Is the USB-UIRT the best?

[tdalton]

I was wondering if the USB-UIRT is any better or worse than any of the other blasters on the market? I am making the dreaded switch from DirecTV to Time Warner cable (DTV is way too expensive) and thus have to give up serial control in order to use the Scientific Atlantic boxes Time Warner uses. Also, I'm a bit confused as to how setup a blaster to control multiple cable boxes I see that the USB-UIRT has two built in emitters and I am assuming I'd need the 1/8" cable w/ external emitter to control the 2nd box but have heard that they can control up to 3 boxes? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
TD

[Wheemer]

No doubt it is... I've used a Myblaster, and it worked fine. I just got my usb-uirt and was pleasantly surprised to see that my channel changes were much quicker, due to the ability to reduce the time between codes in Sage. Also the built in support allows sage to be run as a service properly. I couldn't do this using the exetuner method.

The usb-uirt has one built in transmitter with the ability to add two more via the stereo mini jack output. Each channel supports a transmitter, making the total of 3 zones.

[DFA]

I second that and would like to add that the USB-UIRT has non-volatile, programable memory for holding "wake up calls" for HTPC's that use suspend. It can hold up to 3 (maybe 4) remote control codes that can be used for waking the PC. I use two IR code slots for waking the PC. One is the same "Power On" code used to turn on the TV and the other is if the DVI input is selected on the TV this will also bring the PC out of suspend. I use S3 suspend level.

The USB-UIRT also has udateable firmware.

Sage is very complimentary to the USB-UIRT. Lots of forum documentation and help available. Highly recommended.

DFA

[setherd]

anyone know a thread or where some documentation may be on setting up the IR blasters on it?

[Opus4]

Check Information Resources for Remotes, Receivers, and IR Blasters for links near the bottom about the USB-UIRT.

- Andy

[aoehlke]

whats the IR range on the UIRT?

can it shoot codes across a room (say 20')?

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by aoehlke

whats the IR range on the UIRT?

can it shoot codes across a room (say 20')?

Not sure of the range, but why would you do that? Your cable boxes you are controlling should be pretty close to your SageTV server. You have to connect the SageTV server to the cable boxes and running 20 feet of svideo is probably not a good idea.

[aoehlke]

i use cat5 for svideo... to my eyes, i cant see the difference with those homemade cables and very expensive svideo cables.
i guess that kinda thing is subjective... on the other hand, cat5 has some properties that make it very interference resistant.
i've made svideo with expensive gold plated oonnectors(7$) and cheapo alloy ones(75 cents)... i dont find those make a difference.
in all cases, my runs have been about 25'.
also note i dont use solid core cat5 for these, i use the stranded core... its very flexible and easy to work with.

[Wheemer]

as far as I know it should work that far... If it doesn't can use an external emitter and run a long extension.

[aoehlke]

i dont have my sigma yet, but is that IR box that it ships with a USB UIRT type device?

[Wheemer]

Probably a receiver for the remote... It's not a trasmitter, for sure.

[Opus4]

The Xcard's IR receiver plugs into a serial port, btw.

- Andy