3 tuners, 3 cable boxes: USB-UIRT 3 Zone Control

[CollinR]

You may have mapped the same composite S-Video port for both devices.

Makes sure one is S-Video and the other is IIRC S-Video_1 if using the PVR500 and expander.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by CollinR

You may have mapped the same composite S-Video port for both devices.

Makes sure one is S-Video and the other is IIRC S-Video_1 if using the PVR500 and expander.

That would be my only guess as well.

[jprine01]

Originally Posted by kcbronc

Thank you sleonard! This is exactly what I have been looking for. I read about people controling different boxes by defining zones, but I never understood how to do it.

I have one question about the IR forts that you make. Is it as simple as taping the transmitter to the cable box with the black electrical tape? If that is the case thwn why is it called a fort? Am I missing something?

Thanks for the great step by step instructions.

I made "IR forts" out of thick steel i cut with tin snips and made a box to put on the front of receiver in the IR area, and I put the emitter inside the box facing the receiver. Wouldnt work at all, I dont know if my emitters are super powerd or my receivers are super sensitive, but the IR went right though the boxes, bouced off walls, and operates a receiver facing an entire different direction and coverd with a phone book. I couldnt ever get the IR signals isloated, and eventually just figure out how to asign each reciever a seperate remote code.. And just let the emitters zapp all the recievers (no zones).

[geogecko]

Yep. My boxes from Verizon were super sensitive, so I had to make little covers for the entire lens section of the box (I used black card stock found at most art stores), and used electrical tape to attach them.

On my boxes from Cox, which I'm using now, it was sufficient to just attach each emitter with one piece of electrical tape, and then offset the two boxes so one couldn't blast the other. Works great.

[shadeblue.com]

I recently had to go though this effort to get multiple zones of IR from the USB-UIRT, so I thought I would create a simple wiring diagram to help future readers who are trying to set this up.

Enjoy :-)

[shadeblue.com]

I thought I would also post a second diagram that was a more off the shelf depiction.

[rerooks]

It seems like I go from one frustration to another, but I still love SageTV. My latest frustration is zoning.

I have two Motorola HD QIP 7100 1 boxes (Verizon FIOSTV). They work great if I don't specify a zone. I have an external IR transmitter that I made myself, and it works. I have verified this by taping over my USB-UIRT main transmitter, verifying that it cannot tune due to the tape, and then plugging in my transmitter LED, and it works. I have the Radioshack Y splitter (274-375) before the LED.

If I specify a zone by changing the tuning device to one of the .ir files that have zones, I cannot tune with any of my UIRT transmitters, even the main transmitter (obviously I removed the tape). In fact, even if I switch back to the original .ir file, with no zones specified, it still will not work. I actually have to shut down Sage and restart it.

I am running WHS and I did a fresh install of Sage yesterday, installed two plugins, dynamic menus, and comskip. I configured a new properties file, but I copied over wiz.bin. (I did this all because I was switching to FIOSTV, and I thought it would make everything cleaner)

I just switched back to the non-zones file, and it runs for now, but I have the problem of no zones. I am including two files, one with no zones, one with.

Can someone assist? Note that the attached files have the suffix of .txt to make them uploadable.

[HelenWeathers]

Try this, in the Z1 file edit the first line from "MotorolaQIP71001 0 0 4 500 800" to read "MotorolaQIP71001-Z1 0 0 4 500 800". As I recall the name of the file must match the first line file ID.

[planetc]

Rerooks, I think Helen is correct, you have changed the file name and this messes it up. When I set mine up I created one remote file for each emitter, named them so I could tell which was which and confirmed that each was working correctly before I split into zones.
Next I edited the files adding the z1 z2 and z3, looking at yours it seems ok to me, it certainly follows the same format as mine with the edit in the same place/spacing etc. with the exception of the first line not matching up with the file name.

[rerooks]

Your advice was correct. I now have three working USB-UIRT transmitters. After I made the transmitters, I epoxyed the ends, to make sure that the soldered ends didn't come loose over time. Those FIOS tuners tune fast. I put 200 ms between codes, and it works just fine. I haven't tried anything faster.

Something interesting...after I switched to FIOSTV, I can now watch H.264 encoded video smoothly live on my MediaMVP, I couldn't do that with Time Warner Cable. I am using 720p and AC3 5.1. I have a Q6600 processor. Any thoughts as to why?

[rerooks]

Oh, on my FIOS boxes, I guess I got lucky. Electrical tape alone was enough to block the bleeding of infrared. I used the radio shack transmitters.

[wayner]

I am using a USB-UIRT with an emitter plugged in - currently the blasts from the IR come from the emitter as well as the main unit which is causing problems. If I preface the commands with Z1 or Z2 does this mean that the main unit will not flash?

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by wayner

I am using a USB-UIRT with an emitter plugged in - currently the blasts from the IR come from the emitter as well as the main unit which is causing problems. If I preface the commands with Z1 or Z2 does this mean that the main unit will not flash?

I used mine with two zones and the main unit didn't flash, only the ir buds.

[impro]

Hey Shadeblue,
I have an extra Hauppauge blaster.
Would It work with USBUIRT if I cut and rewire it?
Thanks

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by impro

Hey Shadeblue,
I have an extra Hauppauge blaster.
Would It work with USBUIRT if I cut and rewire it?
Thanks

I think so. Just note that the polarity does matter, so if you get it all wired up and it is not emitting an IR signal, you may have the polarity to the IR emitter reversed, so you would just have to switch the (+) and (-) leads to the IR emitter.

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by wayner

I am using a USB-UIRT with an emitter plugged in - currently the blasts from the IR come from the emitter as well as the main unit which is causing problems. If I preface the commands with Z1 or Z2 does this mean that the main unit will not flash?

Yes. Using the zoning command prefixes, the red LED will still flash, but the IR emitter built into the USBUIRT should not send infrared signals.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by shadeblue.com

Yes. Using the zoning command prefixes, the red LED will still flash, but the IR emitter built into the USBUIRT should not send infrared signals.

Thanks - that's exactly what it does know. At the start of a channel change the LED on the main unit flashes once but the commands only seem to be sent out of the emitter.

impro - I am using a blaster from an MCE remote/blaster and it works fine with the USB-UIRT. By default it was on Zone 2. I am guessing that these emitters are pretty much interchangable - I have some old TiVo ones that I guess I could use as well.

[impro]

Happy to report that Hauppauge Blaster works with USBUIRT.

Wired the ring and ground only for zone 2.
Now I have trouble finding where to edit the zones...
There are no *.ir files in SageTV folder.
Is there a more recent tutorial?

[wayner]

Originally Posted by impro

Happy to report that Hauppauge Blaster works with USBUIRT.

Wired the ring and ground only for zone 2.
Now I have trouble finding where to edit the zones...
There are no *.ir files in SageTV folder.
Is there a more recent tutorial?

IR files should be in a folder like this:
C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\Remote Codes\USB-UIRT Transceiver

You will see files named after your cable boxes plus MotorolaDCT2000 which seems to be the default.

[impro]

Originally Posted by wayner

IR files should be in a folder like this:
C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\Remote Codes\USB-UIRT Transceiver

You will see files named after your cable boxes plus MotorolaDCT2000 which seems to be the default.

I realized that earlier.
Sorry for not updating the forum...
It has been a crazy week. Made about 1300 phone calls.