Cable box channel changing woes

[gdippel]

Hi everyone!

I'm having cable box channel changing problems that are driving me nuts.

I have my cable box (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2200) controlled by the actisys IR transmitter hooked up via Com 1. All was working well until I upgraded to Sage V4 from version 3. I am using the Scientific Atlanta 4200 configuration and tweaked the delays to 100 600 milliseconds. This was my prior setup and worked with version 3.

Now, if the channel is two digits with an initial digit of 1, 2 or 3, the box switches in mid stream, I.E. instead of switching to channel 18, it goes to channel 1 then channel 8. No problem wih two digit channels in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Problem is intermittent with three digits channels. I tried relearning the IR channel codes and tried various combination of delays, but to no avail. Any suggestions? I'd hate to have to go back to version 3.

BTW, I have a Hauppauge PVR 250, I'm running windows XP on an AMD 2000 with 512 megs.

Thanks.

[mike1961]

Does the Cable box have a serial port instead? It's certainly a much better way to go than IR. Maybe you can get a box with a serial port from your cable company; I know Motorola makes them with a serial port.

Mike

[BobPhoenix]

Also on my Moto box I turned off the Auto tune so that it always expects 3 digits. Maybe you can do the same on yours?

BobP.

[mike1961]

See - with a serial cable you don't have to worry about 3 digits or number of digits. You just tell it what com port and Sage does the rest.

Mike

[gdippel]

Thanks for the feedback. Apparently the channel changing problem resulted from system sluggishness due to too many programs loaded into memory at boot-up. After disabling these "TSR" progs, the system perked up and channel changng was back to normal.

[Jake Tobak]

What option do you change to send out the channels faster?

[mike1961]

The channels will change faster (and more reliably) simply by using a serial cable rather than an IR. You tell Sage to use serial.

Mike

[Steerpike]

Originally Posted by Jake Tobak

What option do you change to send out the channels faster?

One thing I learned ... if you go through the process of teaching your remote codes, you can speed things up by pressing very quickly; in reality, you are not 'teaching' as much as 'recording' - in other words, if you press for 500 ms, it plays back for 500 ms; if you press for 100 ms, it plays back for 100ms ... etc. I had naively assumed that it was truly 'learning' - looking for a pattern, and capturing only the unique, required amount ... silly me!

Originally Posted by Mike1961

The channels will change faster (and more reliably) simply by using a serial cable rather than an IR. You tell Sage to use serial.

I just did a bit of research on this subject, since my Motorola box has a serial port. I stumbled across endless threads of people banging their heads against cable company walls, with maybe 1 in 10 or less getting success. So yes, you can, if you are lucky, get your cable company to enable serial port access on your box, but it seems they mainly ship disabled, and most cable co's won't enable it (most simply have no idea what you are asking for, and when you finally explain it to them, they can't convey to the guys who need to enable the feature what has to be done).

Apparently, a specific command has to be sent by the cable co to your box, and the box rebooted. Easy, but ... many cable co's have a policy against it, and most don't know what you are talking about.

[mike1961]

Strange - I never had a problem hooking my motorola cable box up to my Tivo with the serial cable. But, aside from that, I got Satellite anyway and plan to cancel cable once I get my Sage system up and running.

Mike

[gdippel]

I posted this problem several months ago, to recap for those of you who didn't see the prior post,

"I'm having cable box channel changing problems that are driving me nuts.

I have my cable box (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2200) controlled by the actisys IR transmitter hooked up via Com 1. All was working well until I upgraded to Sage V4 from version 3. I am using the Scientific Atlanta 4200 configuration and tweaked the delays to 100 600 milliseconds. This was my prior setup and worked with version 3.

Now, if the channel is two digits with an initial digit of 1, 2 or 3, the box switches in mid stream, I.E. instead of switching to channel 18, it goes to channel 1 then channel 8. No problem wih two digit channels in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Problem is intermittent with three digits channels. I tried relearning the IR channel codes and tried various combination of delays, but to no avail. Any suggestions? I'd hate to have to go back to version 3.

BTW, I have a Hauppauge PVR 250, I'm running windows XP on an AMD 2000 with 512 megs.

Thanks."

I thought I solved the problem by reducing running programs, sevices etc. All was well for a while , but the problem has resurfaced. I haven't made any hardware/software changes and ran spyware and virus checkers. Still No luck.

Here's where it gets screwy. A few Sage versions ago, I created a custom ir file for my cable box as I suspected that the builtin Scientific Atlanta 4200 ir file I was using wasn't fully compatible with my box. I didn't have much luck, the custom ir file kept crashing sage without warning. I can change to that custom ir file while sage is running and channel changes are fine. HOWEVER, when I start Sage with the custom ir file, as soon as it attempt to play video, sage crashes. No crashes, though if I start with the builtin ir file and then switch while sage is running.

The few who reposnded to my prior post and suggested I hook up my box via a serial cable, thanks for the suggestion, but as far as I know, this is not possibel with this box.

I have attached both ir files for those of you who are more technically inclined (file extensions chaned from .ir to .txt for upload purposes.) I love sage, been using it since version 2, but this is a reason to look elsewhere if I can't fix this. Thanks for your help. BTW I'm using Sage version 5.04

[mayamaniac]

I had the same issue, all of a sudden, the IR blaster started to screwed up and it keeps changing to the wrong channels due to lags when the commands are sent. I have a dedicated server and nothing has changed with it, the problem appeared for unknown reason. Fortunately for me, I finally tried the serial port on my STB, and it worked great.

[ToxMox]

I have an SA4200 Explorer box too. I'm attaching my .ir file that I use for it. I use a USB UIRT though so I don't know if it will work but it is worth trying. My file structure seems a lot cleaner than when I look at the two files you attached.

EDIT: I'm guessing that the first file I attached won't work with the Actisys.
I am also attaching the default SA 4200 file I had in my Actisys folder. It is a little bit different than the ones you attached.

The other thing I would try is to relearn the remote again and create a new ir file and if that doesn't work contact Sage support.

[bionicDan]

Not to doubt you Steerpike, but I didn't think this was the case since the Sage interface asks you to hold down the button until the message disappears. Can someone confirm - is this true? I'm having the same problem with my SA Explorer 3250 and USB-UIRT...

Originally Posted by Steerpike

One thing I learned ... if you go through the process of teaching your remote codes, you can speed things up by pressing very quickly; in reality, you are not 'teaching' as much as 'recording' - in other words, if you press for 500 ms, it plays back for 500 ms; if you press for 100 ms, it plays back for 100ms ... etc. I had naively assumed that it was truly 'learning' - looking for a pattern, and capturing only the unique, required amount ... silly me!

[Ryel]

My system has been running fine for two years and just last week started doing the eratic channel changing thing. I contacted Haupp for a new IR and exchanged the comcast box today. Waiting to see if it once again will change correctly.