Remote control experts.. I need your expertise: On-the-fly IR signal conversion

[mkanet]

I swear, I'm in love with the Tivo QWERTY slide-out remote control below. Surely there must be a way to use this remote control and have it's signals converted on-the-fly to my HD300/H200s. I haven't found any universal remote controls identical to tivo's.

So, I though maybe there's a device (base unit) that listens to whatever the tivo remote sends out and re-sends an IR code equivalent to my extender.

The Tivo remote is IR based:


I tried Googling, but I have no idea what the base unit would called; if they even exist.

EDIT: The tivo remote can also use bluetooth. I'm not sure if it's possible to have a USB based bluetooth receiver that converts to standard USB based keyboard (which my extender also supports).

Thanks in advance,
MKANET

[will]

I use a Tivo Slide remote with a PC based client and it works well with Intelliremote.

However, there isn't much chance of getting this to work with an extender because the keyboard portion only works over Bluetooth and the extenders (that I know of) don't support any BT drivers.

[Fuzzy]

You're most likely solution would probably be to route the bluetooth connection back to the server, and on the server send the button presses to the extender's UI context. It'd be a mess though... I hear in a couple weeks all the extenders are going to stop working anyways, so you might as well switch to PC clients now...

[mkanet]

Hi Fuzzy, where did you hear that all extenders will stop working in a couple of weeks? I feel bad for people who just paid >$350 for their extenders on that place that starts with the letter e and ends with y.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

You're most likely solution would probably be to route the bluetooth connection back to the server, and on the server send the button presses to the extender's UI context. It'd be a mess though... I hear in a couple weeks all the extenders are going to stop working anyways, so you might as well switch to PC clients now...

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I hear in a couple weeks all the extenders are going to stop working anyways, so you might as well switch to PC clients now...

That sounds like FUD to me, the extenders don't talk back to SageTV at all (except to check for firmware updates), and that's not necessary for them to function, they work just fine without an internet connection.

Granted I've not been following all the SageTV acquisition threads very closely (sick of reading the non-constructive rants of a few posters, and there's generally no new info in them anyway), so i might have missed something but that statement just doesn't make sense to me.

[mkanet]

Maybe "Fuzzy" from our forum was just messing with me. If he was joking, I didn't get the joke. He's not on the forum right now either. Could someone please tell me where he might have heard that all extenders may stop working in a couple of weeks? I've been searching/reading the forums for the past 30 minutes; but, can't find anything.

"..I hear in a couple weeks all the extenders are going to stop working anyways, so you might as well switch to PC clients now... "

Thanks,
MKANET

* merged with original joke *

[PiX64]

I would also really like to know if this is a joke or is for real! I have 5 extenders and if try just magically stop working I'm going to be in a bit of trouble.

I think fuzzy is messing with us.

[Fuzzy]

Guess I forgot to add smiley's... Just making fun of those who feel this is the end of the world.

[GKusnick]

Whether or not there was such a rumor before, there will be one now that you've drawn everybody's attention to it. This is what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The responsible thing would be to try to verify it first before you broadcast it to a larger audience. Since Fuzzy's on these forums several times a day, a PM could probably have settled the question quietly in a couple of hours. Now it will be much harder to kill.

[mkanet]

Thanks for clearing that up Fuzzy.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Guess I forgot to add smiley's... Just making fun of those who feel this is the end of the world.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Whether or not there was such a rumor before, there will be one now that you've drawn everybody's attention to it. This is what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The responsible thing would be to try to verify it first before you broadcast it to a larger audience. Since Fuzzy's on these forums several times a day, a PM could probably have settled the question quietly in a couple of hours. Now it will be much harder to kill.

However, that rumor spreading around would be GOOD for those who are sticking with sage.... would drive down the extender costs on eBay quite a bit...

[mkanet]

Anyway, getting back to the original subject. Is there a USB dongle that can pair with a bluetooth keyboard (with builtin bluetooth drivers) and fool the extender into thinking the device is just an ordinary PS/2 based wireless keyboard?

Taking a step back to look at my basic need.... is there ANY remote control at all like the Tivo Slide that would work with the extender? I've found some nice mini USB keyboards; but, I would still have to switch back and forth between the keyboard and a separate universal remote control.

I'm surprised with such a perfect design for Media Center products, there isn't something out that integrates keyboard and remote in one WITHOUT increasing the size of the device.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Anyway, getting back to the original subject. Is there a USB dongle that can pair with a bluetooth keyboard (with builtin bluetooth drivers) and fool the extender into thinking the device is just an ordinary PS/2 based wireless keyboard?

Taking a step back to look at my basic need.... is there ANY remote control at all like the Tivo Slide that would work with the extender? I've found some nice mini USB keyboards; but, I would still have to switch back and forth between the keyboard and a separate universal remote control.

I'm surprised with such a perfect design for Media Center products, there isn't something out that integrates keyboard and remote in one WITHOUT increasing the size of the device.

I highly doubt such a device exists, as in pretty much all normal cases, you'd be better off running the bluetooth directly to the USB port on the PC. I'm not sure how 'hackable' the HD300 is to add a bluetooth module at boot-up, but I'm guessing it would't be trivial - though I'm certainly not an embedded linux type of guy.

[mkanet]

From what I can tell in the below article, it looks like I need a USB dongle with builtin HID support (as opposed to relying on the OS to provide driver support) so it's recognized as a standard USB keyboard:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtop...5130&p=2065694

For some odd reason dongles that advertise this feature are discontinued. Plus, it doesnt look like it actually works too well based on feedback.

The next step would be IR translating (from one code to another that's compatible with sageTV's extenders) since I can use PC based Intelliremote.

It appears the below product can do just that:
http://www.irtrans.de/en/technicalinfo/translator.php

Since I can't find any forum posts anywhere about someone trying to do this, it would be an expensive experiment.

Or, I could wait for the Motorola Nyxboard Hybrid to come out and save myself a bunch of hassle. It's not quite as nice looking as the Tivo slide, but it would be better than switching back and forth between mini-keyboard and remote control:

http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/pro...-for-xbmc.aspx

-MKANET

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I highly doubt such a device exists, as in pretty much all normal cases, you'd be better off running the bluetooth directly to the USB port on the PC. I'm not sure how 'hackable' the HD300 is to add a bluetooth module at boot-up, but I'm guessing it would't be trivial - though I'm certainly not an embedded linux type of guy.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by mkanet

From what I can tell in the below article, it looks like I need a USB dongle with builtin HID support (as opposed to relying on the OS to provide driver support) so it's recognized as a standard USB keyboard:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtop...5130&p=2065694

For some odd reason dongles that advertise this feature are discontinued. Plus, it doesnt look like it actually works too well based on feedback.

The next step would be IR translating (from one code to another that's compatible with sageTV's extenders) since I can use PC based Intelliremote.

It appears the below product can do just that:
http://www.irtrans.de/en/technicalinfo/translator.php

Since I can't find any forum posts anywhere about someone trying to do this, it would be an expensive experiment.

Or, I could wait for the Motorola Nyxboard Hybrid to come out and save myself a bunch of hassle. It's not quite as nice looking as the Tivo slide, but it would be better than switching back and forth between mini-keyboard and remote control:

http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/pro...-for-xbmc.aspx

-MKANET

I so rarely have every wished to have a keyboard with any of my sage clients, i can't see this as much advantage. the only thing i would ever use it for would be searching, and with the auto-complete feature, that rarely takes more than 3 button presses to get me to what I'm looking for.

[mkanet]

Yeah, i guess it depends if you play online videos or not. It takes me and my wife forever to type the name of a music video or when looking for a specific video clip on youtube; which happens almost daily. My wife lookup music videos all the time on sageTV since its not the same experience playing them back on dinky laptop screen/speakers. It would also be nice to quickly type an actor/movie name to search for in IMDB.

Coincidentally, I just tried youtube this evening and it didnt work (spinning circle or only audio with black/blank video). I wonder if something changed on youtube's website to break sageTV youtube playback. I've never had this happen before.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I so rarely have every wished to have a keyboard with any of my sage clients, i can't see this as much advantage. the only thing i would ever use it for would be searching, and with the auto-complete feature, that rarely takes more than 3 button presses to get me to what I'm looking for.

[KJake]

I could totally see making a way for this to work with the HD300 because of its IR extender. I've never done anything similar to IR conversion, but you could probably use a small micro-controller spliced into the HD300's IR extender cable to take signals it receives and translate them real-time back down to the extender. There's probably enough power on the IR eye to power the controller too.

Lots of assumptions there...but I don't see it as an impossibility.

For other devices, you'd basically need something more self-contained that does everything the HD300 model does, but instead of just translating the signal/code, it would have an IR transmitter to relay the translated code to the extender.

[Fonceur]

Call me biased, but if you have any iOS or Android device(s), you could simply use TiSageTv or TaSageTV... The Remote control has a text field just for that...

[KJake]

Only needs 5v and has plenty of IO: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardMini