extremely frustrated with HD extender IR receiver

[sam99]

So I tried to contain my excitement as i hooked up my shiny new HD extender. Sat impatiently through the lengthy, but successful, firmware update. Then I just about pulled my hair out in frustration with the responsiveness of the hardware to remote control commands. It flat out ignores me about a fourth of the time when i push buttons and sometimes more than that as if it is too busy to pay attention to what i want. So I took my handy MX-700 remote and used the same setup as i had used with my pc client, sat there in the "link infrared" commands pressing all the correct buttons and got it set up to work. Unfortunately, what I had thought was a flakey remote control seems more like a flakey ir input. My MX-700 is ignored about as much as the included remote. Is anyone else experiencing this? It is almost like the hardware is treating all the buttons like toggle bits and only set up to accept one of the toggles, but i am pretty sure that is not really what is happening. My MX-700 was purposely set up with ir codes that were not toggle bits to avoid just this problem. But I get the same random non-responsiveness using either included remote or the MX-700.

Am I the only one seeing this? I saw other posts indicating some slow responses from the remote, but no one had said anything about thinking it was the machine itself after testing another remote.

[toricred]

I've had a similar, but much less random problem. The remote it came with works perfectly, but I wanted to use my OFA 8910 so that I could control the TV and audio receiver. Everything works with one exception. The Select button will work once and then no more until I use the Sage remote. I'm trying to set the code for this key to something else, but I haven't had a chance to test it.

[hemicuda]

I've noticed it too, but I haven't upgraded the server yet. Recording Smallville in HD, ATM. Jury is still out until I get some more time behind the buttons later tonight after upgrading to 6.3.5.

[sam99]

yes, the select button is definitely the worst on the MX-700. Sometimes, as you said, it simply does not work until i use the sage remote select button. Really, most other things worked okay with the MX-700. But on the sage remote, it seems like i get random functionality with most all of the keys as i tried using it for a few minutes. It took 5 presses to get the guide to show at one point, 3 presses to stop video playback, sometimes i got so frustrated trying to move up a menu that i would just move down to the bottom and wrap around to the top. I popped in some brand new Energizer batteries as well hoping that maybe the included batteries were bad, but no difference.

I also can not seem to find out how to tell what video output is currently being used other than on the first extender setup menu from the server choice screen. Once into sage you press it and it changes, or acts like it does, but there is no display of the new choice to let me know what i have currently selected.

This has definitely not been the plug and play experience i had hoped for.

[sam99]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

I've noticed it too, but I haven't upgraded the server yet. Recording Smallville in HD, ATM. Jury is still out until I get some more time behind the buttons later tonight after upgrading to 6.3.5.

upgraded the server yesterday. I have to settle for sd smallville using TWC basic cable from the wall. That is the only HD channel the antenna i placed in the attic can not pull down. Major artifacts if i try to watch the channel. Antenna is not really repositionable as i assembled it in the rafters because it is so wide and is a fairly tight fit.

[Opus4]

You can try my MX-700 setup -- see the link in my sig. It uses proper RC5 codes that toggle, using the Hauppauge remote codes.

I know the extender works fine with RC5 IR codes, but I'm not yet 100% sure about other IR protocols. You could try using rc5_disable=true in the extender's property file if you don't use the toggle bit.

- Andy

[sam99]

hi Andy, yeah, i had just come across your post in hardware support on the MX-700. I just finished importing your devices into my mx-700 setup program before checking this thread again.

Any idea why I would be having problems with the included sage remote?

[Fluffdaddy]

Not happy with the stock remote either. Hoping Logitech updates their data base soon.

The remote is my only HD extender bitch, everything else is A-1

[phuzzy]

The stock remote seems to be much too directional. If it's not pointed directly at the extender and aligned with military precision, the IR signals just aren't received. I even swapped out batteries thinking the stock ones might be going dead - no love.

I'm having much better luck with my Harmony 880, after teaching it all the codes from the stock remote.

[stefano540]

Just got my TWO HD extenders and they both work identically well but neither is responding to its own remote !!!!
Did the firmware upgrade with its remote, but as soon as it boots, it does not understand any commands other than on/off
It turns out that it understands the Hauppauge 45 key remote that I have, which allowed me to test the units (replacing an MVP wired unit).
I went into detailed setup and it is clear that the remote is sending out codes that are not understood. Is this happening because I am replacing an MVP ?
What to do ? did not see an obvious option for selecting a remote control.
Thanks,
Stefano

[bialio]

Originally Posted by sam99

yes, the select button is definitely the worst on the MX-700. Sometimes, as you said, it simply does not work until i use the sage remote select button.

Select is the main key that is impacted with RC5. This is nothing new - MVP's have behaved this way forever.

A work around if you are using some other learning remote is to hit some other button - up then down for instance - if select stops responding. That lets the select command that the remote learned work again.

btl.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by stefano540

Just got my TWO HD extenders and they both work identically well but neither is responding to its own remote !!!!
Did the firmware upgrade with its remote, but as soon as it boots, it does not understand any commands other than on/off
It turns out that it understands the Hauppauge 45 key remote that I have, which allowed me to test the units (replacing an MVP wired unit).
I went into detailed setup and it is clear that the remote is sending out codes that are not understood.

That's a strange one -- be sure to report it to SageTV.

Does it work when on the server selection menu when it is first powered on? (Or, after using Home when soft powered off.)

If you check its properties file in the 'clients' folder in the SageTV install directory, do you see lots of ui/rc_mappings/<command_name>= property lines? Do you have those lines in teh Sage.properties file?

I wonder: maybe if those commands have already been customized in sage.properties somehow, those values are getting used instead of the default ones.

- Andy

[sam99]

is there a way to clear out all the old remote codes? I have a bunch from when i was first experimenting setting up my mx700 using different device codes and now i am unsure how to wipe the memory clear to start over again.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by sam99

is there a way to clear out all the old remote codes? I have a bunch from when i was first experimenting setting up my mx700 using different device codes and now i am unsure how to wipe the memory clear to start over again.

You can remove all the ui/rc_mappings/<command_name>= property lines that I mentioned above for the extender's property file.

If you have them in Sage.properties, they might affect it too because I think an extender gets the values there before it gets them from the default set.

- Andy

[stefano540]

Thanks Andy.
Yes, the remote is working perfectly until Sage boots, then I lose the remote and the front panel controls !!!
There are no ui/rc mappings in sage.properties or the client properties files.
There has to be a simple answer...
Stefano

[nick_l]

EEERRRRGGGGG , the remote performance is really putting a damper on what is otherwise a great experience. I wonder if it would be possible to increase the sensitivity/power of the ir receiver in the extender with a firmware update?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by stefano540

Yes, the remote is working perfectly until Sage boots, then I lose the remote and the front panel controls !!!
There are no ui/rc mappings in sage.properties or the client properties files.
There has to be a simple answer...

Just to verify: you are checking the <SageTV install dir>\SageTV\clients\<mac address>.properties and the server's properties file?

Do you have a "RemoteClients.properties.defaults" file in the SageTV install dir? What is its date? Did you customize an older copy of that & replace the installed version with it?

Originally Posted by nick_l

the remote performance is really putting a damper on what is otherwise a great experience. I wonder if it would be possible to increase the sensitivity/power of the ir receiver in the extender with a firmware update?

The only thing I noticed is that the extender's remote needed to point at the extender. Other than that, I haven't had any response issues.

- Andy

[stefano540]

OK, the plot thickens for my problem.
I have a network encoder set up with a second sage tv server, and I thought to move one of the extender licenses to it and see what happens, and lo and behold the remote works perfectly when I boot off it.
Now I have to figure out why

[Opus4]

stefano540: we were probably typing at the same time & it is easy to miss a reply posted almost immediately before your own... so check my last reply.

- Andy

[sam99]

okay, so i whacked all of the ui/rc mappings out of my client file. Out of curiousity, what date should the "RemoteClients.properties.defaults" file have? Mine is 11/2/07, i assume this is okay since i have never opened it before?

Stopped and started the sage service just now, assuming a reboot of the HD extender will refresh the properties file to not have any customized remote mappings. Will try the remote and then off to bed *yawn*