ehome ir blaster

[mschoen]

For the life of me I can't figure out how to get the IR blaster that came with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR usb2 to work with my cable box and SageTV. I don't have Media Center on my computer, but there must be a way for Sage to send signals to my cable box to switch channels. I downloaded Girder, but I can't figure how it ties in. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

[StephaneM]

Hi Mark,

Originally Posted by mschoen

For the live of me I can't figure out how to get the IR blaster that came with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR usb2 to work with my cable box and SageTV.

Try my software (see signature), it may works with your device and feature a SageTV channel change plugin.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[mschoen]

Stephane,

All I want to do is have the IR Blaster automatically change the channel on my cable box to the channel I programmed Sage to record.

Can you explain how to use your software just to setup the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR usb2 IR Blaster to change the channel?

Thanks,
Mark

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by mschoen

All I want to do is have the IR Blaster automatically change the channel on my cable box to the channel I programmed Sage to record.

Mark, review this article for learning you original set top box remote, you'll also find a link for the SageTV channel change plugin.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[mschoen]

Stephane,

Sounds like what I want, but I can't get the IR blaster to be recognized. I have XP Home with the irbus.sys and the irbus.inf files. I'm getting frustrated.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by mschoen

Sounds like what I want, but I can't get the IR blaster to be recognized. I have XP Home with the irbus.sys and the irbus.inf files. I'm getting frustrated.

Sorry I can't help you for getting the hardware being recognized by the OS, though it might be possible if you follow the directions in this post.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dued]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Hi Mark,

Try my software (see signature), it may works with your device and feature a SageTV channel change plugin.

Regards,
Stéphane.

Hi Stephane

I had been using SageTV with my WinTV PVR USB2 and cable (using the winTV tuner) and it worked perfectly

I recently switched to Dish Network, and I need to use the IR Blaster

but simply plugging in the IR Blaster and hooking it to the IR window does not work, so i found this forum and your software

I downloaded the two IR drivers that aredescribed at the forum link you gave below, but I am not sure now what to do

I just downloaded you free software, but if you will agree to support my attempt to get it all working, I will gladly donate to you at your site

Is this possible? I am around briefly tomorrow morning and then i leave for the weekend, perhaps you can let me know in morning if yes, and i will donate by paypal and then you can help me soon?

first i see that your software requires net 3.5, which i don't have installed and do not want installed UNLESS the whole setup will 100% work as i described above - i have XP SP2 and SageTV 5

if for some reason it won't work for my setup, please let me know?

thx
s

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dued

I downloaded the two IR drivers that aredescribed at the forum link you gave below, but I am not sure now what to do

Installing the drivers is only needed if you run XP Home, it is not needed for XP Pro / XP Media Center.

Is this possible? .../... first i see that your software requires net 3.5, which i don't have installed and do not want installed UNLESS the whole setup will 100% work as i described above - i have XP SP2 and SageTV 5

It will work if your device is recognized, the hardware is working properly and you can learn the IR codes... You'll have to test, so you'll need to install .Net Framework (you can always uninstall it if needed)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dued]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Installing the drivers is only needed if you run XP Home, it is not needed for XP Pro / XP Media Center.

ok, great - thx - i have pro

It will work if your device is recognized, the hardware is working properly and you can learn the IR codes... You'll have to test, so you'll need to install .Net Framework (you can always uninstall it if needed)

Regards,
Stéphane.

ok then i'll try that - my wintv pvr usb2 is recognized fine and sage has been running smoothly, so installing your software (and net framework 3.5) should then allow windows to detect the usb irblaster as a device (when it is plugged into wintv) and then allow ir codes to be selected from within sage?

i will try that, and see if it works on your free version, and if it does, i will donate to get the donated version with greater functionality and support

thx
s

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dued

ok then i'll try that - my wintv pvr usb2 is recognized fine and sage has been running smoothly, so installing your software (and net framework 3.5) should then allow windows to detect the usb irblaster as a device (when it is plugged into wintv)

I may be wrong but it don't seems to me that you do have a MCE Blaster, but instead a Hauppauge IR Blaster...

If you do plug the IR bug into the PVR-USB2 it's most probably a Hauppauge blaster. In this cas you need the Hauppauge blaster software (LM RKM will not work with this blaster as it is not capable of learning)

All MCE Blaster does show up in device manager as "eHome Infrared Receiver".

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dued]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

I may be wrong but it don't seems to me that you do have a MCE Blaster, but instead a Hauppauge IR Blaster...

If you do plug the IR bug into the PVR-USB2 it's most probably a Hauppauge blaster. In this cas you need the Hauppauge blaster software (LM RKM will not work with this blaster as it is not capable of learning)

All MCE Blaster does show up in device manager as "eHome Infrared Receiver".

Regards,
Stéphane.

that is exactly right - i have hauppauge and not MCE blaster

so then your software will not work (and therefore sageTV) will not work with the hauppauge blaster?

too bad

thx though for saving me the time of trying

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dued

so then your software will not work (and therefore sageTV) will not work with the hauppauge blaster?

There is a Hauppauge software for handling the Hauppauge blaster (this software install the driver and a utility to choose the device that will be used with the blaster). SageTV is able to use the Hauppauge blaster natively.

I'm confused because on the Hauppauge site for the PVR USB2 I don't see any port on the WinTV device to plug the blaster emitter...

Anyway, if you have a Hauppauge blaster you will make it work through SageTV natively (Hauppauge software needed); if you have a MCE Hauppauge branded blaster you can make it work too.

Now you just have to try to see what type of device you own.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[dued]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

There is a Hauppauge software for handling the Hauppauge blaster (this software install the driver and a utility to choose the device that will be used with the blaster). SageTV is able to use the Hauppauge blaster natively.

I'm confused because on the Hauppauge site for the PVR USB2 I don't see any port on the WinTV device to plug the blaster emitter...

Anyway, if you have a Hauppauge blaster you will make it work through SageTV natively (Hauppauge software needed); if you have a MCE Hauppauge branded blaster you can make it work too.

Now you just have to try to see what type of device you own.

Regards,
Stéphane.

thanks so much stephane

i just got back into town (after the holiday) and will have to check in with hauppauge on monday how to get their "irremoteblaster" (plugged into my wintv pvr usb2) to be detected by XP, and then try to figure out how to get sageTV 5 to work with it (natively as you suggest)

i will report back here my successes (or lack thereof)

best
s

[dued]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

I'm confused because on the Hauppauge site for the PVR USB2 I don't see any port on the WinTV device to plug the blaster emitter...

Now you just have to try to see what type of device you own.

Regards,
Stéphane.

btw, its like a mini-plug port on the front right of usb2 unit (but not on the usb 150) taking a stereo mini-plug from the hauppauge ir remote transmitter cable

[dued]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

There is a Hauppauge software for handling the Hauppauge blaster (this software install the driver and a utility to choose the device that will be used with the blaster). SageTV is able to use the Hauppauge blaster natively.

I'm confused because on the Hauppauge site for the PVR USB2 I don't see any port on the WinTV device to plug the blaster emitter...

Anyway, if you have a Hauppauge blaster you will make it work through SageTV natively (Hauppauge software needed); if you have a MCE Hauppauge branded blaster you can make it work too.

Now you just have to try to see what type of device you own.

Regards,
Stéphane.

Hi Stephane

So just in case you have any further recommendations (and for anyone else reading here in similar circumstances) here is what I have found on this:

You wondered what kind of equipment I have - i do have the wintv pvr usb2 and its own "irremoteblaster" transmitter cable (not a rebranded mce by hauppauge)

i ran the wintv ir remote blaster config tool, but my dish receiver (vip222k) is not listed

I contacted Hauppauge, and after a number of failed attempts (though with their tech support, not with their engineers, who may have had more success on the problem), it was determined that the pvr usb2 has an encrypted ini file (for defining the wintv ir codes) and that ini file is created by an outsource company (zilog)

so first, i don't know the codes for the dish netwok receiver (the vip222k), and even if i did, there is apparently no way to manually create an encrypted ini file with those codes

so they said that they would submit my request to zilog, and if zilog gets enough requests for it, they would probably update their config software that creates an ini file, to include the vip222k, then it should work (at least with wintv)

but that could be awhile, and it still doesn't mean it will work with sagetv (unless sagetv somehow uses the wintv encrypted ini configuration file)

anyway, thats what i understand from hauppauge - i also called zilog but i haven't (yet) gotten through to anyone there who knows anything about it

do you have any suggestions? any 3rd party workarounds?

thanks much stephane

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dued

i ran the wintv ir remote blaster config tool, but my dish receiver (vip222k) is not listed

If you have not tried yet, you may try other listed codes.

When I was using a PVR 150 with an operator set top box, the set top box was not listed (well it was operator branded so...). But I figured out what was the original manufacturer of the set top box (I guess it was philips) and I tried one by one the philips ir codes until one was powering off the set top box.

It is worth to try...

Regards,
Stéphane.

[SWKerr]

Those DISH receivers can be setup to use different remote codes. I setup my dad's awhile back and I can tell you there is a setting that will work. The tricky part was my dad had already changed the remote to something besides the default. It appears that the Blaster and his Harmony for that matter only had codes for the default IR setting. The is something on the DISH on how to set it back to the default.