Going Crazy with install - Please Help if you Can

[vbtweb]

I'm new to this whole Media Center type enviroment.

I set this system up for a client at his home as a favor. (I don't normally do residential stuff) I ordered 8 or 9 Sage boxes, and loaded the software on a quad xeon server class box, with nvidia dx 10 type card. Has 4 gigs ram, 4 terabytes of storage. Entire home is gigabit ethernet cat 6 (new home build)

Every tv is wall mounted, every sage box is mounted behind every tv.

Movie theatre room sage box works well on 100 inch + projection.

Everything works well honestly, except for television.

I've tried and tried and tried to get it working to no avail.

He has Dish Network

Recievers - Solo VIP 211K
DUO VIP 222K

Using HD-PVR boxes 1 for each reciever.

IR Blaster from Duo to HD PVR (Came with it, works well actually when manually testing from computer)

USB UIRT for other box. Does not work at all, but takes programming successfully (appears so)

I can get TV to come on over sage. When you change channels, it doesn't change. It only appears to. Within a few hours, TV is replaced by an error.

I'm pretty sure if I could get channel changing via extender to work, I could hammer out the rest of this project. Does anyone have a setup using these recievers, that can just cheat for me, and give me the codes/ir files, to make it work. I've already followed every guide I could find in the search box, changing reciever numbers, remote numbers, disabling sd, etc. etc.

Thank you very much for any help any of you can provide me.

And lastly, anyone in the greater houston area who is a self proclaimed sage pro who would be willing to subcontract the finishing touches, if I am unable to work this out over this thread?

[Polypro]

The Dish guys are going to have to help, DirecTV here. I would just use the UIRT for both Dish boxes; A.) the UIRT can do 3 devices on it's own, and B.) With Dish able to change IR codes, I think there is a guy here controlling 9 receivers. The extenders are just telling the server to change channels, so once you get the server stuff working, you should be good. Did you install Total Media on the server and check that the ArcSoft app has a picture? What OS is on that Xeon?

P

[vbtweb]

With the total media I get a picture on both and ir blaster works flawlessly

I tried home server with issues. Then tried 7 with issues. Ended up settling on ultimate / vista

[vbtweb]

I wish sage would release an official specific set of recommended hardware and software specific to major television providers. Then an install that could work on said system out of the box. That would be great for people like me with no time to spend 80 hours crossing their fingers trying to make it work. Because of the unlimited possible configs and tv providers every how to - install guide and FAQ is completely vague and unreliable. it would also open doors to canned solutions that venders could resale. Sorry I don't mean to complain. This project has gone on a month too long and over 20 hours of work failing to deliver television without channel changing or error popups that keep coming back. This is just the price paid when trying to have your toys a year or more before the rest of the world

does anyone have the usbuirt code for my recievers that actually work? Does anyone know a link to a guide or instructions how to get the device to work inside sage, ESP if it's recommended I use it for both recievers

thanks in advance

[Fuzzy]

I do see one potential hurdle with your setup, and that is that the 222K only listens to IR commands for TV1. TV2 will only function via UHF-Pro, which I'm not sure there is a PC based transmitter for. You would be better off with multiple 211's.

As for remote setup, I'd recommend setting up all your 211's together, and use a single USB-UIRT. Set each Dish box to a different remote address (1,2,3,etc). Set them up one at a time in Sage. Add the first HDPVR to sage, choose to control it with the USB-UIRT, with the remote setup to Address 1, learn the commands. Then, set up Box 2, and learn it with the remote in address 2, etc.

Some quirks with Dish Network boxes. They WILL go to sleep every night. This is following the update time. To wake it up, you have to send a select key. I do this before any channel change by learning the SELECT command in Sage with each box/remote combo, and telling it to use that command pre-channel change. Works great so far.

Get everything working form the server alone, by itself. Make sure the guide works, that you can tune to the channels, that you can record multiple shows at once (and that they are the correct shows).. only then, should you start adding extenders (which is a VERY easy task)

EDIT: Seems I spoke too soon... Dish has FINALLY semi-corrected this shortcoming in their dual tuner boxes, with the release last month of the TV2 IR Converter Kit (pdf). It is basically an IR receiver that is connected to the UHF in port on the Dish box, allowing IR control of TV2.

[vbtweb]

TV2 would be the non HD part of the STB correct? I think it does HD and then shares a seperate tuner to SB over coax. What I think I did sort of, was to disable the SD or second tuner, and use just the HD tuner on the box.

Does that sound right ? BTW Thanks a million for the instructions. I'll be out there this evening, for what I truly hope is the last time for a while, to try to get this hammered out. Trying to be as prepared as possible, especially with the client "hover" factor.

Thanks

Vance

[vbtweb]

So far I have found and downloaded two .ir codes that are supposed to work for the two stbs I have, from this forum.

Hoping that will make it all come together.

Any clues about errors on the TV's quoting codec errors?

TV appears fine on server.

[vbtweb]

Well heading over there once again..... It's so sad at this point, its almost funny, if it were not for the 2 hour drive and all the wasted gas of course.

Ok so last time I was there, had them both changing channels and working. Then within a few minutes, one stb started constantly throwing a single error whenever the usbirt hit it with a command. It would say something like, is your remote away from the box? Is a door shut in front of it? is it around a corner? Like the signal was too weak.

So i unplugged that hd dvd and removed the source, hoping he could get by with 1 stb for a week or so until I could get back to fight it once more, and I left.

On the way home he called to tell me he had already broke it by going to a channel he didn't have. A PPV channel. The screen said press enter to order, or channel up and down to leave. Channel up and down didn't work. So here I go again.

If you guys have any advice whatsoever for what has turned out to be the worst project I've ever undertook in my life, please share with me. I can check this thread from my phone.

Thanks in advance for any help I can get.

[Fuzzy]

Well, for starters, don't enable channels that he doesn't receive. This includes PPV channels.

[Opus4]

And, disable the option to automatically enable newly added channels. The new system messaging system will add a message when a new channel has been added & then the new channel can be enabled by the user if it can be received.

Oh, and since you are installing it for someone else, it does require that the user learn how to perform some tasks. You should probably use Placeshifter or other remote PC control tools to manage the settings remotely if that is what you are going to be doing.

- Andy

[sic0048]

I also use a programable remote and have programed the Dish "Select" button into it. That way if someone does get to one of those "bad" channels and cannot get out, they have the ability to press the Dish Select button to get out of that screen. It is a real pain how Dish handles those screens, so while the solution works, it isn't the greatest. It would be better if the STB would respond to channel changes while on those "bad" channels.

I had trouble setting up the Hauppauge IR blaster and Sage recommended that I install the IR blasters first, and then install the SageTV software. I've never really heard of people getting the USB-UIRT working, but the symptoms are the same. So you could uninstall the SageTV software (don't worry, unless you manually delete the SageTV program folder you won't loose any settings) and then reinstall it. This will put the SageTV program installation after the Hauppauge IR Blaster and USB UIRT blaster installations. I know it worked for me and the Hauppauge IR blaster. It's a long shot, but can easily and quickly tried out.

[Fuzzy]

I'm using the USB-UIRT with my setup, and it controls my Dish boxes just fine. As long as you make your channel list correctly (only channels that are actually available), and set it to send 'SELECT' before channel change (to wake up a sleepy box), it works GREAT.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by vbtweb

Using HD-PVR boxes 1 for each reciever.

I can get TV to come on over sage. When you change channels, it doesn't change. It only appears to. Within a few hours, TV is replaced by an error.

Do you have the latest drivers for the HD-PVR? Earlier sets were unreliable in some installations.

[mtenboer]

How do you tell Sage to send the Select command before any channel change?

[briands]

Go into Setup video sources
Select the source to modify
In the right pane - select Tuner control
Go to learn new Command
Name the command - Select would be an obvious name, but you can call it whatever you want
Follow the instructions to teach the select command
Not necessary - but I'd suggest also testing the command from this menu as well
Once it is working - go to Remote control options
Pick Channel Change Prefix Code and choose the newly created code.