Problem w/ ActiSys controlling cable box

[mogrinz]

I'm having a problem gettting my actisys to control my General Instrument 2200 cable box.

I've taught/tested each digit, and they work ok.

And usually, the channel changes work. But sometimes, numbers seem to be skipped, or sent in the incorrect order. Consider this strange case:

I change to channel 109. I watch the cable box instead switch to channel 19. Then, I change to channel 45. I first see a 0 (the missing 0?) then a 4. Sometimes the 5 comes afterwards.

I've played around with the timings; but it seems like the order is getting jumbled... Running Sage 1.3.3

M

[Mark Lamutt]

Sounds like your actisys config is set up to send 3 number channel commands to your box. So, to tune to channel 45, the actisys will send 0-4-5 to your box. And, if some numbers are getting skipped, you need to increase the delay time between commands sent. To change the channel on my dish network receiver, I have to have at least a 600ms delay between number commands being sent, otherwise the dish receiver doesn't recognize the number. I'd adjust yours up to 1200 or 1500ms to start, and then bring it back down to the point that all of your channel changes happen correctly.

[mogrinz]

Hmmm... where would I see a "3-channel" option in the config?

I'm not sure if this is the case, anyhow. When I go from channel 11 to 12, for example, I don't see 011->012.

As noted, if I go to 109 I see 19 (no 0). But then going from a 3-digit channel to a 2 digit one do I then see the leading 0.

I have messed with the delays to no avail. I think I went as high at 1000, but I'll try 1.5K tonight and see what happens.

[Mark Lamutt]

There are 2 different delays - make sure you adjust the right one. I don't remember what the exact wording on them is off the top of my head, but it's in the manual.

And now, the way you describe it, it sounds like you are set up for 2 digit channel numbers, and need to be set for 3 digit channel numbers. I know that's defined on the fist line of your .IR file that is controlling your cable box. Don't know if that's in the detailed setup options or not. Also, if you make your edits in detailed setup, I believe you need to put SageTV to sleep and then wake it back up for those changes to be saved. That may be why you haven't been able to get the delays to work for you.

Or, you can just edit the .IR file directly - the delays are the 3rd and 4th number on the first line in the file, and they are in milliseconds.

[Narflex]

You also may want to try reprogramming the Actisys. Maybe your codes didn't get learned clean enough. If you've got other COM hardware in you PC (like a bad modem), it's possible it could be interfering with the Actisys.

[mogrinz]

I just played around with this for a couple of hours. Sigh; no joy.

I tried delays from 400 to 1600 (restarted Sage each time to make sure they were in effect)

I reprogrammed and tested the codes twice.

I checked the menu on the cable box for any IR-related settings- there were none.

I covered the blaster and cable box with a box to make sure there was no interference from ambient lights

The only other serial device in the system is my IR man. The actisys is on a brand new serial card (progress: new motherboards only have 1 -if that- serial port!)

Interesting note: Changing channels ala pgup/pgdn has a success rate of around 85%. Jumping directly to channels is about 40-50% successful.

Any other ideas? Should I try some other software and see if it can blast the correct codes? Then wrap that in a DLL for Sage?

[SHS]

When say serial card are ref to PCI serial card
I try swaping the IRman with Actisys to see that works better.

[Narflex]

There's another setting to try that may help, it's in the properties file and it's called:
irtune_global_preroll

It's the number of milliseconds SageTV waits after doing it's internal channel changing logic that it sends the commands to the device to perform the channel change. Increase it to like 10000, and then when you do a channel change in SageTV, pause it immediately. Then a few seconds later, it should send the commands. The goal is to have your PC using minimal CPU (should be close to 0%) when it tries to send the IR command.

Let me know how that goes.

[mogrinz]

Still no joy in mudville. Changed irtune_global_preroll ; and it sure does slow things down. This a dedicated box; so CPU usage is always pretty low anyway.

Pgup'ing from channel 109 to 110 in sage saw the cable box go from 109->10. Back to 109; went to 9 (no 1 or 0).

Also trained again, and switched the ports my IRMan and Actisys were on.

[Narflex]

Bring up the TaskManager. What's your CPU usage at when it's doing the channel change?

[mogrinz]

Sorry for the delayed response; long holiday weekend

You are correct sir, the CPU spikes to 99 or 100% on a channel change. That was unexpected!

What I'm seeing is about 8-15% when Sage is asleep, 50-80% when watching TV, and then those quick spikes when I change the channel.

The machine is a P4 1.4, PVR-350. 1 gig RAM. Nothing else major running on it at the time (except small bg stuff: girder, remotely anywhere, etc)

Suggested course of action?

[Narflex]

How long does it take for the CPU to drop back down from 100%? If you make the irtune_global_preroll longer than that, does it fix the problem?

If you've got a lot of files in your library, then this is potentially a problem that's resolved in 1.3.7, try that out.

[mogrinz]

Yes; every now and then I try and revisit this issue....

I made those registry changes for the Intervideo codec you describe elsewhere, and my LiveTV CPU usage now hovers around 15-18%

That seems to have made a major improvement in channel-changing reliability, but I still see spikes to 100% CPU. I'd say channel-changing has improved from about 50% to about 90%. I just need that last little bit...

I've adjusted the preroll, but still no luck. Is it possible to add a setting(s) which:
A) will not to change the channel if it detects CPU usage above threshold X (or wait until usage is below X)
B) will wait until CPU usage is below Y before sending the next IR command (regardless of the inter-channel delay)

Otherwise, is there a reason why the delay is fixed at 2K ms? I'm assuming that anything longer might cause a cable box to think input was finished...

I still don't have a good handle on why this isn't going as smoothly as it seems it should (esp. based on other user's experiences) and am open to other suggestions...

I guess my ultimate ? is: Why can I reliably change the channel using a remote control faster than SageTV is able to? I would expect at least the same speed (and success ratio!)

M

[cellarboy]

Motorola Cable boxes are notoriously bad for not functioning correctly with IR Blasters. The success rate with the blaster on the Creative DCVR is only about 85-90% on my 2000 box. I understand Microsoft are having similar issues with their IR blaster and and Motorola boxes too.

The strange thing is that the IR blaster on my JVC VCR works absolutely perfectly with my Motorola Box. Very bizzare.

A guy over at the Tivo forurms has also investigated using a direct serial connection from the PC to Motorola box. Apparantly he has experienced issues with the box managing to accept a correct channel number input reliably even through a direct connection.

I'm seriously leaning to the conclusion that there's something wrong with the design of the boxes themselves, rather than any IR blaster issue.

[mogrinz]

Hmmm..

So should I build a lego mindstorms robot to push the buttons on my remote?

I don't expect much success for the person going the direct cable route. My box also has a rs232 port, but I looked into it and a)there is zip public documentation about it and b) it apparently has to be "enabled" by the cable company somehow.

I'm thinking of trying other IR blaster software and seeing if my luck is better. If possible, I can either wrap that in a DLL or beg for an option to shell out (ala "program.exe channel#") on a channel change.

M

[dkardatzke]

I've used the IR-200L with my Motorola DCT 2000 box for the past 6 months with 99%+ accuracy. I posted a picture of the positioning on another post talking about a similar topic.

[cellarboy]

The guy investigating the direct cable connection is a Motorola deveopment partner, so he has access to all the information needed to get the connection to work for himself. You're right though, for almost all other users it'd be a non-starter.

dkardatzke: Who supplies your the TV guide for your DCT2000? Is it

I hear the HEremote software and the Actisys works pretty well with the DCT2000. I think personally think it's a matter of getting the timing between digits correct. The DCVR Blaster has no control over the timing unfortunately. If I do decide to convert over the the PVR250, I'm going to have to give the Actisys a try because the whole idea of a PVR + Digital Cable is pretty much mute without someway to tune the channels!!

[dkardatzke]

By the looks of the guide, Comcast is using Gemstar's guide with TV guide data.

I'm confused on where this discussion is going. Cellarboy, there is no need for the HE remote software using the Actisys with SageTV. We integrate the use and setup of the IR-200L into SageTV and even allow you to adjust the speed at which the digits are sent to your cable box.

Let me know if there's an outstanding question I'm missing.

Dan

[mogrinz]

I'm confused on where this discussion is going.

As the thread-starter, I was hoping to head towards getting my Actisys and 2000 box to play nice

If you can give me a link to the thread where you posted a pic of your setup, I'd love to see it. I can test all the "digits" fine, but in practice, no-go.

Since you're having great success, I'd really appreciate:

1-Your ir file for the remote. Maybe you've somehow trained it better than me in some way
2-your settings for ir delays & preroll. I realize this is somewhat system-dependent, but perhaps you've hit on a combo that would work well for me.

M

[cellarboy]

Originally posted by dkardatzke
By the looks of the guide, Comcast is using Gemstar's guide with TV guide data.

I'm confused on where this discussion is going. Cellarboy, there is no need for the HE remote software using the Actisys with SageTV. We integrate the use and setup of the IR-200L into SageTV and even allow you to adjust the speed at which the digits are sent to your cable box.

Let me know if there's an outstanding question I'm missing.

Dan

Well the direction I was trying to take the discussion (for my own selfish needs!) was to find out the specs of a successfully working DCT2000/PVR250/Actisys setup to see if I would encounter any issues and/or better reliability IR blaster wise if I switched from a DVCR to a PVR250.

Given the unreliability of similar solutions (MCE, snapstream) and without any way of trying prior to purchase, I wanted to figure out the chances of it being a software, blaster or cable box problem before blowing the cash on a PVR250.

Sorry if that wasn't exactly clear.