Power on my cable box with USB-UIRT?

[gabrielcab]

Hello, i recently subscribed to cable tv and i don't know what is happening that every day it appears turned off. I checked the cable box settings and there is no auto turn off or sleep enable. How can I configure the USB-UIRT to send a power on signal every day at certain hour?

[wayner]

You can run a scheduled task a minute or two after your box shuts down. You will need these two files:

http://www.usbuirt.com/lrnhelper_0_0_5.zip
http://www.usbuirt.com/uutx_0_3.zip

Is your box an SA8300HD or other SA box? If so and you have trouble let me know and I can send you my exact codes.

You also need to know when your box shuts down.

Or you could try this: http://www.ehow.com/how_8454176_stop...leep-mode.html

But it will still require sending a key press every two hours.

[Fonceur]

Or check the cable box' settings, there might be an option to basically wake up when it receives a digit for the channel change...

[will]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Hello, i recently subscribed to cable tv and i don't know what is happening that every day it appears turned off. I checked the cable box settings and there is no auto turn off or sleep enable. How can I configure the USB-UIRT to send a power on signal every day at certain hour?

I know you already have the USB-UIRT but have you considered using firewire to control the box?

I have been using firewire for almost two years to control two cable boxes and it works flawlessly. It never tunes to the wrong channel and if the box is off they will automatically come back on when the system sends it a channel change.

[wayner]

My experience is that there is such an option for SA HD boxes(3250HD,4250HD,8300HD) but not for their SD box the SA3200.

The other problem is that SA boxes do not appear to have a discrete power on command, only a power toggle. Therefore you have to be careful about sending this command as you may do more harm than good.

This is why I have been trying to figure our how to determine if the box is on by doing a test recording and then running that through something like Comskip to determine whether you have a real video file or just a black screen.

But I have never taken the time to figure out the whole process and validate whether it works or not.

You may also want to check out the thread on STBKeepAlive

[gabrielcab]

Originally Posted by will

I know you already have the USB-UIRT but have you considered using firewire to control the box?

I have been using firewire for almost two years to control two cable boxes and it works flawlessly. It never tunes to the wrong channel and if the box is off they will automatically come back on when the system sends it a channel change.

Hows that? what firewire you use? have any link?

Thanks everyone for the comments, i will try some of them and let you know.

[wayner]

First you have to be using a 32 bit version of Windows, assuming you are using Windows, and you need firewire ports on both your PC and STB. Then download the drivers from here http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/

and check out this thread http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55995

[will]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Hows that? what firewire you use? have any link?

Thanks everyone for the comments, i will try some of them and let you know.

Firewire is a serial bus interface standard (similar to USB). Comes standard on a lot of different motherboards, otherwise you can install it with a cheap add-on card.

Most (all...required by law???) cable boxes have firewire ports on them and some users use it to transfer non-premium channel video. However, I believe all the cable companies have now locked down that feature. But if your firewire port is enabled (turned on), you most likely can use it to send commands to change channels.

wayner gave you great links to get started. If it is an option for you, I would definitely recommend firewire over an IR blaster.

[Tomahawk51]

This is an interesting point of reflection for me.

I've been using Firewire to Channel Change (no capture) for sometime as well and indeed am very happy with the consistent and flawless performance. It was a pain to figure out exactly what the steps to get it going (as the many, many posts didn't equal a simple walk-through - at last look). Totally worth figuring out though.

Anyway, I've been considering buying a USB UIRT to enable Video On Demand viewing (combined with the LM Remote Application). I'd love to get access to some of the movies available on demand, and merely need to send my set top box an "enter" command to do so (combined with using Comcast's iPad app). see this: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55645

And since I may get this anyway, I've been considering using it for channel changing so I can use my full 6gb of RAM (the 32bit vs 64bit detail about FW changing).

Off topic...Writing this out, I see why I love the SageTV hobby...but can see how maybe this is all too complicated given the evolving market of Netflix, etc...

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

Off topic...Writing this out, I see why I love the SageTV hobby...but can see how maybe this is all too complicated given the evolving market of Netflix, etc...

You make a good point but the thing with Sage is that you have total control over your content forever. You don't have that with something like Netflix where your kids may like watching a certain show and then it is no longer available due to licensing reasons or lack of demand, or some other reason.

And Netflix generally does not have the higher quality that we have come to expect, nor does it have live sports.

[will]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

And since I may get this anyway, I've been considering using it for channel changing so I can use my full 6gb of RAM (the 32bit vs 64bit detail about FW changing).

Unless you are using your system for something else besides SageTV you won't see a performance increase with 6gb of RAM and SageTV. SageTV is a 32bit program and can only use and see 2gb of RAM. In theory, if SageTV was compiled with the large memory switch, it could use up to 4gb (but I don't think it is).

The only way for SageTV to be able to utilize greater amounts of RAM would be to re-write the software to be 64bit.

[Tomahawk51]

Originally Posted by will

Unless you are using your system for something else besides SageTV you won't see a performance increase with 6gb of RAM and SageTV.

A good point to make. In my case, I suspect that having more RAM would only help my ComSkipping on an old, cheap, Core2Duo. But you are wise to caution that it is probably not majorly "worth it".

<Getting off topic from OP's thread again>
On the other hand, I have it already! So I want to use it! Too bad the FW driver gods aren't working on a 64bit version (to make me happy).
Now what I really wish was that I could devine an approach to send my STB an enter command, via FireWire, through an extender (maybe calling an external .bat file mapped to a custom remote command on my Harmony remote)? I'm just not smart enough to figure it out (and thus will most likely check out the LM Remote path mentioned on the thread I posted earlier).

[gabrielcab]

Hello,

i tried with StbKeepAlive but it wont work if i'm using the usb-uirt to change channels from sagetv, and my stb doesn't have a firewire port. Do i have any other option to keep sending signals to my stb to prevent it to go to sleep? Can anyone make a plug-in to send "0000" every couple of hours?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Hello,

i tried with StbKeepAlive but it wont work if i'm using the usb-uirt to change channels from sagetv, and my stb doesn't have a firewire port. Do i have any other option to keep sending signals to my stb to prevent it to go to sleep? Can anyone make a plug-in to send "0000" every couple of hours?

My SJQ plugin with this script can be configured to issue the remote keys as often as you wish. Warning: Setup of SJQ can be a bit overwhelming for some users and the effort required may not justify the end result, YMMV. However, with that said, all the tools are readily available to do this exact thing.

[gabrielcab]

Thanks slugger, i've installed everything and read the wiki and user guide, i have some questions.

1- In the script, do i need to add or change anything?
2- On "Add SJQ Task", Do i leave blank the "Executable and Executable Args"?
3- Do i need to enter something on "Test Script Args:?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Thanks slugger, i've installed everything and read the wiki and user guide, i have some questions.

1- In the script, do i need to add or change anything?

No.

2- On "Add SJQ Task", Do i leave blank the "Executable and Executable Args"?

The executable is the script. As it says in the User Guide, a groovy script being used as an executable must be prefixed with 'script:'

As for arguments, you need to pass in two arguments: 1) The name of the remote you wish to send IR commands from. The name must be the one used by SageTV - check your video source config for details on the name of the remote to use. 2) The IR commands you want to send, which sounds like 000 for this case.

3- Do i need to enter something on "Test Script Args:?

No, you shouldn't have a test script defined, unless you want to delay sending the IR command. And if you do, you need a separate groovy script to define those conditions. You probably, at the very least, want to skip sending the IR commands if there's a recording in progress, for example. Remember, the linked to script is your executable and if you wanted to add conditions to the task, you'd need to write a separate test script.

Also, please move any further discussion of this to the SJQv4 thread. 1) This is where these particulars belong and 2) I get email notification of posts to that thread, which usually means a quicker response. SJQ questions in non-SJQ threads may or may not be seen by me.