Channel change recording cable box

[mikeh49]

On my DCT box, the IR receiver is on the left side of the oval display window, between the left digit of the channel number indicator and the LEDs on the far left side of the window. Shine a flashlight in this area, and you should see a square IC-like device about 3/8" square. The remote light is on the right side of the display window, IIRC. The Hauppauge blaster has to be directly over the IR receiver. Try it with the blaster centered over the left side of the window.

[TonyXL]

1. Don't worry about the "IR Blaster: NO" setting in the STB's setup. This relates to a connector on the back of the STB that a cable can be connected to allow the DCT6200 to blast another device like a VCR. This probably isn't enabled by your cable company's STB, and is not what you want anyway (you need your PC to blast the DCT6200, not the other way around).

2. You might be putting your Hauppauge blaster bulb in the wrong place. The light that comes on when you press your STB remote is *NOT* the STB's IR receiver. The receiver is somewhere else behind that oval plastic. Shine a flashlight in there and see if you can find something that looks like an unlit LED. Try moving the blaster bulb around, and firing some test blasts.

If this doesn't work, you will have to pry off the glassy oval in order to place the blaster bulb directly on the receiver bulb. From looking at this model, I can't tell if you can pry just the oval, or if you need to pry the long gray piece that surrounds the oval. Use a thin flat screwdriver. You should be able to reattach the piece after putting the blaster in because the blaster cable is so thin. That's how I got my Moto QIP2500 box to work. Good luck!

The only other alternative is to get a different remote/blaster.

****Wait, I just remembered, this box has a firewire port, so you may be able to change the channel via firewire. Sometimes the firewire port is enabled, sometimes not. Depends on the cable company. If enabled, you can also sometimes record the direct digital stream as well, but usually only the local channels.

Edit: for firewire help, read this: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=37300

[ddoxsee]

My Motorola cable box very rarely allows recording off the firewire (hence why I bought the HD PVR) but for channel change the firewire works flawlessly. It's the method I use with GBPVR and to be honest it's got 100% reliability so far unlike the remote that came with the cable box.

This is especially useful from my point of view because I have more than one device that I need to "blast" from and I don't care to have multiple wires running to the front of the cable box so my other devices can simply change the channel by accessing a webserver on the PC.

On a side note recording over firewire was almost a complete failure for me. It wasn't that the hardware couldn't do it, it's the fact that almost all channels either have encryption (cable channels) or the rebroadcast of the locals have the broadcast flag enabled that the cable box honors and won't record. On those few local channels that didn't have the broadcast flag enabled (which varied almost at random) the firewire recordings were excellent.

[mikeh49]

ddoxsee: I PM'd you about firewire recording.

[rstewartmailacct]

Thanks for the input guys! I'm at work now but I think your right. I was focused on the stupid light and didn't realize that the reciever could be elsewhere. I will try tonight and hopefully will have success.

Is there a quick tutorial on the firewire option? If this is more reliable I'm all for it. Would I need a firewire port on laptop?

Thanks

[rstewartmailacct]

Sorry for the firewire question. I just noticed the link to the post.


I'm a software developer and have lots of fires going on today.
:p

[rstewartmailacct]

You guys are sharp. Got it working like a champ. I really appreciate it. Now if I can get the media center remote going upstairs with the same cable box and a HVR-1600, I'll be all set.

I got the remote changing channels within Vista Media Center but GBPVR doesn't seem to do it. I'm using the MCE2005 changer option. Is there another one I should be using?

Thanks again.

[TonyXL]

Since you are using the Hauppauge blaster, you need to select the ".exe Changer Plugin", and point that at the haupblast.exe executable in the gbpvr directory.

[rstewartmailacct]

Hey TonyXL thanks for the response.

The hauppauge blastercfg and ir.exe say that they don't see a blaster device yet media center works the remote and changes the cable box. Also I tried pointing the changer in the capture source to both haupblast and mce2005 and neither one will make the remote work.

The remote came with an HP media center PC with an internal hvr-1600 card if that matters. Do you think I need to put HIP on to get gbpvr to run the remote?

Thanks

[sub]

Sounds like you have MCE Remote and blaster, rather than the Hauppauge retail equivalents. In which case, you'll most likely need to use IR Server Suite or HIP to get the blaster working.