External channel changer broken ?

[rheslip]

I recently upgraded to .9107 and I can see a lot of improvements. I think something may have broken my channel changer tho.

I wrote a jscript program to change channels using WinLIRC via the external .exe method provided (the script is documented in the HW forum). This worked perfectly in .2313 and .9010. In .9107 it will change channels correctly if I use "watch" from the TV guide, but it never changes channels before a recording. I can see the GBPVR recording icon light up but the WinLIRC icon never flashes to indicate IR blaster activity.

It also used to change channels from live TV correctly by entering the channel number and the enter key. In .9107 because it tries to change the channel but the sat RX doesn't read the IR signal correctly because the timing is off. Thats merely annoying. Not being able to record the right channel is a show stopper !

I tried a deinstall, deleted everything in the gbpvr directory and did a dead stock reinstall - same symptom. No errors in the logs either.

Any ideas, or do I have to go back to an older version ?

Rich

[sub]

Nothing has changed in the .exe channel changer in a long time. I've just tested it and its still working fine, so I suspect you've got a problem in whatever executable or script you have configured it to use.

I test it by setting the executable to notepad.exe, each time I change channels it pops up a window trying to open 1.txt, 2.txt, 3.txt etc. I've confirmed just now that this is still working correctly.

[dneprrider]

I'm running version 091.8 and as of last night I was able to get my external satellite receiver to switch channels using external channel changer and the channel.js script when selecting programs from the TV guide.

I haven't gotten my system fully set up as yet so I am doing all my GB-PVR testing on my laptop while I await for a Nvidia TV out card to arive for my compaq desktop PC which will run my GB-PVR instance.

Regards,
Richard

[rheslip]

Nothing has changed in the .exe channel changer in a long time. I've just tested it and its still working fine, so I suspect you've got a problem in whatever executable or script you have configured it to use.

I test it by setting the executable to notepad.exe, each time I change channels it pops up a window trying to open 1.txt, 2.txt, 3.txt etc. I've confirmed just now that this is still working correctly.

Hmmm.

Probably not my script because it still works when changing channels from the TV guide, just not when you record. I'll try the notepad thing to make sure its still calling the .exe before recording. If it still works for everybody else it must be some weirdness on my system.

I hope this is not the "reformat the drive and reinstall everything" solution again...

Thanks, Rich

[rheslip]

Tried to use notepad as sub did, this shows the same symptoms - works from TV guide "watch TV" but not for a recording. I upgraded to .9108 in hopes whatever was broken would get fixed but no luck.

Could this be an XP permissions issue ? ie maybe GBPVRrecordingservice.exe can't execute the external changer app ? I recently installed XP Home SP2 and I noted it does a lot of strange things with file permissions that my test system with XP Pro pre-sp2 OS did not.

I see there is an option now for the Hauppauge IR blaster - if this works maybe I can skip the external app altogether.

Rich

[dneprrider]

Today I setup my w2k box running latest GBPVR .9019 to try out the external channel changer.

As previously mentioned I can switch channels while in live TV and TV guide.

Scheduled RECORDING does NOT switch channels using external channel changer. All I get is the correct named file saved but video is what ever the satellite box was set to previously before recording started.

Since I am running windows 2000 this does not appear to be an XP specific problem.

Any other ideas?

[sub]

The only difference when the channel changer is called via recording vs live tv is, when called for a recording its running as the localsystem account, for live tv it is running as the logged in user. Depending on what you've configured it to run, the localsystem account may not have the permissions (or possibly paths or environment variables) to perform the action.

[rheslip]

The only difference when the channel changer is called via recording vs live tv is, when called for a recording its running as the localsystem account, for live tv it is running as the logged in user. Depending on what you've configured it to run, the localsystem account may not have the permissions (or possibly paths or environment variables) to perform the action.

I think it must something like that. Odd that it stopped working when I upgraded to 9107 - I don't recall changing anything else O/S wise.

I the meantime I noticed you slid in support for the Hauppauge blaster a while back - I missed that. Just spent a couple hours hacking the Hauppauge hardware and now it's working great with my Starchoice box, so I've sidestepped the whole external .exe changer issue.

The Hauppauge blaster hardware seems kind of strange - I don't know what kind of IR led they are using but it seems to be internally A.C. coupled (!!!) and my Starchoice box ignores it completely. I had to hack the Hauppauge blaster dongle to use the LED that worked with the WinLIRC setup.

Thanks for your help !

Rich

[dneprrider]

Hi rheslip

Can you eloborate on what you did maybe I can do the same to get my expressvu box running the same way too.

I'll keep looking at the user rights issue in w2k for the external changer.

[rheslip]

I have a PVR150 which has the IR receiver/ blaster dongle. The plug on the dongle has 4 connections - the tip of the plug is +5v, next in is the IR receiver output, next ring is the IR blaster driver, and the last ring (embedded in the plastic plug) is ground. The IR led anode is connected to the tip (+5v) and the cathode is connected to the IR blaster driver.

I downloaded the latest IR blaster app (feb 05) from Hauppauge - the older one didn't seem to have the correct codes for my Starchoice box. I scoped the IR signal and I could see that the the newest version of the blaster app was sending the right signal, but the sat box would not respond to it. I had this problem setting up WinLIRC so I knew it was the IR led. My Starchoice IR reciever must be tuned to a different IR spectrum than the Hauppauge IR led.

My old blaster led was still in place on the sat box so I decided to just use it. I cut the Hauppauge IR led off and put in a connector to hook up with the old IR led wires. I put a 220 ohm resistor in series with the IR led - I'm not sure if the Hauppauge blaster has any kind of current limiting in it.

As I mentioned before, the IR led in the Hauppauge blaster is very weird. It appears to be ac coupled right inside the LED itself. I hooked a 9v battery with a limiting resistor to it to determine the polarity of the led and -zero- current flowed regardless of the polarity. I've never seen an LED like that !

This new blaster setup works great - changes channels like it should, and changes faster than WinLIRC too.

Rich