Intermittent Directv Serial control - Help Needed

[dbfresh23]

I have sage set to change the channel on my DirecTV receiver via serial control. It's becoming more frequent that I'll try to change the channel via sage, SageTV changes the channel to what I tell it, but doesn't change the channel on the receiver. So the Sage OSD tells me i'm watching one thing but the DTV receiver is still tuned to the previous. This isn't the case all the time, sometimes it works fine and will change the channel. I figured I'd blame directv first, so I replaced the receiver (Sony Sat-B50) with another same model. Same thing.

Another thing I did to test it was stop the SageTV Service and try to change it DTVcontrol, that worked fine - this also tells me that the cable is fine.

Very frustrating when I tell it to record Law and Order and I come home to Channel11 News at 10!!

Anyone have any ideas of what can be wrong? To me it looks like something wrong with Sage's serial control, but i've been known to be wrong from time to time.

Oh yeah, running Sagetv 2.2.8 on XP Pro

[dbfresh23]

Actually now that I think of it, I do have to click on "use old command set" in dtvcontrol, is it possible that Frey eliminated the old command set from the dll?

[IKK]

I have the same issue. That is when I restart my pc the serial control does not work. To get it to work I need to keep restarting sage until the serial control starts working. I am not sure if it is because I bought a cheap compusa brand serial control or what, but it does'nt seem to be a big issue cause no one else is complaining.

[dbfresh23]

Ahh, after doing some more searching, I'm trying to configure EXETuner Plugin in combination with dtvcontrol, a bunch of people seem to be using that, maybe that's why they aren't complaining.

[dbfresh23]

Problem Fixed! Ditching Sagetv's directvcontrol dll and going with exetuner + dtvcontrol is working perfectly with one exception, no service mode - Though that seems to be a common issue with others as well - so i'm gonna forget it for now.

[HawgGuy]

I had that problem with my last receiver. I helped by making sure the serial port was locked at 9600 baud. The problem went away when I changed to a SONY receiver bought on ebay.

[that_kid]

I've spoken with sage's support on this and it's a know issue. Last I heard there was no immediate fix which sucks for me because I have 4 DTV boxes 3 with the new commands and 2 without. I have to use my ir blaster to control one box and I have to wait until the fix comes so I can use my 4th box. I use service mode so the other fix is no use to me.

[Wheemer]

If you are using local paths and lanching the service under the LocalSystem(Default) account, then all you need to do is go into your services control panel and click interact with desktop for the sage service. This will allow exetuner and dtvcontrol to work.

[that_kid]

Ahh I'll give this a try, thanks.

[dbfresh23]

Actually, I am back to the sage dll, it's working perfectly fine now that I am no longer running sage as a service. Checking interact with desktop didn't do anything for me, even tried rebooting server and client just to make sure - nada.

[cipher]

I have the same intermittent serial control of directv receiver issue. It seems to be a consistent problem when I frist start up my system and select a channel from Live TV Guide. If I then use the next/prev channel buttons in the upper left, it seems to get SageTV and the receiver in sync. This will be my first evening of unmonitored recording with SageTV so I'm crossing my fingers in hopes the problem doesn't return. I'm a SageTV noob, could someone point me in the right direction to making the switch to "exetuner + dtvcontrol"? Thanks