Need Help ASAP. Going digital here

[xzb6np]

Charter is moving me to digital which means my old USB tuner card hooked to my computer is going to work. The Charter guy said I could hook the output of the digital box to the input of the usb tuner but how will NPVR change channels. I heard about something called an IR Blaster. Does anyone know of one that NPVR will work with?

Thanks!

[xzb6np]

Additional info my computer is running Windows 10. So I think I need some sort of USB IR thing to send IR signal to the Charter Digital Setup Box. Is that correct? Which one do I need?

[dixxfixx]

Yes, that is correct. The cable feeds the Charter box, the output of the Charter box (probably always channel 3) feeds your USB tuner, NPVR sees whatever the Charter box is currently tuned to, just always on channel 3.

For NPVR to manipulate the Charter box, it has to pretend to be the remote control. For this, you get an IR blaster of some sort (there are many out there) and tell NPVR how to use it.

On the Device Setup screen, you see a spot for "Channel Changer". You enter the path to the executable that runs the blaster in "Executable" (you click the "..." and browse to it, most likely.) Then in "Arguments" you put whatever arguments your executable requires (the {channel} token is whatever channel is being requested at the time.)

When you go to change channels, NPVR calls the IR blaster's executable with the appropriate arguments and the blaster spits out the right IR sequence to tell the Charter box to go to that channel.

Tricky thing is, you have to tell your USB tuner to always do channel 3 no matter what channel you're trying to watch, and let the executable change the Charter box to that channel. I've never done that myself, I feed the HDMI output of the little box into an HDMI receiver, which has no channel to change. Just takes HDMI in and spits out USB for NPVR to look at. I use the USB-UIRT for my blaster (see usbuirt.com).

So maybe somebody who has done the channel 3 thing can explain that part.

[sub]

So maybe somebody who has done the channel 3 thing can explain that part.

That's fairly straight forward. When creating your channels, you set them to use the 'Fixed-Channel' option, and set the channel number to 3.

[dixxfixx]

That's fairly straight forward. When creating your channels, you set them to use the 'Fixed-Channel' option, and set the channel number to 3.

Sweet! Never done it. So coming out of a DTA, that would be analog, and he would import his channels from SD as usual, then pick "Fixed Channel (3)" from the pick box at the top, then do the channel changer thing.

[mvallevand]

It doesn't have to be a DTA with a limited channel sets, my STB has svideo plus cable out for all channels.

Martin

[xzb6np]

Yes, that is correct. The cable feeds the Charter box, the output of the Charter box (probably always channel 3) feeds your USB tuner, NPVR sees whatever the Charter box is currently tuned to, just always on channel 3.

For NPVR to manipulate the Charter box, it has to pretend to be the remote control. For this, you get an IR blaster of some sort (there are many out there) and tell NPVR how to use it.

On the Device Setup screen, you see a spot for "Channel Changer". You enter the path to the executable that runs the blaster in "Executable" (you click the "..." and browse to it, most likely.) Then in "Arguments" you put whatever arguments your executable requires (the {channel} token is whatever channel is being requested at the time.)

When you go to change channels, NPVR calls the IR blaster's executable with the appropriate arguments and the blaster spits out the right IR sequence to tell the Charter box to go to that channel.

Tricky thing is, you have to tell your USB tuner to always do channel 3 no matter what channel you're trying to watch, and let the executable change the Charter box to that channel. I've never done that myself, I feed the HDMI output of the little box into an HDMI receiver, which has no channel to change. Just takes HDMI in and spits out USB for NPVR to look at. I use the USB-UIRT for my blaster (see usbuirt.com).

So maybe somebody who has done the channel 3 thing can explain that part.

So USB-URT should work for me if I order it. I have Windows 10.

[xzb6np]

I see there is both a regular and a 56k version of USB-URT. How do I know which one to get>

[dixxfixx]

So USB-URT should work for me if I order it. I have Windows 10.

Couldn't say about Win10 for sure, but I don't see why not. Other people might have other suggestions, it's just the only thing I've ever used.

@Martin: Good point. I have assumed he has only cable input to his USB tuner, but it would be good to know for sure.

xzb6np, exactly what kind of tuner are we talking about here?

[dixxfixx]

I see there is both a regular and a 56k version of USB-URT. How do I know which one to get>

I suppose you would have to know what frequency the remote that came with the Charter box operates at. Most remotes operate lower than that, say 38k. Never crossed my mind that my remote wouldn't work with it. That might have confused me. Anybody know if there's some rule about DTA remotes having to not be 56k?