Huappuage IR Blaster vs USB-UIRT

[viperdiablo]

Iam looking at getting the Hauppauge HD PVR but Iam wondering how fast the included IR Blaster is when changing channels on the HD extender? Also Iam wondering if the USB-UIRT is the same speed or faster?

[CollinR]

This is small compared to the delay of the STB and the buffer in Sage.

You can modify this to an extent in your sage.properties too.

[viperdiablo]

Sorry not really understanding what you are saying. You mean the usb-uirt is small in size, or the difference is channel changing speed is small? How long does it take in seconds to change the channel once you select it in the guide using the hd extender? Thanks.

[dvsing]

The Hauppauge IR Blaster on the HD-PVR is a POS. Use firewire/serial to change channels on your STB or failing that use the USB-UIRT.
-Dan

[bialio]

Originally Posted by dvsing

The Hauppauge IR Blaster on the HD-PVR is a POS. Use firewire/serial to change channels on your STB or failing that use the USB-UIRT.
-Dan

For what it's worth - the ir blaster on the HD-PVR works flawlessly for me.

If my STB supported firewire/serial I'd use that though just because it seems less error prone, all things given. But I've never had an error with the IR blaster from Hauppauge.

btl.

[dvsing]

Allow me to clarify,

If your system has one HD-PVR and no other Hauppauge devices, then the IR Blaster in the HD-PVR may be enough for your needs.

If, however, you have more than one HD-PVR (or in general more than one Hauppauge capture device) in your system, you're going to run into problems as the IR blaster software only wants to see one physical IR blaster device to use. In this case, I recommend firewire/serial/USB-UIRT channel changing.

[viperdiablo]

Thanks for everyones replies. Can the UIRT controll more then one device. My plan is to have two hd pvrs and two STB. And can anyone tell me how fast in seconds it takes to change channels using the hauppauge IR blaster and fast the UIRT takes in seconds to change channels? Just want to know what kind of difference there is in speed vs just using my cable companies PVR. Thanks again.

[Addict]

In the SageTV settings (capture device settings) you can define how quickly the IR blaster enters numbers, and how long of a delay before it'll change channels again. I've had it as low as 50ms between numbers, and 100ms between channel changing.

The biggest delay you'll see is the natural 1-2 second buffer between what's live and what SageTV shows you (has to be delayed slightly for timeshifting).

If you're a channel flipper (up, up, up, up, up, up) you might get annoyed at the delay...but I don't know if anything's going to help with that. The natural buffer is still there (but firewire might speed up any numerical entry delay, I don't know enough about it to say).

[viperdiablo]

Thanks for the response. So by making the adjustments, the response time when changing channels or selecting a new channel in the guide when using the hd extender is very quick? Not that much of difference from actually using my cable company PVR?