Full USB-UIRT support available

[MixTracks]

Originally posted by davey_fl
however they're not playing nicely yet.

Those describe the issure that I am having also. I was talking to jrhees via email for about a month on this topic and we still were unable to find the cause.

He metioned the idea to create a Girder event that toggles the input device depending on if Sage is being used or not. I created this event(s) and it works OK. There are still problems with it though because even though Sage is sleeping, Girder is slow to react to the Remote button presses.

For example, I press channel up in MyHD via Girder and I can count to 5 before the channel changes, using the keyboard to change the channel yeilds instant results.

I have also tried all start, run stop, disable ideas I and jrhees came up with.

[davey_fl]

Hi jon,

I tried running sagetv and then starting girder and get the same results. Girder somehow messes with sagetv and makes it very difficult to move around menus.

Mixtracks are you also experiencing this above problem in SageTV - or are you only experiencing the lag in other applications when sagetv is sleeping.

Jon: How feasible would it be to have:

gider running so that when sagetv power button is pressed, sagetv starts AND shuts down girder at the same time (thus eliminating the conflicts in SageTV)

and

sagetv to shutdown when power is pressed and start girder at the same time (thereby eliminating the lag in TT)

thx

davey

[jrhees]

davey,

You may be able to pull something like this off, but its outside the scope of the USB-UIRT (and would need something like Girder to do it anyways).

The goal is to find and fix this problem. It somehow (I believe) has something to do with Windows events and priorities:

The USB-UIRT API driver allows multiple apps to simultaneously use the hardware. This is accomplished by (among other things) creating separate receive threads that 'feed' each individual app the IR receive events. These threads get their info and events from the 'real' receive thread which is servicing the USB-UIRT. So, when the USB-UIRT generates receive IR data, it passes it to the host, the main receive thread puts it in a fifo, and then signals all of the different RX threads that an IR event has occurred. These RX threads then pass this data to each app.

For some reason, when Sage and Girder are running, one or both of the apps (this needs to be confirmed and could be confirmed by looking at Girder's 'LED' *and* sage's menus at the same time when pressing a remote button) gets their events late...

-Jon

[MixTracks]

davey_fl, I was having the same problems in sageTV that you are having.

What would happen (before I started using the Girder event that I metioned) is that if I had Girder running and using the USB-UIRT, Sage would react unrelabile. It would either register late, I would have to press the button twice to achieve the result, or would go left when I pressed up for example. Totally strange.

With the Girder event when SageTV is active and/or fullscreen the Girder event senses that and disables the USB-UIRT plugin. SageTV works fine then.

But what is now happening is that other Girder controlled applications (MyHD, Winamp) are not reacting correctly. It is exactly like SageTV was acting before I started using the Girder event.

I think it has something to do with the plugin not totally disabling through Girder when SageTV is asleep.

But the ultimate fix would be to have the USB-UIRT share both.

Jon is hard at work on this, and hopefully soon there will be a fix

You can't ask for better customer service with Jon

[davey_fl]

thanks Jon and Mixtracks for the feedback. Jon: yes when I have sagetv windowed so I can see girder both are getting the IR command as witnessed by the LED in Girder going Green momentarily and giving an ID string beside the LED. It seems to me that they were both receiving at the same time.

Mixtracks: can you tell me how you created the disable event so I can give that a shot?

thx

davey

[jrhees]

davey,

Can you elaborate a bit more on 'received at the same time'. Since you say the Sage menus don't respond correctly, are you saying you see the Girder 'blink' and the menu movement BOTH occur late?

-Jon

[jptaz]

Does anyone know if you can control multiple USB UIRT devices on a single PC
using SageTV or SageRecorder?

I have heard that you can have multiple Actisys if you have different instances of
SageRecorder and configure them with different COM Ports. On USB you do not
have any port numbers but is there some other way to be able to uniquely identify
each USB UIRT in SageRecorder or SageTV?

John

[jrhees]

John,

In a word, Yes. HOWEVER, the work on this is not fully finished. I am working with a few individuals on making this happen.

Note that you should only need multiple USB-UIRT's if you're controlling the same model of Sat/Cable box.

-Jon

[MixTracks]

davey_fl, if you want I could post the event as a .zip file tonight when I get home. You could look at it and see what you get.

[davey_fl]

Jon:

In sagetv with girder running as well, when I'm in the guide I press down once
and wait, sage guide responds by moving down once, waiting approx. 3 seconds, and then moving down an additional time. Note that Girder only registers one keypress the first time the button is pressed, and at the exact same time as sage moves down initially. Now if I press down immediately followed by an up, sagetv responds by going down down up, waits 3 seconds, and moves up again. Girder again only sees the first down and up (two buttons) at the exact time the buttons were pressed. So it looks like Sage is interpreting everything twice while girder is running. There are no additional IR commands being transmitted via the remote (no leds illuminate on the USB-UIRT) and during the additional sage movements I see no LEDS illuminated in Girder. Does this help?

Also I notice that since I installed the USB-UIRT SageTV takes a long time to close when I shut it down, sometimes up to a minute. Before it would close its window immediately. Any suggestions on this one?

Mixtracks I would appreciate having a look at your gml file.

Thx

Davey

[MixTracks]

That is exactly what is happening with me. Except Sage is fine and the other Girder controlled programs react that way.

If I were to remove the Girder Disable Plugin switch, Sage would be exactly as yours is.

I will post the .gml tonight on this thread when I get home.

[jrhees]

OK, Davey,

One more thing to try (if you could):

Can you Go to Setup screen and edit your Tuner setup so that the USB-UIRT is no longer specified to control channels (i.e., the USB-UIRT will only be a receiver for sage, not a transmitter). I know this is not a usable setup, but I'm wondering if the TX and RX simultaneous in Sage is creating an issue (TX and RX are handled from two completely different threads in Sage).

-Jon

[jptaz]

jrhees,

Thanks for the answer. How soon will a workable version / patch be available
to support Multiple USB-UIRTS?

I am down to 1 PVR 250 Card that can work correctly with Cable TV.
The other 3 can no longer tune any channel on Cable TV without being
extremely saturated. Right Now I have an Actisys and 1 Digital Cable Box.
I will be getting 3 more Digital Cable Boxes by the end of January so I need
a solution soon. Right now it is getting to the point where I may actually
have to use a VCR again

I only have two Serial Ports So I may end up getting another Actisys and then
2 USB-UIRTs and run One on each of my two PVR boxes. Ultimately I would
like to have all 4 PVR 250s back in the main Server again, but this solution will
get me going at full strength again.

Thanks,
John

[MixTracks]

Here is the .gml file.

Let me know what your results are.

[jrhees]

jptaz,

I would expect to have an answer about multiple USB-UIRT's under Sage in a few more days...

-Jon

[davey_fl]

Jon:

You are correct in that if I disable the Tx on the USB-UIRT SageTV acts normally with Girder also enabled in the background. If you need any additional troubleshooting please feel free to ask. I'd love to get this working.

Mixtracks:

I'll give the gml a try tonight. Thanks for posting it.


Regards,

Davey

[homerj]

I am a trial user of both snapstream and sage. I have an older model dish receiver (2700). In snapstream my usb-uirt works well with the receiver (it treats it as a dish 3000). In sage I am striking out. In learn mode, the light will go on in the usb-uirt, but in test, i get nothing (no light, and apparently no transmit). Any suggestions? Can anyone point me to an .ir file that might work? Thanks.

[jrhees]

Here's the .IR file for a Dish receiver (works for many models):

-Jon

[homerj]

Jon, thanks for coming to the rescue. Now it works like a champ.

[jrhees]

So does the latest Snapstream have built-in presets for the USB-UIRT?

-Jon