Can I use MCE IR Blaster to control HD-PVR?

[popechild]

Since I'm having problems getting my Hauppauge IR blaster to play nicely with the Hauppauge 1600 card in my system, I'm wondering if I can use the blaster that came with my MCE remote/receiver instead? I know everyone else is using the USB-UIRT, but since I've got this laying around...

Problem is there's no "MCE IR Blaster" option to choose when I try to setup the HD-PVR as a source. Any ideas? Is this not a valid Blaster to use with Sage for some reason?

[bcjenkins]

Yes you can. You should check out StephaneM's MCE remote application.

B

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23779

[popechild]

Ahh, thanks for the link. I'll try to give that a shot. Any idea how the length of channel change delays compares to the USB-UIRT? It seems like having a 3rd party app in there "processing" the IR blasts would add time. But now that I think about it, I guess the UIRT pretty much works the same way.

Speaking of which, since I'm currently using the MCE remote/receiver, if I did change to the USB-UIRT (assuming I find some problem with Stephanie's program, or end up adding a second tuner), will I need to replace the MCE receiver I currently have wedged in my HTPC case w/ the USB-UIRT receiver, or can I somehow just use the blaster portion of the USB-UIRT w/o having to change out the IR receiver portion?

Thanks for the help!

[HelenWeathers]

"can I somehow just use the blaster portion of the USB-UIRT w/o having to change out the IR receiver portion?"

Yes you can

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by popechild

Ahh, thanks for the link. I'll try to give that a shot. Any idea how the length of channel change delays compares to the USB-UIRT? It seems like having a 3rd party app in there "processing" the IR blasts would add time. But now that I think about it, I guess the UIRT pretty much works the same way.

Speaking of which, since I'm currently using the MCE remote/receiver, if I did change to the USB-UIRT (assuming I find some problem with Stephanie's program, or end up adding a second tuner), will I need to replace the MCE receiver I currently have wedged in my HTPC case w/ the USB-UIRT receiver, or can I somehow just use the blaster portion of the USB-UIRT w/o having to change out the IR receiver portion?

Thanks for the help!

I helped my brother set up the MCE blaster last week. Very fast with his cable box.

B

[ghostlobster]

I'm using my MCE blaster with the HD-PVR and it's working great with LMRemote. Originally, I used the HD-PVR's integrated blaster, but that was slower than poop and not too reliable. I went back to the MCE blaster/LMRemote combo and it's great! 2x as fast and rarely misses channel changes.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

I'm using my MCE blaster with the HD-PVR and it's working great with LMRemote. Originally, I used the HD-PVR's integrated blaster, but that was slower than poop and not too reliable. I went back to the MCE blaster/LMRemote combo and it's great! 2x as fast and rarely misses channel changes.

Awesome. I'm planning on trying it on mine as soon as I get a chance to open up the box and do the necessary surgery to get to the back of the IR receiver.

Are you using the free version or the donator version of LMRemote? I'm having a little bit of trouble judging from the description on the website whether or not I need the donator version or if it's just got more bells and whistles. I don't really need it to remap keys or anything fancy, just send my signals through the blaster...

[bcjenkins]

The biggest difference I think for what you are trying to do is that there will likely be a preconfigured profile for your STB with the donator version. If it saves you some hassle well worth the price of admission.

B

[popechild]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

"can I somehow just use the blaster portion of the USB-UIRT w/o having to change out the IR receiver portion?"

Yes you can

Now that I look more closely at the USB-UIRT this comment is confusing me. It looks like the USB-UIRT doesn't even come with a blaster at all. So if all the USB-UIRT is is a receiver (that I have to connect my own blaster to), it seems like I'd obviously need to replace the MCE receiver with the USB-UIRT, right? Not that I can't do it, it just means more surgery in the extremely cramped box and more modification within Sage to move to a completely different receiver...

EDIT: The more I look at it, I actually can't tell whether it comes with an external blaster or not. It's certainly not in any of the pictures, but the descriptions I read seem inconclusive. So to clarify, if it DOES come with a "plug in" stick-on type blaster cable, is it actually possible to just plug that in to my existing MCE IR receiver (and use it as the USB-UIRT blaster for HD-PVR purposes) or am I correct in assuming I still would have to switch out the MCE IR receiver for the USB-UIRT one?

[bcjenkins]

Receiving of commands is separate from sending of commands and they are configured in 2 different places.

Reception tells SageTV what you would like it to do and could still be controlled by the MCE remote.

When SageTV needs to tell a STB to change channels, it does not have to be through the same mechanism as the one by which you control SageTV (MCE remote) but could be by any number of devices USBUIRT, IRTrans, MCE, FireWire, CommandIR (Linux), etc.

Hope that helps!

B

[popechild]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Receiving of commands is separate from sending of commands and they are configured in 2 different places.

Reception tells SageTV what you would like it to do and could still be controlled by the MCE remote.

When SageTV needs to tell a STB to change channels, it does not have to be through the same mechanism as the one by which you control SageTV (MCE remote) but could be by any number of devices USBUIRT, IRTrans, MCE, FireWire, CommandIR (Linux), etc.

Hope that helps!

B

Ahh, I see. So I would still need to plug in the USB receiver from the USB-UIRT, and plug the blaster into it, but I wouldn't need to put it anywhere that it could *receive* signals, because I could keep using the MCE one for that and just use the UIRT for blasting. Makes sense. Can you confirm whether or not the USB-UIRT comes with it's own blaster or if you need to provide your own? Thanks again.

[bcjenkins]

The USBUIRT can control 3 zones (STBs) but I don't have one and can't comment on what it ships with.

B

[popechild]

No problem. I think I actually just figured it out. I found a thread that talked about what a pain it was that the same box that did the receiving also acts as the blaster. In my case, since I'm not worried about using it as a receiver, I guess that's not too big a deal.

In other news, I still can't control my box though. You know how sometimes you just run into a new wall no matter which direction you turn? I could suck it up and just order a USB-UIRT I guess, but I keep thinking there's got to be a way to use the blaster I have, not spend the $50 for the USB-UIRT, and not have to wait a week for shipping, etc.

1. Tried using the Hauppauge blaster. Doesn't work since I'm using another Hauppauge tuner in the box. Strike 1.

2. Tried using StephaneM's LM Remote Keymap program. Seems like a useful program, except it simply refuses to learn my remote codes correctly. (Or it's learning them correctly, but isn't sending them correctly...)

3. In the process, I had played around with the MCE Remote Replacement Drivers that are floating around out there in an effort to see if my blaster is even working. The come with a little IR record/play app that works perfectly in my system, so I knew it wasn't a blaster problem. That got me thinking, why not try to use the replacement drivers with HIP or something. Found a thread about using HIP and the EXETuner plugin with the replacement drivers and was SURE this was going to be the key.

Now I run into this - Sage apparently has to use the default "LocalSystem" user in order for EXETuner to work. (I assume this is still true?) But I have multiple network drives, which requires me to use a passworded user login for the service. GRRRRR!!!!!

A full week into ownership of this HD-PVR and I still can't control the channel changing through Sage.

Does anyone have any other ideas - whether on anything I've tried so far or anything else I've yet to try - for how I can make Sage do a simple channel change for me on this thing?

[SageGk]

I know this is an old post, but maybe you guys can help me. I have successfully used LM remote keymap with the MCE blaster for months now with my HVR-1800. I now want to add a second STB (with my HD-PVR). How do you configure this for 2 blasters? I plugged one transmitter into Port1 and the other to Port2, but it throws a fit whenever I try to use it in sage.

[popechild]

Originally Posted by SageGk

I know this is an old post, but maybe you guys can help me. I have successfully used LM remote keymap with the MCE blaster for months now with my HVR-1800. I now want to add a second STB (with my HD-PVR). How do you configure this for 2 blasters? I plugged one transmitter into Port1 and the other to Port2, but it throws a fit whenever I try to use it in sage.

Hopefully someone else can help you out, because I haven't tried it with 2 blasters, and honestly, just getting it working right for 1 was enough to drive me insane.