IR and Remotes

[grot]

So, building up a box based on an old P3 I have lying around and a PVR250. It works WONDERFULLY, but in order to get it into production (aka my living room) I need to solve all the remote/IR issues. A few questions:

Do any of the "IR Blaster" type devices support the little wired stick on emmitters common with tivo's and replaytv's? I ask because its not obvious to me how I am going to create line of site from my HTPC to my cable box and amplifier. Right now I use a replay with the little wire emmitters and it works great.

Second, is it the case that if I bought something like an IRman I could train it to use pretty much any remote I had lying around?

Thanks in advance.

[grot]

I think I answered my own question:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jrhees/USBUIRT/

Seems to solve all my problems at once: it will act as my IR receiver for just about any remote I have hanging around, and will output both straight ahead and through a little wire emiter.

I'll post how it goes!

Grot

[dkardatzke]

Originally posted by grot
Do any of the "IR Blaster" type devices support the little wired stick on emmitters common with tivo's and replaytv's? I ask because its not obvious to me how I am going to create line of site from my HTPC to my cable box and amplifier. Right now I use a replay with the little wire emmitters and it works great.

Take a look at the attached picture of how my IR emitter sits in relation to my Cable Box.

Originally posted by grot
Second, is it the case that if I bought something like an IRman I could train it to use pretty much any remote I had lying around?

Yes, all you do is tell SageTV you have the IRMan hooked up and then program it through the Commands section of Detailed Setup. I use a MX-500 to control SageTV (and the rest of my HT) through the IRMan.

[grot]

I have new hope since your emmitter is working sideways! Either way, with the USB-UIRT, I have even more hope since i can always plug a rat tail into it as well.

[justme]

Hi grot,
Could you do me a favor and let me know how this product went. ie Shipping/Setup/Functionality(SageTV intergration, especially transmitting IR)

Internally it looks a lot like my dearly departed Ir-Trans. My cat killed it. I was about to replace it with another IrTrans or maybe a RedRat3. But this could save me some time/money. I want a good USB IR Reciever/Blaster.

[salsbst]

USB-UIRT's signal can bounce off of distant walls and still hit my cable box successfully every time. I think I would have to tape over the transmitter to prevent it from working as long as the two devices are in the same room.

[grot]

My experience with the USB-UIRT has been nearly flawless. I say nearly because I still can't get two codes recorded in girder - the volume for my receiver. It's not a big deal really.

Learning Girder was definately the hardest part. The USB-UIRT was purely a plug and play excercise - it even worked flawlessly with the extra emitters I had left over from my now-retired replay tv.

[salsbst]

grot, I saw something from Jon Rhees about some settings to try if you're having trouble learning codes w/USB-UIRT in girder. Unfortunately, I can't remember which forum, but it was probably either avsforum.com or www.girder.nl. Maybe such tricks will help you learn these last codes into girder.

[justme]

Thanx Grot, My USB-UIRT should ship today according to Jon.
As far as certian codes, doesn't the USB-UIRT have a method to support or import CCF files. There is just about every code in existance already in CCF format. A great place to look is Remotecentral.com. This link should take you to the CCF library. It may be broken as it is often moved around. If broken just look under file downloads then Pronto then Component Configuration Files. Best of luck.

[grot]

Been thinking about getting a pronto too, seems like its the way to go. I've been using my old replay remote, which has a wonky "select" button.

[justme]

I use a Dell Axim X5 PocketPC with PDAwin installed to emulate a pronto remote. My wife would kill me if I spent that much on a remote alone. Maybe one day I'll be able to sneak a Pronto on to the credit card.

[grot]

I have a pocket pc already, so its hard for me to justify another one. I need something that is mentally "the remote" for her.

[justme]

Prontos are very nice. I love the way you can have an icon for a code. The big reason my wife wouldn't use one(or even my emulator) is that she dislikes the lack of tactile feedback. She like's actual push buttons. This is why she has her own One for All remote. I hope to get the Tivo remote(switch 2) to work with SageTV using the USB-UIRT. This would make her a SageTV convert. Remotes are such a personal experience, and you have to make the wife happy. Particularly in my case, I'm a house husband, so she has the paycheck as well as the purse strings.

[dkardatzke]

I use the MX-500 which uses mostly hard buttons and has a small LCD screen that's completely customizable. My wife loves it because she doesn't have to look at it to use it and of course she loves the Macros I created to turn everything on and off so she doesn't have to figure it out.

I was able to program 6 components into the remote in about 15 minutes.

[Mary H]

I second the vote for the MX-500! I have a pronto... which I still use for code storage and teaching the MX-500.

I got the IRClone-MX device and software recently to allow PC backup and revision of the MX-500 configurations. Check it out at:
http://www.irclone.com/

[Xleon]

I'd like to vote for the Pronto. It's a fantastic piece of kit and I couldn't live without mine now.

(In a 'Home Theatre' kinda way, not a 'life' kinda way, of course!)

[grot]

Any experiences with the "cheap" pronto? The one with the smaller screen? I think its called the NEO?