Success at last! I've spent countless hours over the past year working to replace Windows Media Center (WMC) with the release of Windows 10. I finally resorted to installing Windows 10 before the "free" cutoff by Microsoft, before I could get NextPVR to work like WMC did.
The complications that I have, as with many of you, is the damnable Comcast cable DTA box, and setting up NextPVR for changing channels via the TV Guide and for recording. I am certain the same problem exists for other cable TV providers, such as TimeWarner. I searched the forums and found some helpful info, but nothing I tried seemed to work -- until just recently. I can't tell you how many different configurations I tried. I started with a basic Windows installation, and then cloned the box with Clonezilla, so I could go back and start over again. But, with the newest release of NextPVR 3.7.7, I have finally got it configured as a viable replacement for the old WMC!! And I wanted to share what I've done with others who have the same "challenges," so that they don't have to suffer like I did. There are no guarantees, but this worked for me -- finally.
What your will need: (1) NextPVR version 3.7.7; (2) IR Server Suite; (3) Schedules Direct account; (4) Hauppauge HVR-2250 or HVR-2255 (both work); (5) WinTV software (comes with the Hauppauge card); (6) K-Lite Codec Pack; and (7) a USB-UIRT box available from
http://www.usbuirt.com (also seen it on Amazon). Now, other TV cards may work -- I don't know.
Hauppauge card. Install this device. Using the WinTV CD/DVD that comes with it, you need to install the drivers. Just follow the steps. I'd reboot after installation to make sure your system recognizes it. You can confirm its activation by going to Control Panel > Device Manager > Sound, video and game controllers. It should be listed as "Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 (8851)", without an exclamation point to the left of the line which indicates that a problem exists.
WinTV version 8 software. While you are using the WinTV CD/DVD, install the WinTV software. If you don't install this, the analog devices will not be recognized/listed on the Devices tab in NextPVR. As far as I can tell, there is no requirement to configure WinTV since you won't use it.
K-Lite Codec Pack. To make sure that I had the necessary decoders, I installed the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. I downloaded it from
http://www.codecguide.com/download_mega.htm, and installed everything.
USB-UIRT device. Download the drivers from the USB-UIRT website using the following link:
http://www.usbuirt.com/support.htm. On the right side of the page, you should see "Windows 7, Windows 8, Vista, both 32 and 64bit: current drivers are here: v2.06.01." Click the "v2.06.01" link to download the zip file that contains the drivers. You don't need the Girder plugin. Unzip the file, and remember the location where you unzipped it. Install the USB-UIRT device on your computer. It has a USB plug. Plug and play may start, and you can install the drivers from the location where you unzipped the driver file. If Plug and Play installation doesn't activate, go to Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Other devices (or it may display in Universal Serial Bus controllers) and locate the USB-UIRT Device. Right-click the device, and click Update Driver Software... Select Browse my computer for driver software and browse to the location where you unzipped the downloaded drivers. Make sure you check the box for "Include subfolders", and click the Next button. Once done, click the Close button. Alternatively, you may want to view the instructions provided at
http://www.usbuirt.com/getstart.htm. There is some great documentation with screenshots.
The USB-UIRT device should be ready. The only thing that you have to do now is to place the IR receiver from the Comcast box in front of the USB-UIRT box. I velcro'd both the USB-UIRT box and the IR receiver in place so they wouldn't move. My Comcast IR receiver is about an inch in front of the USB-UIRT box. I also plugged a small IR receiver into the USB-UIRT box and velcro'd it to the top -- I don't think it's needed.
IR Server Suite software. I found this package on the MediaPortal website at
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/extensio...suite-irss. Go to the bottom of the page and click the "Download" link which display the download link -- "Download IR Server Suite - Test Build 1.5.0.62.exe" button -- not the big green one (it's an ad). You can customize the installation location or use the default settings -- it doesn't appear to matter.
USB-UIRT Learn Helper Utility. Download this software package from
http://www.usbuirt.com/lrnhelper_0_0_5.zip. You will use this to record the Infrared (IR) codes from your Comcast remote controller . The zip file contains a program "lrnhelper.exe". This is the most tedious part of the process since you have to record each code from the remote controller for each digit. You will need a text editor for this process. Notepad will do, but I used Crimson Editor. The other thing that you must do is locate the "ProgramData" folder on the C drive. If you don't see it, you must go to File Explorer, click the "File" tab, and select "Change folder and search options." Then, select the "View" tab, and click the radio button for "Show hidden files, folders, and drives." Click the Apply and OK buttons. You should now see the "ProgramData" folder. Within this folder, find the "IR Server Suite" folder, and within it, the "IR Commands" folder (i.e., C:\ProgramData\IR Server Suite\IR Commands". This is where you will store the files from the learning remote control codes process.
Learning Remote Control Codes. Repeat these steps for each digit 0 through 9. The remaining buttons on the remote are irrelevant. Run the "lrnhelper.exe" app. Click the "Learn an IR Code" button. Point the remote as closely as possible to the USB-UIRT device, and press and hold the 0 (zero) on the remote control. A new "Received UIR Event Code" will be displayed, and you should see 5+ lines of digits in groups of four digits. If there are less than 5+ lines, then do the process for the remote digit again. When you have the displayed lines, highlight and copy the contents from the "IR Code (Pronto Format)" textbox. Paste these contents in your text editor. In the text editor, save with a filename of the "digit.IR" (example 0.IR, 1.IR, 2.IR, etc.) in the "C:\ProgramData\IR Server Suite\IR Commands" folder. Delete the contents of your text editor. Repeat the process for the next digit 1 (one), and so on. Do this for each of the digits on the remote. Again, you only need to record the digits -- the other buttons on the remote are not needed. After you are done, you should have 10 (ten files in the "IR Commands" folder (0.IR through 9.IR). At any time, you can test the USB-UIRT device by clicking the "Test Transmit IR Code" button and the red light on the front of the USB-UIRT device will light.
NextPVR. Install/upgrade to version 3.7.7. On the "About" tab, you may see a warning message about DirectX runtime not being available. This can be disregarded, since Windows 10 comes with DirectX.
On the "Devices" tab you should see the Analog devices, in addition to the ATSC, QAM, and IPTV devices. You will only need to configure one of the Analog devices. Since you are using the Comcast box, you only have a single input signal, so the second Analog device is irrelevant, and other devices won't be used in this setup. Obviously, you may use all but the second Analog device, but they are not part of this setup. In my configuration, I disabled all but the single Analog device that I'm using.
Continuing on the "Devices" tab, double-click the Analog device or highlight it, and click the "Device Setup" button. Change the "Executable" to the location of IR Server Suite software, with the app IRBlast.exe (e.g., c:\applications\ir server suite\IRBlast.exe -- where I installed the software). Change the "Arguments" to "-channel {channel}" (disregard the quotes, but you must include the curly brackets). Click the "Import" button. In the "Import Channel List" window, change "Import Source" to "Fixed-Channel." Select the channel set as output on your Comcast box (either 3 or 4). "Country" should already be set to "United States." "Tuning" should be set to "Cable." My "EPG Source" is "Schedules Direct" -- I already have an account set up, and I selected my channel lineup. You can now deselect the channels that you don't want to use by deselecting the associated checkboxes. To speed things up, you can select multiple channels, and deselect one and the others will also be deselected. Once done, click the OK button. The number of channels selected should show in the "Channels" column for the Analog device.
On the "Channels" tab, the selected channels will be listed with the "Source" as Analog and the "EPG" as Schedules Direct. Click the "Update EPG" button to update the channel TV Guide listings. Depending on the number of channels, this could take a while.
On the "Decoders" tab, I used the following: (1) Renderers: Video Renderer -> EVR; Audio Renderer -> Default; Music Renderer -> Default. (2) Video Decoders: MPEG2 Video -> MainConcept (HCW) MPEG-2 Video Decoder; H.264 Video -> Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder; HEVC Video -> LAV Video Decoder. (3) Audio Decoders: MPEG1 Audio -> Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder; AC3 Audio Decoder -> LAV Audio Decoder; E-AC3 Audio -> LAV Audio Decoder; AAC Audio -> LAV Audio Decoder; HE-AAC Audio -> LAV Audio Decoder. You may have to adjust some of these based on your system.
I have confirmed that the channel changes properly when selecting one from the TV Guide (double-clicking a program and selecting "Watch"). I have also set up recordings, and the channel changes and records properly.
Reboot your system and try it. The very best of luck, and I truly hope this helps!!