Recommendations for IR Blaster HW and SW

[LewE]

I have two capture cards in my PC. One is an Hauppauge 2250 which has an IR plug and a secondary card with it for another IR plug. The two tuners in the 2250 card are used to capture Clear QAM channels.

The second card is an Hauppauge 1600 which does not have any IR plug on it. One of the card's tuners is used to capture Clear QAM channels. The second tuner is analog and the card has plugs for SVideo and Left and Right audio.

I want to use the SVideo interface on the 1600 to interface with a Verizon FIOS standard definition set top box.

Unfortunately, the distance between the back of the PC and the set top box is approximately 7 feet. This is longer than the IR cable that came with the card.

My plan is to eventually add another analog card and interface with another SD set top box and use the second IR blaster output from the 2250 card if that is possible.

Q1: Can I can use the two IR blaster outputs that came with the 2250 card to control a set top box which will interface to the 1600 card?

Q2: If the above can't accomplish what I want, where can I find IR Blaster hardware to output independently to at least two different set top boxes from the computer over a cable distance of at least 7 feet long?

Q3: Where would you recommend obtaining 7 foot IR cables in the U.S.?

Q4: What is the recommended software to have GBPVR drive the IR blasters? I've looked at the IR Server Suite and find it confusing, at the very least.

I've been studying this and think I may be close with the hardware I have but don't know the best way to make it all work.

[pBS]

q1: sure...ir blasting and capture input aren't connected, you can use any blaster with any input..
q2: irrelevant if q1 works...
q3: i would cut - n - splice extra wire in there..it's fairly forgiving..hard to get wrong..[just be sure to keep +/- the same]
q4: that's a matter of opinion, HIP works great, but not in vista/7, i haven't really been happy with any of the other ones..
HIP does work fine in vista/7 if you use the Alternate Driver for mce remotes, but i'm not sure if the 2250 hardware works with hip..
The recommended software to use with 2250 blaster is the hauppauge software....
if there are others that work with it, there's the trade off between compatibility and features..[other softs will work with more stb's and remotes, but maybe not as reliable]

[LewE]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I run Windows 7 and don't want to spend time trying to make things work if there are simpler routes.

[pBS]

oh, and the only dual blasters i know of are the usbuirt and the mce devices..mce devices will have the win7 problem of only talking to services, so only updated programs will work with them..[ir server suite and eventghost have been updated for win7/vista w/mce devices,maybe others]
really annoying what MS did to mce driver...

[LewE]

oh, and the only dual blasters i know of are the usbuirt and the mce devices..mce devices will have the win7 problem of only talking to services, so only updated programs will work with them..[ir server suite and eventghost have been updated for win7/vista w/mce devices,maybe others]
really annoying what MS did to mce driver...

It seems to me that interfacing with more than one set top box must be fairly common among GBPVR users. What do they use generally to interface with multiple set top boxes?

[pBS]

you can use more than one type of blaster instead of a dual blaster also..
i use a mce blaster that has 2 emitters... i'm on xp tho...
on my 7 box i use the alternate driver w/HIPfor now..i also didn't like the other options, which were unnecessarily confusing or clunky,trying to do too many things..
i wish i could get the hip guy to update it for the new driver issue, but i'm afraid it might never happen..
all i had to do differently was add a pre-enter before the channel number and it hasn't missed any yet..
[to kinda 'wake' the hardware before blasting]

[LewE]

Thanks. Every bit of new information helps.

I like the idea of using different types of blasters for each STB. That hadn't occurred to me. I was thinking in terms of an approach that would solve the entire problem rather than finding something that would work, even if it is an "ugly" solution.

At times, it seems like the more I investigate this issue, the lesss I know. :confused:

[StephaneM]

One is an Hauppauge 2250 which has an IR plug and a secondary card with it for another IR plug.ter output from the 2250 card if that is possible.

Q1: Can I can use the two IR blaster outputs that came with the 2250 card to control a set top box which will interface to the 1600 card?

Yes you can the blaster doesn't have to work only with the 2250 card.

Although be careful with Hauppauge remote / blaster. Some Hauppauge device does have a MCE blaster & remote, some other have a Hauppauge blaster & remote, some other have a remote & blaster that can operate as MCE device or Hauppauge device.

You'll want that the blaster & remote operate as a MCE device. And if possible make sure that the 2250 is connected to a slot that is closet to the CPU (than the 1600) => this is to make sure that this is the card on which the remote & blaster will work (usually only one Hauppauge blaster works if you have multiple Hauppauge cards, I don't know if the same apply when the card is hosting a MCE device)

Q2: If the above can't accomplish what I want, where can I find IR Blaster hardware to output independently to at least two different set top boxes from the computer over a cable distance of at least 7 feet long?

The USB-UIRT is the only devices that I know of with mutliple "zone". You'll have to purchase separatly the IR bugs though. You may find easier to use a USB cable extension if you can't find 7 feet long IR bugs. Be careful though that with an USB extension cable your blaster may not work correctly (especially when learning)

Q3: Where would you recommend obtaining 7 foot IR cables in the U.S.?

You can use the existing ones and build your own simply by extending the cable in the middle (it would be the easiest solution)

Q4: What is the recommended software to have GBPVR drive the IR blasters? I've looked at the IR Server Suite and find it confusing, at the very least.

You may find LM Remote KeyMap (my software) easier to use (it is compatible with MCE blaster and USB-UIRT and with Windows 7 as well).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Reddwarf]

Personally I find that USBUIRT and HIP is an unbeatable combination, but buy the 38 and 56kHz version of USBUIRT, then it can control any STB. Currently there is a small bug in HIP conserning the pc's volume control (in ver 4 on W7), but the developer is working on it and should have a fix any day now.

[pBS]

i'm having great results with ir server suite and win7/mce dongles....worked great from the get go..making a new blaster like my net2hipsend for it tho, to make it faster..
[plus adding multi-stb support]
i'm gonna make a xml set for systemwide keys using send message codes for foculess-ness...[always works no mattter what has focus]
i was surprised to see all the options and hardware support it has...even network access...