What's the best way to control dual DTV Receivers?

[Twinkle]

I'm going to be building an HTPC with a USB-UIRT and two Hauppauge HD PVRs working with two DirecTV H21 receivers.

What is considered to be the best way to control the two receivers? Would it be IR emitters attached to the USB-UIRT, some sort of serial cable, or something else entirely?

[Morgan111]

I bought 4 of these USB to serial cables from newegg to control the four boxes that should finally be installed tomorrow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156003

I am hoping that works well. I am not a fan of IR emitters and use firewire with my current cable STBs with no problem.

[CollinR]

I too would use RS232 if you can however I have one of those USB>RS232 adapters and it is far from stable enough for this application. Just use your USBUIRT with emitters or get a higher quality X>RS232 solution.


Mine USB>RS232 may work for 48 hours straight ~sometimes~, my server stays up for weeks at a time.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by CollinR

I too would use RS232 if you can however I have one of those USB>RS232 adapters and it is far from stable enough for this application. Just use your USBUIRT with emitters or get a higher quality X>RS232 solution.

Mine USB>RS232 may work for 48 hours straight ~sometimes~, my server stays up for weeks at a time.

What exactly goes wrong? And is this something inherent in all USB-Serial adapters, or just yours?

[Jesse]

Hi,

I bought the Paterson Device. So far I cannot get it to work. Right now I am using a usbuirt and an emitter mouse. Make very sure sage gives you a confirmation for each code you teach it. It is working fairly well so far (had to re-teach sage a couple of codes) but I am going to try and get the Paterson device working when I can find the time.

HTH

Jesse

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,

I bought the Paterson Device. So far I cannot get it to work. Right now I am using a usbuirt and an emitter mouse. Make very sure sage gives you a confirmation for each code you teach it. It is working fairly well so far (had to re-teach sage a couple of codes) but I am going to try and get the Paterson device working when I can find the time.

HTH

Jesse

Is the Paterson device even necessary? Or will a regular USB to Serial adapter take care of it?

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by CollinR

I too would use RS232 if you can however I have one of those USB>RS232 adapters and it is far from stable enough for this application. Just use your USBUIRT with emitters or get a higher quality X>RS232 solution.


Mine USB>RS232 may work for 48 hours straight ~sometimes~, my server stays up for weeks at a time.

I've been running 5 receivers with these for about 2 weeks, 3 of which go to USB/Serial with null adapters between them, and the other 2 are going to serial ports on the PC, with Nulls. Working fine here so far. (With the exact adapter listed in the post above).

[BFisher]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,
I bought the Paterson Device. So far I cannot get it to work.

I use 2 Patterson cables - work great. Check out this thread for what helped them work for me...

[Serra]

Originally Posted by BFisher

I use 2 Patterson cables - work great. Check out this thread for what helped them work for me...

I can't say the patterson cables work great, I had a ton of trouble getting it to work the first time, but once it was working, it's great.

[Jesse]

Originally Posted by BFisher

I use 2 Patterson cables - work great. Check out this thread for what helped them work for me...

Thanks for the info. I will give it a go soon.

Jesse

[bhyman1]

I use two of these for my D11-500's and they work perfectly with zero problems.

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16812107108

Here's the info page I used as reference: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php...TV_D11_via_USB

[Twinkle]

Looking into this further, I see USB/Serial cables used with older receivers. But the H21 doesn't have a DB15, it has a USB port. How does that affect things?

Does it only need a regular USB cable to connect the PC to the receiver? And can Sage work with that?

[Morgan111]

Hmmm, just got my receivers installed today and see the same thing, no RS232. Looks like I will have to break out the USB-UIRT.

[BFisher]

Originally Posted by Twinkle

Does it only need a regular USB cable to connect the PC to the receiver? And can Sage work with that?

I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but I don't think this works. I think there has to be a serial connection in there somewhere... IIRC Sage doesn't have an option for USB connection to control anything - only serial port. So you'd need some sort of USB Serial converter somewhere.

I opted to use the serial ports on my PC (wow - it actually had some!) with the Patterson cables. Works great - very reliable.

[Twinkle]

Originally Posted by BFisher

I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but I don't think this works. I think there has to be a serial connection in there somewhere... IIRC Sage doesn't have an option for USB connection to control anything - only serial port. So you'd need some sort of USB Serial converter somewhere.

I opted to use the serial ports on my PC (wow - it actually had some!) with the Patterson cables. Works great - very reliable.

Could I use two USB to serial cables with a null modem between them? Is this something that would work? Or does Sage need some sort of 3rd party drivers with the cable method?

[BFisher]

I don't know. If Windows sees it as a serial port, I assume it would work... Sage (iirc) doesnt give you an option of a USB port to control it, so it would need to be recognized as a serial port...

[toricred]

So you guys are doing this with the Sage DirecTV dll and not a version of the script from MythTV?

[CollinR]

That USB port is usually to expand storage on their DVRs and to service the box like upgrading firmware. I dunno if you will be able to get channel changes working through it but I would definately expect you to not be able to simply plug in a patch cable to the server.

[BFisher]

Originally Posted by toricred

So you guys are doing this with the Sage DirecTV dll and not a version of the script from MythTV?

Correct - using the Sage DLL. I have an old Sage DLL as a backup in case one doesn't work (I've read reports here of some people not being able to control their boxes after an upgrade... but I haven't had that issue)

Originally Posted by CollinR

That USB port is usually to expand storage on their DVRs and to service the box like upgrading firmware. I dunno if you will be able to get channel changes working through it but I would definately expect you to not be able to simply plug in a patch cable to the server.

The USB port on the DirecTV box will control the channels. Like Collin, I doubt you can do USB to USB... has to have some serial port in there. I like the Patterson cable - works great for me.

[unkyjoe]

The patterson device connects to the USB port on the DirecTV receivers, the other end connects to a serial port on the PC, I have mine controlling 2 different DirecTV STD STB's and it has been working great for over 2 years.

This device can be used on the H21 HD STB as well if you check the patterson website.

The kicker is to get a true serial controller card for the PC instead of a USB to serial convertor. You can pick up a StarTech 2 port PCI serial card for around $30.

This is what I use.