Just got directv, setting up D11's...yikes

[fatsin182]

Hello everyone, this is my first post so thanks for offering any help you can give me. I just got DirecTV installed and they gave me 2 D11 units. I'm trying to hook them up to my PVR-500 and I'm met with minimal success. I have the extra bracket, both are connected through S-Video and everything seems to work except the channel changing.

I've tried to research as much as possible but I'm still unsure exactly how to figure out this problem. I see lots of people just grab the D10 units off ebay and use the homemade serial cables to get off and running. I want to make these work, so right now I'm trying to decide if buying...

2 BAFO BF-810 USB to DB9 Serial RS232 Adapters is the right answer. The cables seem to be unconfirmed as far as actually working, but I don't know what else to try. Tech support at DirecTV basically said it probably won't work, but they said it might work and it was worth a shot.

Ok, to sum up:
1. What else would I need besides the BAFO's to attempt to make that work?

2. Does anyone have D11's working in a none IR blaster set up configuration?

3. Does RF do me any good? (DirecTV guy suggested getting something)

4. If I do get the Sage server working, can my client computer change the
channels using the mce keyboard and usb receiver without a problem?

5. I'm sure I'm forgetting something vital so if I did I'm sorry. Feel free to throw out any suggestions. Sorry for the newbness, and again I'm glad to be a part of such a friendly community!

[mike1961]

The D11's have a USB in the back reserved for future use; probably for PPV instead of using a phone line. If you hunt around the forum you may find links to users who have tried to get the USB to work but I don't think anyone has had success yet.

My D11's are collecting dust as I have gotten D10-100's (either from Ebay or Circuit City). If you buy for $50 at Circuit then they are "leased equipment" from DTV which means DTV will fix them or replace them for free; otherwise buy/lease makes no difference. You can get them from Ebay for around $10 plus $15 shipping and use your D11 access cards in the D10.

Regarding making a cable, I posted a great diagram on how to make your own homemade cable really cheap. I have four D10s hooked to one file server and they all work great.

Tech Support at DTV is wrong if they say D10's won't work. They said that to me also. Get the D10-100's as I can't be sure about the 200 or 300 but they should work also.

1. What else would I need besides the BAFO's to attempt to make that work?

You don't need a BAFO at all. You can just run twisted pair and crimp an RJ22 on the end or just cut a phone line (4 conductor) and strip the wires at the end and connect it to a DB9 with electrical tape which is what I did and use duct tape to keep it all together nice and clean.

2. Does anyone have D11's working in a none IR blaster set up configuration?

I doubt it. They were not intended for that.

3. Does RF do me any good? (DirecTV guy suggested getting something)

RF? You can only use D11's with an IR but it's probably going to be a lot harder to configure with reliability problems.

4. If I do get the Sage server working, can my client computer change the
channels using the mce keyboard and usb receiver without a problem?

I know for a fact my clients change the channels just fine because it's all done through the Sage server. No problem at all.

Mike

[fatsin182]

See I'm confused. I've seen others say that the Usb to serial connection works flawlessly and others say it didn't. The directv guy was talking about some device that transfers IR signals into RF and through the air to the destination where it can convert it back to IR. Something like that anyways.

Man, I'm just not sure. I don't want to have to order D10s off ebay because these dumb D11s are new and should work even better. There just has to be a way to get these to work. Perhaps I will just order the BAFOs and see what happens. The directv guy said they don't have any info on the usb ports yet but he said what I was trying might just work. He wasn't sure.

If I do order the D10s, besides making the cable and plugging them into the serial ports, what else do you have to do? I heard talks about null modem and other miscellaneous stuff. Do I just download some drivers and mess with some text files and off I go? Again, thanks for all the help.

-shane

[MoopZilla]

The only USB to Serial dongles that will work are the ones that show up as a COM port in Device Manager. I've seen some that show up as HIDs, and those won't work.

I don't use one, so i'm not sure how much help that would be. I just hooked up my old Hughes HIRD-E4 last night via Serial, and it works great. The cable was cheap too. It just uses a 9-pin extension cable, so no splicing needed

[mike1961]

Feel free to post a thread here where someone has gotten their D11 to work. All I can tell you is the D10's work great and are very easy to setup. You can get the D11 to work by using IR (infrared) with the USB-UIRT but as I said, it is not as reliable. You don't need to worry at all about USB-UIRT with a serial connection because it is just a direct cable from the D10 box to the COM port in the back of the computer. If you order the D10, you don't have to deal with modems or drivers or anything else. Whoever is feeding you this stuff does not know what they are talking about.

It's really very simple and you don't need to make it more complicated than it is. No drivers, no null modem cables. It's just one cable and Sage does the rest. As far as the D11's go, all I can tell you is the cable box (as I understand it) is not geared to change the channels with the USB. Rumor has it that it will be used for PPV not channel changing.

How many boxes are you looking to hook up next to each other? I have four which is why I did not want to use IR. If I used IR then I would have to shield off the boxes or I would be changing the channel on all the boxes at the same time. Also, IR is not as reliable as serial.

Want to build your own cable using the D10 to the PC Com port? I build my own and here's my diagram on how to do it:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/atta...0&d=1141627126

Mike

Originally Posted by fatsin182

See I'm confused. I've seen others say that the Usb to serial connection works flawlessly and others say it didn't. The directv guy was talking about some device that transfers IR signals into RF and through the air to the destination where it can convert it back to IR. Something like that anyways.

Man, I'm just not sure. I don't want to have to order D10s off ebay because these dumb D11s are new and should work even better. There just has to be a way to get these to work. Perhaps I will just order the BAFOs and see what happens. The directv guy said they don't have any info on the usb ports yet but he said what I was trying might just work. He wasn't sure.

If I do order the D10s, besides making the cable and plugging them into the serial ports, what else do you have to do? I heard talks about null modem and other miscellaneous stuff. Do I just download some drivers and mess with some text files and off I go? Again, thanks for all the help.

-shane

[GlobalFear]

How fast are your channel changes with serial?
Is the normal DirectTV channel cahnge stuff hidable?
Sorry for the questions and highjack. Interested in switching to directtv myself.

[mike1961]

Changing the channel is not that fast but let's put it this way, it's not fast changing the channel with the cable box either so in other words it's just as fast as changing it by pushing the buttons right on the cable box. The main reasons I wanted serial over IR are 1) More reliable 2) easier to setup 3) because I have 4 boxes I did not want IR interference between the boxes.

Regarding hiding the channel change. Yes, I believe it's possible to do. I think there is an option in the DTV cable box setup to tell it how long to display it for and I'm almost positive you can turn it off. I have mine displayed for 4 seconds and I like it because then I know without question the channel changed and I know what channel it's on. Also, you can always tell Sage to start the recording a minute or two before and end a minute or two after if you want. I personally like seeing it for a few seconds.

Mike

Originally Posted by GlobalFear

How fast are your channel changes with serial?
Is the normal DirectTV channel cahnge stuff hidable?
Sorry for the questions and highjack. Interested in switching to directtv myself.

[GlobalFear]

Thanks mike.

[GlobalFear]

Bear with me for another question
I have two rca recievers here with low speed data ports. Are they usable for serial control? http://cgi.ebay.com/Direct-TV-RCA-re...QQcmdZViewItem
What about controling them via usb?

I also heard something about controlling certain STBs via firewire. What boxes would these be?

Thanks again.

[MoopZilla]

The low speed data ports should work for serial control. Check this site to see if they are supported: http://www.dtvcontrol.com/

I used to use the Happauge IR blaster to tune, and the serial cable is 100% more reliable, the blaster would just stop working for no reason. Serial changes channel properly every time