Questions on setting up an IR blaster

[MonkeysAteMe]

I have a leadtek tv tuner card with no ir blaster, and Dish Satellite(soon to be switching to digital cable). I would like to have my pc be able to change channels because right now I am stuck on channel 3 and having to change by sat. box. I believe an Ir blaster will help me do this. I have several questions though.
1) How do you set it up?
2) Is there one compatible with my card?
3) Will it work with either the dish or leadtek remotes?
4) Does the pvr software I'm using have to support either the specific blaster or blasters in general?

If there is also a link somewhere with some info that would be a big help.

THanks.

[sub]

Yes, you're correct that you'd need a blaster for changing channel for you.

1) How do you set it up?

It depends which one you get. The USB-UIRT is pretty good and easy to setup. In GB-PVR you just set you capture source's channel changer to 'USB-UIRT' then click the 'settings' button to learn the 0-9 keys of your DISH remote.

2) Is there one compatible with my card?

It doesnt have any relationship to your capture card, so there is nothing to worry about here.

3) Will it work with either the dish or leadtek remotes?

When you use an ir blaster, it pretends to be the dish remote, setting the number keys to the dish set top box each time it needs to change channels.

This is entirely separate issue from the remote you use to control GB-PVR, which might be the Leadtek remote.

You need remember there are two separate concepts here: (1) an IR Receiver, and input device used for receiving commands from a remote control to drive the application on your PC, and (2) an IR Blaster, an output device used for pretending to be the remote control of some set top box you have.

4) Does the pvr software I'm using have to support either the specific blaster or blasters in general?

It nees to support specific blasters. There is no standard across IR blasters that makes them interchangable.

[MonkeysAteMe]

Thanks for the answers Sub.

Do you have any recomendations of Ir blasters that will work with GBPVR besides the USB-UIRT? I was looking at the Actisys IR-200L mainly because it is cheap.

On a side note: When I try to install GBPVR it gets an internal error and the installation stops. Do you know what could be the cause of this?

[sub]

Do you have any recomendations of Ir blasters that will work with GBPVR besides the USB-UIRT? I was looking at the Actisys IR-200L mainly because it is cheap.

The most popular ones are the USB-UIRT, Actisys IR200L and the MCE transceiver. All a pretty good. The Actisys IR200L is just a blaster, wheras the other two can be used as an IR Receiver. In the case of the MCE one, it acts as a receiver for the MCE remotes which they ship with. The USB-UIRT can act as a receiver for any remote, meaning you could use any remote controlling GB-PVR instead of being limited to the leadtek one.

On a side note: When I try to install GBPVR it gets an internal error and the installation stops. Do you know what could be the cause of this?

Did you install the required .net 2.0 runtime?

[pBS]

You need remember there are two separate concepts here: (1) an IR Receiver, and input device used for receiving commands from a remote control to drive the application on your PC, and (2) an IR Blaster, an output device used for pretending to be the remote control of some set top box you have.

very nicely put...

also,the MCE remote blaster one can 'learn' other remotes as well if you use HIP and the alternate driver..pretty easy to setup just as a blaster alone as well..

[Pioneer4x4]

(soon to be switching to digital cable

How soon? Do you know what box you will be getting? I used to switch my old motorola box with serial, and my new HD box I use the firewire port. No worries about IR.