Slow and/or not working USB-UIRT?

[Steve52]

I have STV setup and working pretty good now with just a few issues left to work out. I can't seem to get the remote control working correctly. Navigating STV with a mouse or with a wireless keyboard is very quick and smooth, but not so with a remote control using USB-UIRT. You might press a remote button and the action start instantly, or it might take a few seconds ,or it might never respond, you just never know. Something is wrong! Maybe I don't have something setup just right I don't know? Doing a search on this topic I found someone with a similar problem who fixed it by installing a powered USB hub. I have only one other USB device connected to the HTPC, and that is the transmitter/receiver for the wireless mouse and keyboard. If I need a powered usb hub I will get one, but if it is something else the hub would just be something else in the way. Any sugestions or ideas?
Thanks!
Steve

[mattporco]

I am having very similar problems. I have a brand new 4.1.3 SageTV client that I setup on a WinXP box with a USB-UIRT (latest drivers and firmware) and a Hauppage 42-button remote. I've programmed all the buttons the way I like, but now when I navigate the UI with the remote, performance is terrible. I have to hit UP three times to get the cursor to move up once in a menu. Sometimes if I hit UP three times it will jump up three times after pausing for several seconds.

What I did notice is that the USB-UIRT does seem to be receiving all of the button presses, because every time I hit a button the red light blinks instantaneously. So it appears that the USB-UIRT is receiving the commands, but SageTV is slow to pick them up or is just ignoring them somtimes.

Anyone have ideas on this?

[mattporco]

I just noticed something funky that may be playing a role here. I ran lrnhelper to see what codes my Hauppauge 42-button remote is sending and it appears that each button is actually sending different codes alternately. For example, if I hit OK once the USB-UIRT receives the following code:

1300000D37FC

But then if I hit OK again the USB-UIRT receives:

1500003D0DC0

If I hit OK a third time it goes back to the first code and so on alternating between these two codes for each press of OK. So I guess what's happening is that I only programmed the first codes into SageTV so Sage is only picking up every other button press.

So presumably the fix is to go through the remote programming again and add in the 2nd codes for each button - I'll try that next.

[mattporco]

Well that fixed it. What a PITA though.

[Wheemer]

That's a feature of the RC5 codes the hauppage remote uses... it supposed to stop accidental double presses.

But the USB-Uirt doesn't support that, so you have taken the right approach.

[Steve52]

In order to fix my problem I had to experiment with different remotes. Sage(or the Sage USB-UIRT included plugin) just does not like some remotes and even if it will take the remote code for one function it may not take them for all functions. I had to use codes from three different remotes (with my MX-700) to get it working correctly. In the end it works great, but not without a lot of effort and retrying over and over again with different codes. When you get it programmed correctly you no longer have the slowness or not working problem. I have been able to confuse it from time to time with too many button pushes too fast, but it will eventually catch up though. I see the same thing with my STB so I think it happens with many or all remote controlled devices.