Firewire channels change vs usbuirt

[Hunter69]

In the past I have read that firewire changes channels faster than a usbuirt, is my understanding on this subject correct? Currently I have a DCT6200 and a Pace DC700x HD changing channels via USB UIRT. I am thinking about changing to firewire (just for channel changing), do you feel it is worth the effort to set this up? Now for the second question
The motorola box appears to be compatible with firewire changing but I am still wondering whether or not I can get it to work with the Pace box.

My setup is a WHS server.

Thanks for the opininions and info
Bill

[Striker:WG]

I made the switch from the Hauppauge IR Blaster to Firewire on my DCT6200 and it was well worth the switch and only minimal effort was required!

Can't speak for the Pace box as I don't run one of those.

I wish I could get my other boxes to switch via Serial but the cable company (Shaw) has that port disabled so i'm forced to use IR

-Striker-

[Spectrum]

Just a heads up that there are no 64bit Windows drivers for FW so if you are running a 64 bit version of Windows and don't want to go back to 32bit just write it off

[Hunter69]

Not vail yet, just regular 32 bit whs.

Anybody like to chime in about getting the pace box to work?

This will only be used to change channels. I have 2 hdpvr's

[Hunter69]

So if I wanted to convert my usbuirt channels changed boxes to firewire, what steps do I need to do to make this as smooth as transition as possible (ie install the drivers and get whs to recognize the stb's, but how do I change this in sage. I am beginning to formulate my plan. Can I plug my stb's into my servers firewire and get them installed correctly without disrupting tv?

Thanks
Bill

[Naylia]

References:

Thread with Pace links: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...=firewire+pace - the issue here was getting device manager to accept the firewire drivers for the Pace/RNG 110 box

I prefer using FWChannelProxy as the method for tuning: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=303

[Hunter69]

So I will plug in the stb via firewire and follow the instructions to properly install it on the server. So how do I configure the change from usbuirt to firewire in sagetv?

[Taddeusz]

The only other major disadvantage to Firewire channel changing other than no 64-bit support is that none of the tools will pass leading zeros. At least on my Scientific Atlanta box this is a big disadvantage because it waits until further input if all three digits are not present and does not seem to accept any other Firewire codes than numbers. Which means I can't tell it to send a proceeding "OK" command. The result of this is that I had to adjust the HDPVR recording delay to be 7 seconds. I finally decided to switch back to my USB-UIRT and reduce the delays so that commands are sent more quickly. I think it's now just about as fast as Firewire was and has never missed a digit since I changed it.