PVR 150 IR blaster problem if last digit of last channel same as first of next!!

[thawk]

Hi

I have a PVR 150 and got a Samsung SMT-2110C cable box from NTL here in the UK. AFter some hastles I found the IR blaster codeset to use (using the IRBlasterCfg.exe program. Settings North America, Cable Box, Samsung - codeset 384) and all seemed well. Except after a couple of months use I have had several recordings not work (be off the wrong channel), while most work OK.

After a bit of detective work I have found that the channel changer fails to properly send the first digit of the new channel if the last digit of the old channel was the same. All channels are 3 digits. This hapens both in LiveTV mode and for recordings. It makes no difference how many seconds, hours or days between the first channel sent and the second.

E.g. if the box last recieved 101 (all ok - changes to BBC1) and then i send 120 (sky 1), even though a red flash appears for each of '1','2' and '0' on the blaster, the box only registers 20. Likewise for 101 to anything starting with '1', or 144 to 444.

It however works fine under all the following circumstances:
- From e.g. 102 to 101, 120 to 101, 144 to 120, 444 to 144 .....
- If I change the channel using the samsung box remote control to e.g. 101 and then use GBPVR to change channel to 120 (since this works, the problem is NOT the box)
- if I use the winTV programs e.g. IRBlasterCfg.exe it also works fine (ie the problem is NOT the card or the setup)

This all narrows it down to GBPVR sending something odd to the IR blaster software - clearly it does send the first digit since you see the flash, but if must be corrupted in some way?

I attach the log and config files (where the last channel change was a 101 to 120 which failed, but I expect you can't see that from the files!!)

Any ideas would be great (I already tried lengthening the time between digits in the blaster setup, ticking pad with zeros and use 3 digits always in GBPVR - it is 3 digits anyway!)??

Cheers

Tim

[thawk]

I have narrowed it down a bit further - it seems to be a problem with the first channel number sent to the blaster and the box

I have tried sending 101 to the cable box via the blaster - that works fine and the channel changes to bbc 1, but then with either the ir blaster OR the samsung remote the next channel doesn't get the first digit recognised if it is the same as the last digit of the first channel (ie sending 120 ends up as 20 on the box as described above)

SO GB-PVR, IR blaster then any other way of sending the next channel causes the problem

BUT Samsung remote, followed by GB-PVR for the next does not

This makes me think that the GB-PVR page is sending something more than just 101 (e.g. 101 and 'ok' or 'enter' or something) and this throws the box off when the next channel info comes (but only if the first digit of the new is the same as the last digit of the last!!??!!!)

All very confusing - any ideas???

Cheers

Tim

[martint123]

Three further tests you could try.
(1) Open a dos/cmd box and move to the gbpvr directroy and use haupblast.exe directly - like haupblast 101 this is the small interface gbpvr uses to call the hauppauge stuff. Followed by the normal remote to see if the problem is the same.
(2) use the Hauppauge blastcfg program to send the channel number as above followed by the remote - this will isolate gbpvr completely.
(3) If you have wintv installed, configure it to use the blaster and see what happens.

I'm pretty sure gbpvr doesn't send anything other than the channel numbers and that the problem will still occur with just the hauppauge software. If this is true, then pinning it down further will not be easy! It took me 8 months to get them to admit and sort out a bug in the sky digibox codeset.

Martin

[sbp]

Hi, I think that you might be right - that something else is send after the last number. In the IRbasterconfig (which came with your TV-card), if you press advanced (in the bottom of the screen) you can change different aspects of the blaster, and also define if you want to send an "enter" after the last number. Is that checked in you set-up?

Steen

[martint123]

I'm using Sky not NTL (codeset 663) but looking in teh advanced bit I have.
I think the advanced bit of mine is untouched from install.

Min digits to send = 3
Inter-digit delay = 100
Power On delay =400
enter key delay = 0
Tuning delay = 0
single digit delay = 0
send power on = unticked
send enter = unticked.

Martin

[thawk]

hi

thanks for the ideas

Martin, I have the same settings as you in IRBlasterCfg.exe (ie the last two settings unticked

I have played with haupblast and exactly as you suggest it has the same problem ie it is not GBPVR but the haupblast program (where is this from - is from hauppauge?) specifically

As I mentioned above the software that comes with the PVR 150 itself is fine - there is no problem if i change channels using the 'testing' setting of IRBlasterCfg.exe

So that means it is just the haupblast.exe prog - does anyone know where you can get a more up-to-date version (the one I have is from May 2005) to test?

Thanks

Tim

[sub]

The haupblast.exe prog doesnt actually do anything, it just asks the Hauppauge IRBlasterCfg.exe app to change to channel "X" and the Hauppauge app takes care of the rest.

[thawk]

sorry I am being thick I guess

I thought in config or on th cmd line when I call 'Haupblast 101' it somehow sent 101 via the blaster?

As I mentioned, in IRblastercfg there is no problem so if haupblast just calls up some part of irblastercfg (?) then I can't see why there would be a problem with Haupblast but not IRblastercfg

Also I though irblastercfg was the new blue screen config application from Hauppauge and blastcfg.exe was the old one (I had to download irblastercfg.exe to get the new codes to get this new set top box to work, but GBpvr worked fine with the old set top box and old codes which I set up via blastcfg before I ever downloaded irblastercfg.exe?)

I think I am confused somewhere?!

Cheers

tim

[sub]

I thought in config or on th cmd line when I call 'Haupblast 101' it somehow sent 101 via the blaster?

No it doesnt. Haupblast doesnt know anything about IR codes or the operations that occur behind the scenes.

Haupblast is about half a dozen lines of code, which effectively calls OpenDevice(), SendChannel(123), CloseDevice(), and the Hauppauge stuff takes care of the rest.

[thawk]

Hmm

I just tested the old blastcfg program to send 101 then 120 and it also worked fine

Could these two blaster config programs work ok and but the sendchannel function in the hauppauge stuff not work with this new codeset?

I am out of ideas?

Cheers

tim