Control for digital set-top-box

[jaysoma]

I use a set-top-box to decode the cable signal before it reaches my computer. I use a Hauppauge PVR350 card as my tuner. The card only comes with an IR receiver that is 3 feet long. I need to find an IR receiver that also transmits signals to my set-top-box, preferably about 25 feet long. I used to own an MCE remote, and the IR blaster that came bundled with it came pretty close to what I needed. Is this going to be my best bet? I looked up the USB-UIRT device and that goes for about $50. What's my best bet in terms of getting an IR receiver that can also control my set-top-box with some fairly long cables? And also, will any of the channel changer plugins turn my set-top-box on/off to begin/end recordings?

[stefan]

The USB-UIRT works great. I suspect you could get yourself an USB extender cord, but I don't know the maximum length for those... the cable that comes with theusb-uirt is about three-four feet, I think.

GBPVR will not turn your box on/off, since there is no way of knowing if it is on or off from the beginning. Most boxes only have an on/off toggle; there usually is no way of issueing an "on no matter if you are already on or not", so you'd have to keep the box on att all times.

[ricklous]

will any of the channel changer plugins turn my set-top-box on/off to begin/end recordings?

Like Stefan says, GBPVR cant be used to control the power of your STB, but I use HIP to minimise the hours that my STB is on. HIP includes a fairly powerful scheduler, which I use to send the STBs power on/off IR codes when the PC goes into standby/resumes etc. So if my PVRs sleeping, so is the STB.

Also a channel change request switches the box on too, so (for mine at least) the only IR code thats needed is when the PVR goes into standby, to put the box to sleep. Then as soon as the box gets a signal for a channel, it switches on and changes channel. depends on your STB as to how you'd set it up though...

[stefan]

Also a channel change request switches the box on too, so (for mine at least) the only IR code thats needed is when the PVR goes into standby, to put the box to sleep. Then as soon as the box gets a signal for a channel, it switches on and changes channel. depends on your STB as to how you'd set it up though...

That's a nice feature. Mine doesn't

[ricklous]

I was quite suprised when mine did it, its pants in every other department

[jaysoma]

So what's the lag time like with the USB-UIRT device? When I used the MCE remote channel up and channel down *sucked*. It would have to send the actual channel numbers one digit at a time, made channel surfing painful. Changing the channel using the number buttons was also signicantly slower. Does the USB-UIRT suffer from the same issues?

[sub]

Yeah, its pretty much they same with USB-UIRT. IR Blasters suck in this respect.