USB-uirt, custom entry via Sage?

[KryptoNyte]

Will the USB-uirt + Sage allow me to send a zero digit prior to the four digit channel entry? I'm finding that there are some stations on my STB that revert to 480i for some reason, and it takes one keypress before the STB is ready for channel input, so I typically lose the first digit of the four digit channel entry which is making my HD-PVR recordings very unreliable.

For a time, I thought it had to do with the STB sleeping, but I was able to completely disable sleep in the STB menu system, and supposedly lock down 1080i.

I contacted Hauppauge about this, but their response seems to be that there isn't going to be a way for them to achieve this with the built in ir Blaster. I'm certainly open to any other ideas ...

[KryptoNyte]

Additionally, what is the purpose of the second unit, with 56khz ir sensor, and is this something that I would need for sage?

http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Additionally, what is the purpose of the second unit, with 56khz ir sensor, and is this something that I would need for sage?

http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm

The USB-UIRT without the sensor only allows you to send IR codes to cable boxes (IR emitter). The one with the sensor allows you to use it as an IR receiver as well as an emitter. People who have a single PC, and use it both as the back-end server as well as a client would probably want the emitter/receiver unit, whereas those of us with a dedicated headless server buried in a closet in the basement would only need the emitter unit.

[KryptoNyte]

Thanks, Keith. If I purchase the one with the IR sensor, does is hurt me in any way (regarding my closet sage server with HD-PVR)? It's only a 5 dollar addon, and perhaps I would use it someday.

Does anyone have a screenshot of the software setup GUI, as I recall from the HD-PVR ir Blaster setup, or is it all performed within SageTV setup?

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Thanks, Keith. If I purchase the one with the IR sensor, does is hurt me in any way (regarding my closet sage server with HD-PVR)? It's only a 5 dollar addon, and perhaps I would use it someday

Wouldn't hurt you at all. The IR receiver would just sit there unused.

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Does anyone have a screenshot of the software setup GUI, as I recall from the HD-PVR ir Blaster setup, or is it all performed within SageTV setup?

If you haven't already, check out this thread: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6282

You'll need to install the USB-UIRT driver first. After that, it depends on what your STB is. In my case, I have a Motorola STB, and was able to find an existing .ir file on this forum somewhere that works for Motorola STBs. Once I copied that file to the correct SageTV subdirectory, the remaining setup was all done within the SageTV gui.

[KryptoNyte]

Thank, Keith. That should do it.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

The USB-UIRT without the sensor only allows you to send IR codes to cable boxes (IR emitter). The one with the sensor allows you to use it as an IR receiver as well as an emitter. People who have a single PC, and use it both as the back-end server as well as a client would probably want the emitter/receiver unit, whereas those of us with a dedicated headless server buried in a closet in the basement would only need the emitter unit.

The USB-UIRT is capable of sending at 56khz but the one with the 56khz receiver sensor allows it to receive at 56khz which use to (and maybe still is) needed for Dish. DirectTV works with 38khz receive sensors as does the Motorola cable boxes I've used. Once programmed the 56khz receiver isn't needed even for Dish. This can be seen on the site:

IR Reception

• 34-40KHz Frequency Range
• *56KHz IR Receiver Add-On Option*

IR Transmission

• 20-60KHz Frequency Range

As you can see the transmitter covers a bigger range.

[KryptoNyte]

This device arrived.

Three quick questions;

1) Is there a step-by-step setup guide somewhere for adding this to Sage for the HD-PVR (USB version) recording? I already have the drivers in and the device is recognized by Win7 64bit. The instructions that I found out in the wild mention something about plugging an ir emitter into the USBUIRT, I though this thing WAS an emitter, and I would just drop it in front of the STB?

2) To get the device to tune my Explorer 4642HDC set top box, where exactly does that device specific setup occur? I recall the Hauppauge included ir blaster had an external windows setup program ...

3) Are there any other options except to delete the HD-PVR tuner in Sage completely, and re-add the tuner with the USBUIRT as the ir device? If I enter the active tuners setup right now for the HD-PVR, it seems as though I can't alter the channel changing device.

[KryptoNyte]

It's working.

Thank you folks that gave your input in this thread. This little unit is far more flexible than the HD-PVR included ir blaster.

[KryptoNyte]

Just a quick follow-up here. The USB-uirt has been working 100%, I'd sure recommend it to anyone that has banged their head on the wall with Hauppauge's own ir blaster.