Directv serial (USB) control problems

[jvcd3po]

I recently upgraded from XP to Vista Ultimate and now have issues with changing channels on my Directv H21. Worked great in XP in testing from the directv control app and from within Sage. Now in Vista I can power on/off and use the directv control app shortcut buttons to change to Fox News, Discovery, etc., but it fails when sending single numeric key strokes. In Sage channel changing fails completely. I've tried different port number settings, slower baud rates and flow control settings without any luck. I'm thinking I have a driver issue with the USB to serial cable, but it seems weird that it would only affect certain commands.

I've searched the heck out of the forums and tried several sequences of restarts, resets and updates. Anyone out there had similar issues?

[SWKerr]

Did you remember to set "DirecTV Serial Channel Changing Mode" to Fast in the Sage setup?

I had problems in Vista64 getting it to work. The usb2serial driver was not digitally signed and therfore useless (Fing Microsoft) but if you get the app to turn it off I suspect it is working. I was able to get it working in Vista 32 no problem. I now use WHS so may not be much help.

What is your USB2serial driver?

[jvcd3po]

I'm on Vista32. The driver is MMUI Express -to-Serial Bridge. I guess my next attempt might be to try a different USB-serial cable/driver. It's just bugging me that it *almost* works. Seems like a little tweak to a setting would get it to work.

I bought the cables and null modem f/f from monoprice, but I didn't get the "approved" set - http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...t=1#largeimage

I do have the changing mode set to fast in Sage. Learned that one from my old XP setup.

Appreciate your thoughts...

[SWKerr]

That is my exact USB to serial cable and it works for my WHS setup. It would also have been the one that worked on Vista32. My driver says "MosChip 7703-USB2Serial Port". This is WHS but I would expect the name to be the similar. Did you use the disk that came with it?

[jvcd3po]

I ordered the "approved" cable today.

The one that worked with XP, but not vista32 - http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[mtyme]

I'm having this exact same problem. I switched from XP Pro to WHS - same cables same STB same everything except now Sage isn't changing the channels. I can change them from the DTV Control.exe program no problem.

[Beefcake550]

if directv control is working, you could consider using the EXETuner plugin which would then call the command line directv control. This is what I use because when I setup Sage and while ago, the DirecTV serial control for my STB was not working. It's supposedly fixed since then, but I adhere to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" strictly. My WAF has gone sky high since I moved to extenders and added the "strickly" part above .

[mtyme]

I got it working after about 5 hours of .

I had it set to Fast switching and using the "new" codes. I changed it to normal switching and old codes and it started working. Also, I had to do this manually in the registry. Even though I set it through Sage, it wasn't updating the registry. The bizzare thing is that on my old server, those settings are set to FAST and NEW. Makes no sense.

[natrlhy]

Mind sharing those registry settings you changed? I'm still using the EXETune external app to change channels on my DirecTV box, but it's unreliable still. I may try the provided directv serial channel changing.

[Beefcake550]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sage\EXETunerPlugin\command

Mine is set to "directv -port COM3 #%CHANNEL%" and I have directv.exe in c:\program files\sageTV\sageTV

[mtyme]

Originally Posted by natrlhy

Mind sharing those registry settings you changed? I'm still using the EXETune external app to change channels on my DirecTV box, but it's unreliable still. I may try the provided directv serial channel changing.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\FREY TECHNOLOGIES\SAGETV

DirecTVSerialFastChannelChanges (1)
DirecTVCmdSet (1)