Request: SageTV native support for MS MCE IR Blaster

[jblaty]

Many MCE2005/Vista users would like to switch to SageTV. However, while the MCE remote may be supported in Sage, the MCE IR Blaster is not supported natively. I would like to suggest that Sage not only support the green button to launch Sage on the remote control, but also to support the MCE IR blaster hardware, natively.

This would not only open a whole new marketplace for SageTV, but would also make it so much easier for your prospective users to switch.

Thanks,
Joe

[jblaty]

I would again like to reiterate that FULL native MCE IR Blaster support should be added to Sage TV. This should include support of both receiving and sending of IR commands via the MCE USB IR Blaster unit. Sage shouldn't advertise support of the MCE remote unless the associated blaster is fully supported.

The MCE IR Blaster is a cheap and decent IR Blaster, and many people will want to switch from Vista/XPMCE to Sage if it's an easy switch. Without native MCE blaster support, it's not easy.

I'd be interested to hear from others having the same issue.

[GKusnick]

Have you submitted a support request to that effect? Remember that this is a user-to-user forum, so feature requests posted here don't necessarily get noticed or acted upon by the Sage devs.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by jblaty

I would again like to reiterate that FULL native MCE IR Blaster support should be added to Sage TV.

It seems difficult as there is no published API (yet?) at least I haven't found one.

If you want you can try my little software to use with your MCE Remote, I just added support for the IR blaster (but for Windows XP only : the API has changed in Vista, and I'll look into this later if the current Windows XP support leads some interest).

I created a SageTV plugin, so the setup should be easy :

* You do all the learning in my software
* Then you use the plugin like any other tuning plugin in SageTV

It should works. But as I just released it there may be some nasty bugs.

Regards,
Stéphane.