Before buying SageTV, want to make sure my IR works.

[Devil]

Hi there,

I'm looking to buy Sage, because out of everything I have tried so far (MCE, WinTV, etc), I like Sage. And I think Sage is the answer to make things work for me.

I recently bought a Hauppage WinTV PVR 150 MCE kit, which came with the TV Tuner card, a remote, an IR cable with a bud and an IR blaster USB. Now, I'm a newb with regards to PVR and my technical acumen with other things is above average.



So far I've been able to get the TV signal on SageTV and I know it all works. However, I have no idea how to get the IR configuration to work so it changes the channels on my Motorola RG2400V provided by Bell TV (which has an "IR blaster" port in the back btw) in Canada. Infact, I don't even know how to connect them around. The hauppage documentation regarding this is sparse.

An FYI, the brand on the back of the USB thing (Is that the blaster or receiver or what the hell is it called?) is SMK. So, what I did is connect the little bud on the STB and connect the USB thing to my computer, lol.. when I pull up the "IR blaster configuration" software provided by the CD of the WinTV PVR 150, it says "IR Hardware not found" (which a lot of people have complained about it seems). I even tried plugging in the IR bud into the port two of the USB device.

Anyhow, can someone please help me make it work?
And some definitions of the components that make up this "IR hardware" would be nice too.

Thanks a lot!

--
PS: On a sidenote, two things. One, I don't know what the "Detailed channel setup" thing during SageTV setup is.. so I clicked done with channel setup. The next thing is the selection of remote, it said Hauppage 35 or 35 button remote, but this one has 44.. so I just selected MCE remote.

[gplasky]

Correct. What you have is an MCE remote. If you easily want to get the blaster working get this software.

LM Remote software

Gerry

[Devil]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Correct. What you have is an MCE remote. If you easily want to get the blaster working get this software.

LM Remote software

Gerry

Thanks, will the free version work?

[PS: Everyone else, please feel free to comment on other aspects of my questions]

[Devil]

Originally Posted by Devil

Thanks, will the free version work?

[PS: Everyone else, please feel free to comment on other aspects of my questions]

Ok, installed LM. However, when I open it, even though I chose the remote as MCE remote and selected the MCE IR blaster as IR blaster as, it doesn't show anything in the drop down.

[Striker:WG]

There are a number of things you need to do to setup LM Remote Keymap.

Once you have selected the MCE IR Blaster, you need to teach LM Remote the IR Commands that you want it to be able to blast. You will want to create entries and then teach them to LM Remote. There is a very good guide to all of this on the LM Remote site.

In regards to your other questions, You want to hook this up as follows

PC USB Port <--> USB Receiver/Blaster <--> IR Port 1 <--> IR Blaster <--> STB

Make sure that when you attach the IR Blaster to the STB that it is properly covering the IR Sensor on the STB (the sensor that receives remote control signals from your current remote).

The IR port on the back of your STB should be ignored. That would be for connecting an IR Blaster to your STB so the STB could control another device like a VCR.

The detailed channel setup in Sage is for remapping channel numbers to stations and enabling/disabling channels in your guide that you may or may not receive based on the guide listing you originally downloaded in the Sage TV setup/config.

-Striker-

[Devil]

Originally Posted by Striker:WG

There are a number of things you need to do to setup LM Remote Keymap.

Once you have selected the MCE IR Blaster, you need to teach LM Remote the IR Commands that you want it to be able to blast. You will want to create entries and then teach them to LM Remote. There is a very good guide to all of this on the LM Remote site.

In regards to your other questions, You want to hook this up as follows

PC USB Port <--> USB Receiver/Blaster <--> IR Port 1 <--> IR Blaster <--> STB

Make sure that when you attach the IR Blaster to the STB that it is properly covering the IR Sensor on the STB (the sensor that receives remote control signals from your current remote).

The IR port on the back of your STB should be ignored. That would be for connecting an IR Blaster to your STB so the STB could control another device like a VCR.

The detailed channel setup in Sage is for remapping channel numbers to stations and enabling/disabling channels in your guide that you may or may not receive based on the guide listing you originally downloaded in the Sage TV setup/config.

-Striker-

This is awesome!! After almost 2 weeks of looking around for guidance, yours is the first post that is not too short, cryptic, or lazily typed. Thank you so much! If you had a donate button, I'd be using it right now!

Having said that, I kept thinking the IR blaster port of my STB was to be used. But now it makes sense why the USB wires/IR blaster wires were so frikkin long, lol

Regarding the tutorial on the LM Remote site, I wasn't able to find it which will guide me through the "learning" process and what do I need to do to map the buttons of my STB remote to the ones on my MCE remote, etc.

I've uploaded this video capture to show you that after selecting the remote, I don't see anything in the "IR devices" drop down.

[Striker:WG]

Glad to hear the info was helpful! For configuring LM remote all the information is on the site.

Read the section about adding/editing an IR device to learn about training LM remote how to control your STB.

http://www.lmgestion.net/@en-us/4/22/60/79/article.asp

Read this section for how to get Sage to work with LM Remote:

http://www.lmgestion.net/@en-us/4/22/60/81/article.asp

-Striker-

[Devil]

Originally Posted by Striker:WG

Glad to hear the info was helpful! For configuring LM remote all the information is on the site.

Read the section about adding/editing an IR device to learn about training LM remote how to control your STB.

http://www.lmgestion.net/@en-us/4/22/60/79/article.asp

Read this section for how to get Sage to work with LM Remote:

http://www.lmgestion.net/@en-us/4/22/60/81/article.asp

-Striker-

Great, thanks. In the other thread, StephaneM is also helping me out. You guys rock!

Thanks again! Will keep you informed how it goes as soon as I do this sometime today.