I've had it up to HERE with the Hauppauge IR remote...

[Steve2112]

When it works, it works great. Anyways, I had some trouble with my second tuner, a USB2 model - it was recording corrupted shows, and deleting them when done. No error messages, just looks like it's recording fine, but they were 0 bytes, and deleted automatically.

So, I rebuilt my system from the ground up (O/S included), and loaded the latest drivers for my 350 and USB2.

My "NEW" problem now is the the dreaded "unable to init infared remote" with the only option being "ok", and then followed by "The memory refereced at XXXXXX blah blah crash" and no IR remote 45 button model.

So I just want to throw it out, and see if there are any other options.

I noticed there are settings for things like StreamZap, etc.... Can I just buy some 3rd party solution that is not the piece of crap that Hauppage gives you? (well not really, it just sucks driver wise - I had it working for a year, but after the rebuild kaput!).

What can I buy that would just be easy, plug & play style install that would just work out of the box and let me fast foward, control Sage, and that's it. I would be a happy camper if that would happen.

I am getting so close to making the Tivo I bought my main PVR, and I don't want to do that because although it is good, it is just not as customizable as Sage, but I will do it if I have too - I'll add a dual tuner unit to my single tuner Series 2 lifetime sub for $6.95/mo and have 3 tuners running Tivo if I can't get this remote situation resolved.....

Ahhhhhhhh Windows sucks, Hauppauge is mediorcre (sp), and SageTV is great.

/rant

Help me! (I'm up to 3:50am EST here pulling my hair it - picture it, form a mental image of me ready to throw these 3 45 button remotes out the window)

[waltraud]

Hi,

I had the same problem with a PVR USB2 and a PVR150.

The Hauppauge software is probably trying to initialize the wrong IR receiver.
You can tell it which one to use by setting a registry key.

Try searching this forum and the forums at http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php for "I2CType"

Edit: I am using an MS Media Center Remote now. Works great with SageTV and is only ~30Euro.

[blade]

The best thing IMO is a USB-UIRT. Works with almost any remote and every button on the remote can be mapped to any command in Sage. You could use your hauppauge remote with it or any old remote lying around. All you do is plug it in, install the drivers, select it in Sage, then map each key to a command.

I use the USB-UIRT with a MCE remote. If you use the receiver that comes with the MCE remote most of the buttons can't be changed. I can't live without custom 4 and 5 and the only buttons I could map to them aren't in a convienent place on the remote. If I could remap one of the FF/RW buttons to use custom 4 and 5 I wouldn't need the USB-UIRT because I have no need to remap any of the other buttons. Unfortunately it's not possible with Sage's built in support though.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by blade

The best thing IMO is a USB-UIRT. Works with almost any remote and every button on the remote can be mapped to any command in Sage. You could use your hauppauge remote with it or any old remote lying around. All you do is plug it in, install the drivers, select it in Sage, then map each key to a command.

I use the USB-UIRT with a MCE remote. If you use the receiver that comes with the MCE remote most of the buttons can't be changed. I can't live without custom 4 and 5 and the only buttons I could map to them aren't in a convienent place on the remote. If I could remap one of the FF/RW buttons to use custom 4 and 5 I wouldn't need the USB-UIRT because I have no need to remap any of the other buttons. Unfortunately it's not possible with Sage's built in support though.

I use the MCE remotes & use girder for control, every button is completely re-mappable. Sure it cost to get the software (unless you can find that really old version that as free), but it's completely customizable, and you can even remap the power button.

[hemicuda]

Does anyone know what the registry decimal would be for a 350? I like to keep my USB2 portable and haven't yet run into scheduling conflicts. I didn't see anything about it in a cursory search of the SHS site.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

Does anyone know what the registry decimal would be for a 350?

I posted that info here. Note that it won't really tell the difference between a 150 & a 250/350. I don't know if I ever tried the one for the 250/350, since I use my PVR-USB2 for remote duties.

- Andy

[blade]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

I use the MCE remotes & use girder for control, every button is completely re-mappable. Sure it cost to get the software (unless you can find that really old version that as free), but it's completely customizable, and you can even remap the power button.

You can remap all the buttons with the USB-UIRT as well, including the power. It's also much easier to setup than girder.

I've never used Girder. I installed it once, but decided pretty quickly that for my basic needs it wasn't worth the time required to learn the program. If I were going to do anything fancy I'd probably look into it. Not to mention it's pricey. I could purchase a USB-UIRT for what they wanted for the software.

You can do the same thing with HIP and it's free, but both HIP and Girder require the use of 3rd party software and a have learning curve. My impression was Steve2112 wanted something easy to setup that is supported natively by Sage.

HIP wasn't too difficult to setup, but I was using it on an older machine and if cpu usage was high on the client the remote was very slow to respond. I'm now using the MCE remote and receiver with Sage's native support on that machine and I've never had a problem with the response.

[Steve2112]

Wait a sec, I tested Windows MCE, and I have the USB receiver and remote - this will work with Sage!?!?! If so, this may be my saviour! Any changes that need to be made? In the meantime, I'm going to go dig up that remote & reciever it and plug it into my Sage system and see what happens in the meantime - thanks if this works! And thanks for any config hints!

[blade]

Originally Posted by Steve2112

Wait a sec, I tested Windows MCE, and I have the USB receiver and remote - this will work with Sage!?!?! If so, this may be my saviour! Any changes that need to be made? In the meantime, I'm going to go dig up that remote & reciever it and plug it into my Sage system and see what happens in the meantime - thanks if this works! And thanks for any config hints!

XP Home doesn't have driver support for the MCE remote. It's not a problem to get the driver if you need it. I believe PRO and of course MCE has it.

This is the remote I have, so everything I say is about it. Not sure about other "MCE remotes".

Just in case you don't know the TV and volume buttons are programmable on the MCE remote. I have mine set to control the power and volume of my TV. Most of the others have fixed functions in Sage and can't be remapped. I think the TV, *, #, clear, and delete are the only ones you can map in Sage. There's not much to configure, everything else on the remote does what the name of the button implies.

If you need to remap the buttons I'd suggest looking into HIP. Honestly I find little need for any of them to be changed because almost all of them do exactly what I have them mapped to do on my other client with the USB-UIRT. The only exception is the custom 4 & 5 which skip to the next or previous comskip break.

[Steve2112]

Great, it works for the basic functions - pause, FF, RW, etc... changing channels. Thanks so much for making me a happier Sage user!

Are there any special .INI files that makes SageTV work even better with this remote by any chance?

Thanks again!

Edit: just read your message above as I was posting mine - thanks for the additional info. I can finally even have 3 tuners because that combo caused me Hauppauge IR errors too, so this is awesome.

[Steve2112]

Originally Posted by waltraud

Hi,

I had the same problem with a PVR USB2 and a PVR150.

The Hauppauge software is probably trying to initialize the wrong IR receiver.
You can tell it which one to use by setting a registry key.

Try searching this forum and the forums at http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php for "I2CType"

Edit: I am using an MS Media Center Remote now. Works great with SageTV and is only ~30Euro.

I tried that in the past with the help of Opus4/Andy, and it did not help in my case. I tried a bunch of combos, but IR would always fail to load. It sucks not having FF/RW/Erase etc. and having to get up and go to the keyboard to do stuff.

Thank goodness for the fact that I can use my Microsoft MCE remote with Sage - no more dreaded error. In fact, I just uninstalled the IR.EXE application.

Tomorrow I will be putting my 150 card back in right next to the 350, with the USB2 on the outside. 3 tuners, and 1 Tivo with 1 tuner - TV life just got a little better!

I am going to make a ghost image of the working system as it is now before I start adding back in that card just in case!

ALSO, added bonus - the Microsoft remote is about 3x faster than the Hauppauge one, much snappier response!