STB's and much frustration

[WerewolfTA]

Hello all,

After several hours and much frustration, I have to ask for help.

As my sig shows, I'm running a PVR-150 (non-mce) and hvr-1600 on the last pre-1.0 version of gbpvr. I recently moved to an area without cable (dammit!) and so had to get dish network. I have 2 of the model 322 stb's in my entertainment center. The ir feeds are going into gbpvr, the rf feeds for the other parts of the house.

I'm trying to get gbpvr to control the stb's. I read on one of the posts that haupblast will only work with one blaster, so I installed the latest version of hip, with the girder and mce plugins; I didn't see just a hauppauge plugin. Following the hip guide (http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tips/HipGuide) and using the files from here (http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Hardw...eyMappings) for the 45-button remote, I can get up to the part in the guide where I try to teach hip to use the ir blasters.

As directed, I've pointed the remote at both of the gray ir receivers both while pushing and not pushing remote buttons and with the hauppauge ir software both started and stopped, but it just errors out. I'm guessing it actually wants one of the mce receivers, which I don't have.

Is there a different plugin I need to load for hip? Some file I need to configure? I tried to just use haupblast to at least get one going, but I get an hcwirblast.dll error. If anybody can give me some guidance, I'll be very grateful. Thanks.

[sgilani]

I don't think HIP or Girder will work for the Hauppauge blasters, and the Hauppauge drivers are not going to be able to figure out which card to address when HaupBlast wants to change a channel (probably why you're getting that error)

No matter what you do, you will only be able to use one of the IR blasters. Since your setup needs two blasters, you should look into another blasting solution like the USB-UIRT.

Here's what I would do if I were you. Run the HCWCLEAR program to clean out all your drivers, and physically remove the HVR-1600 from your PC. Then go ahead and install the PVR-150 and get it setup, and get its IR blaster working. Then, add the HVR-1600, and when you're installing it, do not choose to install anything IR related, and maybe the PVR-150's blaster will still working.

But again, you won't be able to get both of them working together because there is no way to tell HaupBlast which card you want to use for the blasting.

You will be much better off looking at USB-UIRT or other blasters. I know that's not what you wanted, but unfortunately that's what you'll have to do.

[Etacovda]

cheapest way would be the mce remote with two blasters.

[WerewolfTA]

Thanks for the feedback. I found the Microsoft A9O-00007 WinXP Media Center Infrared Remote Control on newegg for $38.99 and the picture matches one of the workable options on the wiki. The usb-uirt was $50 from the snapstream store, so I think I'm going to give etacovda's recommendation a try.

[Etacovda]

not sure about the dual blaster support (assume its there) but you might want to try ir server suite too, i had nothing but nightmares with HIP + channel changing (very unreliable). IR server suite has been basically bulletproof for me, i think ive missed 1 recording in over 100 with ir server suite through my stb.

[WerewolfTA]

Yeah, I was thinking about trying ir server suite. I had installed it before to try to get it going with my old setup and couldn't, but it looks sweet. I got my remote in yesterday (newegg rocks on their shipping) and physically hooked the receiver and blasters up but haven't had time to do any configuration. Hopefully this weekend...

Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it goes (or be back with more questions ). Peace.

[WerewolfTA]

Hello,

I seem to have gotten this at least partially working with my 2 dish stb's (I can change channels using the up/down button on my remote and select a channel from the guide) using the usb mce receiver with the 2 blasters. I had to upgrade to v1.0.29 to get it to work, but it is changing channels, now.

However, when I tell gbpvr to change a channel, I can see both blasters light up, and it appears as though both stb's are being changed to the same channel. Is there a way to get ir server to control multiple stb's independently? I'm thinking a way to logically attach one blaster to one capture card.

If not, I'll give hip a whirl. The wiki has instructions on how to set that up to control 2 stb's; it just appears from what I've read that it's more difficult to setup and isn't as reliable.

Edit: I was still experiencing some weirdness with v1.x of gbpvr (plus, my wife doesn't like change), so I backed this back down to v.0.99.12 and this continued working. Woo hoo!

[Etacovda]

Yeah, should be simple. Just set the channel changer settings on one card to include -port Port_1 and the other channel changer on the other cards settings to include -port Port_2. Havent tried it myself, am trying now...

edit - yep, works fine.

[steeb]

I've had IR Server Suite working ALMOST perfectly for about a month. To be honest it was the best and most configurable option I found but for me only working 1 STB not 2, not sure how it would do that.

Steeb

[WerewolfTA]

Yeah, should be simple. Just set the channel changer settings on one card to include -port Port_1 and the other channel changer on the other cards settings to include -port Port_2. Havent tried it myself, am trying now...

edit - yep, works fine.

Yes, that worked for me, too. Thank you very much.