage: transmit remotename codename reps
reps is an optional number of times to repeat the code (default=0).

The remotename would be something like "Dish"
The codename would be something like "one"

The EXETuner plugin says it will just spit out "programname 125" so I'd need to have a script (e.g. transmit.pl) to convert that into 3 commands:
transmit.exe Dish one
transmit.exe Dish two
transmit.exe Dish five


The source code for transmit.exe is given, so it may be trivial to re-write it to do what I want (which would be faster than running transmit.exe 3 times). From what I can tell, it is just loads the commandline data into a struct and then sends it to the winlirc process using SendMessage()... [having sage send the messages directly to winlirc would be even faster, but then sage loses a layer of abstraction and gets annoying...]

It looks like the commands can also be sent accomplished by connecting to WinLirc via a TCP/IP socket and sending the commands that way (based on the lirc documentation). I'll have to play with it tonight.

To receive IR, you need a program which listens to what winlirc is saying on that socket. I assume girder (for one) does this, but I've already got IR working using the hauppauge software sending messages to sage, so I'm not concerned about that.

[aberson]

Originally Posted by aberson

It looks like the commands can also be sent by connecting to WinLirc via a TCP/IP socket and sending the commands that way (based on the lirc documentation).

For anyone who cares, the above works (I just tried it using telnet), but the repeat count is only "optional" on the first command you send, and there are some other tricks. It appears to accept multiple commands in a series via this method also, though I think it only actually sends the first command.

I tried to verify using an rs232 loopback, but I cannot get it to work. It definitely sends and receives SOMETHING, but it never seems to recognize the data. possibly because I'm on win2k and it has issues (mentioned on winlirc sourceforge list in my search for "transmit")

[aberson]

well I might be writing this thread to myself at this point, but for future searchers:

I have come up with a simple program which I cam called "sage-lirc" that can be controlled by Sage's EXETuner plugin and uses it to send a command to LIRC or WinLIRC via TCP, which in turn sends out an IR command to your external tuner. It is not 100% tested, but looks like it works. If you'd like a copy, please PM or IM me. [update 5/12/2005 - I posted a copy here, please PM me or post if you use it and if you need any changes or have any questions] []

The benefit to using this method is that you can build/buy an IR transmitter for way cheap. If you already have an IR RECEIVER (e.g. PVR-350), or you don't need one (e.g. watch on your computer screen), then you've just saved yourself from having to buy/build the USB-UIRT or like device.



Basically, here's what sage-lirc does:
1. Accepts a command line like "sage-lirc 125" (EXETuner format)
2. Connects to LIRC via TCP and transmits (LIRC format):
SEND_ONCE sage 1 2
SEND_ONCE sage 2 2
SEND ONCE sage 5 2

However, in addition to that simple task, it pauses appropriately between each character, it can repeat the sequence multiple times, it can add zeros in front of the sequence in case your tuner requires that, it can add "enter" at the end of the sequence if your tuner requires that, etc, etc.

Adam

[JUC]

reviving an old thread. Since i recently fried my PVR 150 i'm in the market for a new card. My friend has a PVR 350 lying around. It does have an IR port. Does anyone know if the blaster from the 150 will work in the 350? Earlier posts in this thread indicate it won't but i'm not sure if theirs actually had the IR port.

THanks,

Juc