DirecTV serial control app

[jchiso]

I've had great success using the DirecTV Serial Control application with a few different set-top boxes when used as a standalone application. Can the current version (version 1.82) be controlled from within Sage via the External Tuner Plugin?

[dagar]

Which D* STB(s) are you trying to use with Sage?

[dbfresh23]

If memory serves, he's trying to control an HD box that older versions of dtvcontrol don't support and the new one doesn't include a cmd line app. It does include web based control though so maybe something can be done with that.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by dagar

Which D* STB(s) are you trying to use with Sage?

Any or all of DirecTV H10, Hughes HTL-HD, Samsung TS-360.

[Steve52]

I would like to know this as well. I need serial control of a Hughes DirecTv HTL-HD. This STB has serial control available but no one to date has been able to get it to work with STV.

[dbfresh23]

Since this version of dtvcontrol still comes with a girder gml what is most needed is a girder wiz (which I am cetainly not) to figure out how to get sage to call the commands when needed through exetuner. Since there is no eventstring inside the default commands in the gml from dtvcontrol, I'm not sure they could be executed with event.exe. Seems to me that the main alteration would have to be made is the way that dsstune seems to call the girder serial plugin, it would have to be made to just execute the command in the dtvctrl gml instead.

[dbfresh23]

I was just doing some surfing and came across this neat little gizmo. The site FAQ says that it works with both ReplayTV and Tivo so I'd bet that it would work for SageTV too. Seems like what it does it translate the old commands into the new commands before it sends them to the receiver. May be worth taking a look at.

http://www.patersontech.com/Translator/TransMain.aspx

[jchiso]

I've tried this device on three different models of receivers, and while it may provide functionality with some apps it does not work with Sage. DirecTV has done some software updates in the past few months that have made the device superflous for some of the boxes.

[jchiso]

I have managed to achieve (somewhat limited) serial control of a few of these set-top boxes with a command line application designed for GB-PVR used with the ExternalTunerPlugin. I can control a DirecTV H10 box using the "-box D10100 #%CHANNEL%" parameters. On the HTL-HD boxes I can control one with a TVTranslator and the "-set OLD #%CHANNEL%" parameters and the other box (connected via USB-to-serial adapter) using the "-port COM3 #%CHANNEL%" parameters.

The "somewhat limited" aspects of the control relates to the fact that these appear to work for numeric-only channel designations; digital subchannel info is totally ignored. Also, the command prompt window pops up briefly each time a channel change command is sent, which may or may not be an issue depending on whether or not your server is used for live viewing.

[mike1961]

DBFresh - do I need this directv serial program/application if I'm hooking up my d10-100 to a file server and run the serial cable from the d10s to the server's com ports? Will Sage just control everything when I specify the com ports?

Also - I'm guessing I have to know which capture device is hooked up to which box so that I can then tell Sage which com port to use for that capture device. In other words - if I tell Sage to use Com1 to change the channel for an STB that is plugged into Capture #1 then I would think I need to run the serial cable from the STB in Capture 1 to com1? Did all that make sense?

Thanks,
Mike

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by mike1961

DBFresh - do I need this directv serial program/application if I'm hooking up my d10-100 to a file server and run the serial cable from the d10s to the server's com ports? Will Sage just control everything when I specify the com ports?

The Dtvcontrol app isn't required for serial control, SageTV has a dll that will do that. This app does come in handy though for testing and to disable the IR on the STB. The app is also a free download so it's worth getting and taking a look at at the very least.

Also - I'm guessing I have to know which capture device is hooked up to which box so that I can then tell Sage which com port to use for that capture device. In other words - if I tell Sage to use Com1 to change the channel for an STB that is plugged into Capture #1 then I would think I need to run the serial cable from the STB in Capture 1 to com1? Did all that make sense?

Yep

[Jabroni]

I couldnt make my DirecTV H10 HDTV receiver work with the DLL included with latest beta of sage, however, I would get it to work with the DirecTV Serial App as D10-200. What I did in order to get it work was using the DirecTV serial app with web server enabled, and using the ExecTunerPlugin, I created a .exe that just creates a HttpRequest for the DirecTV serial app to change to X channel. Right now I have it as a console app. I'm just trying to figure out how I could spawn the app without having to open a console window (right now when I change channel a console window pops up for like half a second). Onces I figure that out Ill post the exe if anyone else wants to use it.

[jchiso]

jabroni:

Are you able to send the "dash" character to the box?

[Jabroni]

Ive just started with SageTV, I still havent subscribed to DirecTV yet So for now ive just tried to do channel changing, not quite sure what other commands would be required. If I could get some help with all the possible invocations of ExecTuner Plugin I could check on how to translate it to the commands that the DirecTV serial app understands via http.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by jchiso

jabroni:

Are you able to send the "dash" character to the box?

You should be able to tune local OTA digital channels without a satellite subscription.

[Jabroni]

Originally Posted by jchiso

You should be able to tune local OTA digital channels without a satellite subscription.

I live in Mexico.. and OTA channels SUCKS and the quality is REALLY BAD. So only option is get channels thru satellite. Still what command uses the dash?? Or what are you trying to send?

[mike1961]

dbFresh - I built a db9 - 4p4c cable but I cannot get the channels on the box to change using the serial connection. I can't figure out what I did wrong. The directv control keeps saying TimeOut and Sage is not changing the channels either. I'm assuming since both programs are timing out that I have a connection problem but I can't seem to find it. I tested the cable with a voltage meter and also tested continuity. I figured out which side on the DTV box was ground and also identified pins 2 and 4. From the back of the directv box it seems to go from pins 4 to 1 when going from left to right (pin1 - the one at the right is ground). I'm guessing I don't have the db9 correct but I'm not sure where I might have wired it wrong. Looking at the Female connector the top 5 I identified as pins 1-5 from left to right.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

I think I know where I may have messed up in the cable...I'll post back when I have success.

Thanks,
Mike

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Jabroni

I live in Mexico.. and OTA channels SUCKS and the quality is REALLY BAD. So only option is get channels thru satellite. Still what command uses the dash?? Or what are you trying to send?

The dash is used for OTA digital (sub)channels. You might want to add your location to your profile.

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by mike1961

I think I know where I may have messed up in the cable...I'll post back when I have success.

If you're testing it with the Dtvcontrol app make sure you adjusted the settings for the right serial port and the correct model dtv box.