DirecTV H23-600 Channel Changing Problems

[bstowers]

I've been trying to figure out what's going wrong with channel changing on the new rig I'm building. They were supposed to bring me a H20 receiver, but they left me with this one that apparently is pretty new since I can't find any information about people using it with Sage or much of anything else.

Anyway, I've been fighting with it for a few days now. I'm using the Paterson cable. When I first got it up and running, it would change channels sometimes, but not for very long without stopping completely. To fix it, I would need to pull the cable from the PC, attempt to change channels, plug the cable back in, and then it would work again for a bit. That worked the first day, but after that it just failed to change channels at all no matter what. After messing with the hardware, I've gone from a PCI card with serial ports on it to a USB adapter cable and software driver that lets me use on my USB ports on the PC. I don't think the hardware (ports or cables) is the problem. I've been using the DTVControl program (http://www.dtvcontrol.com/) and a lot of the stuff in it does work fine. For example, there's a command to get the date/time from the receiver, and that works fine. Also, the Guide and Menu buttons work as expected. On to of that, I can use the number keys in the application to punch in a channel number, and that works too. But there is a channel area of the application where you can read the current channel by clicking the Get button (that works), and an edit control where you can type in a channel number and click Set. It's the Set button that always fails, and I'm guessing that whatever method it's using is also the method the DTV serial control in SageTV is using also, and that's why it fails.

Now, if anyone reading this is any good with inner workings of the receiver control over the serial port, here's a dump of the DTVCon output window when I try to do a channel set:

--> FA A6
<-- F0 Valid Command
--> 01 62 FF FF
--- Timeout

In that example, I was attempting to set to channel 354 (0162 hex = 354 decimal). I assume "FA A6" is a request to send a channel number, and it appears to be recognized as a valid command.

I've tried messing with the Experiment part of the app, sending things like "FA A6 01 62 FF FF FF FF" thinking maybe they (DirecTV) extended the size of the data being sent for the channel number and the receiver was waiting on more bytes and not getting them, but that just gets the same Timout failure.

Oh, and I'm using the D10-100 command set in DTVCon, but I've tried using them all. D10-100 just seems to be the one that everything except Set Channel command works in. The others have fewer working commands.

Anyone have any clues what might be going wrong here? Or, is there some switch that I could use in SageTV to tell it to send channel number commands seperately (multiple FA A5 commands) instead of as a single command (FA A6) since that does work for me?

[phelme]

Well that's annoying. I'm using a Paterson on an H20 and I'd hate for it to be incompatible with future boxes. Had you been using the Paterson cable without problems before on a previous box? If so, I'd try talking to Paterson about it. They'll want to know if there are issues with new hardware.

You also might want to check out the DBSTalk forums and see what they have to say about the new H23. Post a question if there isn't any serial talk already. The people there are pretty knowledgeable.

If serial control continues to be an issue, you can always pick up a USB-UIRT blaster as an alternative. I use one on a second H20 and it's been great. Forget the MCE blasters and the like, too unreliable.

[bstowers]

No, I had been using an ancient RCA box with a serial port before this. For the record, I don't think it's the Paterson cable, but then I'm no expert on what's going wrong here. I did email them about it, but haven't heard anything.

DBSTalk didn't have much about the H23, apparently because it's so new. I was going to post something there, but had to create an account and it has not been approved yet for posting.

I had another thread going when I thought this was an issue with the cable or the ports on my PC, and Cliff in that thread turned me onto using DirecTV.exe with the external tuner plugin. It seems that DirecTV.exe is using that "one key at a time" method I mentioned in my original post (A5 command) instead of the A6 command that sends the channel all at once in 4 bytes. Since the A5 command is working for me, I've just swithed over to using this as my tuner instead of the directv serial control DLL, which I suspect is using the A6 command. So far it's all working great.

It's really strange that it was working for me sometimes the first day that I had it set up. I really think DirecTV must have pushed an update to my receiver or something and mucked up the command parsing. Don't know what else to make of it.

I'd be interested to hear from any other H23 users to see if they've had this issue or not.

[BFisher]

don't know if this thread will help you or not...

[bstowers]

Nope, I had tried that registry change as well, and it didn't help.

[bstowers]

In case any other H23 receiver users happen across this thread, I thought I'd post some follow up information.

The Paterson cable guy got back to me this afternoon and in talking to him, it seems he has seen this problem before back with the H20 receiver. According to him, DirecTV eventually pushed a softare update out to fix it, but until they did he had added a "H20 mode" to his testing and configuration software. This mode tells his cable (there's a little bit of brains built into the cable, and it can be programmed a bit, smart fellow) to go into a mode where it intercepts the A6 command and turns it into a bunch of A5 commands (the ones that simulate punching the individual digits on the remote). So, it's working for me now using the built in serial control DLL.

[JetreL]

I wanted to followup to this thread because I was having problems getting my Paterson cable working with my H23. This fix worked. I hope it helps someone else!


Add registry option to use fast channel changing method with DTVSerial (create as a DWORD and set to 1 to enable): HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirecTVSerialFastChannelChanges

[Steve52]

Originally Posted by JetreL

I wanted to followup to this thread because I was having problems getting my Paterson cable working with my H23. This fix worked. I hope it helps someone else!


Add registry option to use fast channel changing method with DTVSerial (create as a DWORD and set to 1 to enable): HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirecTVSerialFastChannelChanges

I just found this thread and I wanted to ask a question. I have an H23-600 and I have ordered the Paterson USB device for channel changing. Can you elaborate a little on the steps to take to fix a problem with the Paterson Usb device, and what is :

(create as a DWORD and set to 1 to enable)

Thanks!

[bstowers]

You should try setting it up just as the cable's directions tell you to when you first get it.

If it does not change channels for you, then you can try the registry setting that JetreL mentioned. What he listed was a path in the registry (you edit it with a program on your computer called RegEdit.exe in your Windows directory). You then create a named item in that path with a particular data type (DWORD) and give that item a value of 1. In RegEdit, you would go to the Edit menu, choose New, and then DWORD. You should have Sage shut down when you add this value, I think, but I'm not 100% sure. I'd go ahead and shut it down myself just to be sure. After you add the new registry value, restart Sage and see if the channel changing works.

If it still doesn't work (the registry value worked for JetreL, but it did not work for me), you'll have to try putting the Paterson cable into H20 mode. Use the configuration tool that's available on their website to do that.

[Steve52]

Just a follow up note to my post in this thread. When I received my Paterson USB device I connected it and ran sage, but sage (version 6.3.5.159) would not change channels. The registry fix worked for me using the DirecTv H23-600 receiver, and sage will change channels after making the addition to the registry.

[ChuckSchick]

Another Confirmation...

DirecTV H23 + Sage 6.4.5 Beta (Jul 10 2008) + Paterson Tech in H20 Mode + Registry Edit = Works great for me.

[heffe2001]

I know this is a month old thread, but I'm currently using a Prolific USB adapter plugged into my H23-600, with a Null connector and another usb adapter plugged into the PC, and it changes channels just like my H20, and my other DTV boxes... ( I do also have the reg edit on both machines ).

[Beefcake550]

Same here (as heffe2001) works great. Maybe they updated the H23-600 box.

-Brian

[heffe2001]

Something has appeared to change on my H23-600, I can change channels with the dtvcontrol program fine, works every time, but Sage won't change channels on this receiver anymore. Anybody else had any problems lately with theirs?

I spoke too soon, it looks like it's working about 70% of the time right now... Until I can figure out what's wrong I may end up just pulling that tuner..

[JetreL]

try rebooting everything seems to fix it for me when I have glitches like this

[bastian74]

I've noticed the directv fast channel change is actually a config option in the gui setup somewhere, one of the lower settings, like sage properties or something.

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

Something has appeared to change on my H23-600, I can change channels with the dtvcontrol program fine, works every time, but Sage won't change channels on this receiver anymore. Anybody else had any problems lately with theirs?

I spoke too soon, it looks like it's working about 70% of the time right now... Until I can figure out what's wrong I may end up just pulling that tuner..

I couldn't get SageTV to work with it Direct TV serial control until I copied one in root folder over to the one in common folder becasue one in common seem to be an older file than one in root.

So you might want to check and compare date on the directtvserialcontrol file in both folders.

Here my post on about it - http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36464


Bill

[Beefcake550]

I've been using the EXE tuner plugin along with directv.exe that I picked up over at the GB-PVR forum. Google search will get you the links.

Basically, add a registry setting which is the command line for changing channels. In my case, I just added "-COM3". Then, copied over the directv.exe file to sageTV dir and done. Ok, well you still need to install the EXETuner Plugin.

Good luck.

-Brian

[heffe2001]

Weird thing is, the other 3 DTV receivers on that machine work perfectly well (a H20-600, a D11-100, and a D12-500), as well as the 2 other RX's on the main sage server (both D11's I think). It currently appears to be working, so we'll see how it goes tonight..

[Beefcake550]

heffe2001,

You should keep in mind that different DTV STBs have different command sets that they work with. If you look at dtvcontrol program, you'll see it has different command sets. I wouldn't know how to use different commands for different "tuners - i.e. - stb attached to a tuner), but I thought there was a way.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.