IR Blaster doesn't work

[yacht_boy]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten my IR Blaster to come back to life, so I'm back to regular TV. Sage is useless without a reliable way to control the STB. Sigh.

[InTheFlow]

Originally Posted by yacht_boy

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten my IR Blaster to come back to life, so I'm back to regular TV. Sage is useless without a reliable way to control the STB. Sigh.

What do you mean by it 'hasn't come back to life'? Sometimes mine stops responding and if I then go into the Hauppage Win TV menu under programs & click on 'restart IR' it restarts and is fine.

You may have already tried that but I figured I'd mention it just in case.

If the 'restart IR' idea doesn't work, what happens when you re-boot the box? Does it load the Remote Controller software automaticlly and if so, does it then work?

Have you checked to make sure the IR cable is firmly plugged into the card? It is easy for it to become a bit loose due to the design of it. You probably noticed the little 'slant' on the plug which needs to be facing the backplate area to make sure it 'clears' properly and can actually be plugged all the way in.

If none of that works, try going into device manager and uninstalling the card. When the system reboots, it should auto detect the card again and either automaticlly install the drivers or prompt you for them. See if that brings the remote back to life for ya.

[yacht_boy]

Thanks for the advice. I tried all of that stuff long ago and have been laboriously working with Hauppauge tech support. They do everything by email and I get an average of one email a day out of them, so it's taken two weeks. If there is a weak link in the whole DIY PVR thing, it's definitely STB control, followed closely by picture quality. Tomorrow I'll hopefully get an RMA and send the whole card back.

Honestly, this whole DIY experience has been pretty miserable--would have been much better off just getting a TiVo. All of the advanced features in the world don't mean jack if the basics don't work. My girlfriend's Comcast service may be clunky and user-unfriendly, but it does exactly what it's supposed to do, which I can't say for Sage, GBPVR, or Beyond TV. I must have spent 100 hours trying to get this system to work, and I'm no closer now than I was before I bought the first piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I waited too long to send stuff back and am now stuck with hundreds of dollars of cards and hard drives, so I have to spend the time to make it work since I can't afford to just ditch it. Meanwhile, I'm still watching TV the old fashioned way.

[InTheFlow]

Originally Posted by yacht_boy

Honestly, this whole DIY experience has been pretty miserable--would have been much better off just getting a TiVo. All of the advanced features in the world don't mean jack if the basics don't work. My girlfriend's Comcast service may be clunky and user-unfriendly, but it does exactly what it's supposed to do, which I can't say for Sage, GBPVR, or Beyond TV. I must have spent 100 hours trying to get this system to work, and I'm no closer now than I was before I bought the first piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I waited too long to send stuff back and am now stuck with hundreds of dollars of cards and hard drives, so I have to spend the time to make it work since I can't afford to just ditch it. Meanwhile, I'm still watching TV the old fashioned way.

I'm sorry to hear that its been such a bad experience for you. Have you tried moving the TV card to a different slot on the motherboard? If you don't have a spare PCI slot, have you tried swapping places with another card?

[yacht_boy]

Sorry, didn't see your reply until just now. I didn't try swapping card slots. I've pulled the card and am waiting for an RMA so I can send it back to Hauppauge. Once they send me a known good unit I'm going to sell the card and just put the money towards a comcast DVR rental. As much as I hate everything about Comcast, at least the core features--watching and pausing live TV and recording TV--work. Certainly can't say the same for home-built systems.

Thanks for your help.

Jason

[SHS]

If your IR Blaster stop working then there a good chance that IR Emitter die if restarting the IR32 doesn't work.

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by yacht_boy

Honestly, this whole DIY experience has been pretty miserable--would have been much better off just getting a TiVo. All of the advanced features in the world don't mean jack if the basics don't work. My girlfriend's Comcast service may be clunky and user-unfriendly, but it does exactly what it's supposed to do, which I can't say for Sage, GBPVR, or Beyond TV. I must have spent 100 hours trying to get this system to work, and I'm no closer now than I was before I bought the first piece of equipment. Unfortunately, I waited too long to send stuff back and am now stuck with hundreds of dollars of cards and hard drives, so I have to spend the time to make it work since I can't afford to just ditch it. Meanwhile, I'm still watching TV the old fashioned way.

You don't say which STB you are using. If it has a firewire port on it you can use that instead of an IR blaster. I am using Comcast's HD box (no PVR) connected to my HTPC via firewire for recording channels that are not 5c'd and for those that are I use firewire to change channels and I use s-video to record the signal. I am sure I've spent more than 100 hours setting everything up and tweaking it, but I enjoy doing that. In fact, I am always on the lookout for ways to tweak what I have. But I realize it is not for everyone. Good luck on what ever you decide to do.

Wayne