Easiest method for controlling DirecTV STB's?

[uggie]

I'm just about done building a new house (yes, contrary to what the market says some ppl still do that...) and I just found out that no cable company services my area. DirecTV it is. I've currently got a PVR-500 and intend to use the S-video inputs from the SD STB's to feed it. I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 and only using placeshifters until I move into the new place when I'll change over to extenders.

So, what is the easiest way to control some DirecTV STB's? USB-UIRT? USB-232 cables?

thanks,
-jason

[bcjenkins]

When I had DirecTV I used TV Translators from http://www.patersontech.com.

You can also take a look at the cable options below:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php...TV_D11_via_USB

The guy who runs Paterson is really good at making changes to the firmware of his devices when DirecTV changes their protocols. (Firmware requires Windows, .Net, to update)

B

[uggie]

I've only got 1 serial port on this machine so I'm assuming I can use a USB-serial cable to break out additional devices such as this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156008

I'm also assuming I don't need an additional null modem cable for the paterson box.

What I'm still not clear on is how do I assign each one of these to a particular com port for sage to address and have it stick. I'm not familiar with how linux maps these ports. How did you end up doing it?

thanks again,
-jason

[eclas]

I'm looking for a little insight on how to setup Sage with a DTV STB.
I have an HR21-200 receiver (the latest) and I was looking at the USB TV Translator at...
patersontech.com

DirecTV claims it works for changing channels, power, etc.
What I'd like to know before I buy this thing is how can I tie this in to a coax input on my tv card which only has coax inputs. There's only component outputs and s-video. Would I need to upgrade my tv card to one that has component inputs?

I was hoping to be able to use my DTV normally and when I'm not watching the receiver then have sage control the DTV recvr for recording.

Is this possible?
Thanks

[BFisher]

if i understand you right, you want to use the coax output of the STB... that's the worst quality image you can use. I'd be surprised if the STB doesn't have a Coax output...

As for sharing the STB between manual usage and Sage - I wouldn't... I'm betting you have lots of issues where Sage wants to record and you want to watch something else. Best off with seperate boxes (my opinion)

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by uggie

I've only got 1 serial port on this machine so I'm assuming I can use a USB-serial cable to break out additional devices such as this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812156008

I'm also assuming I don't need an additional null modem cable for the paterson box.

What I'm still not clear on is how do I assign each one of these to a particular com port for sage to address and have it stick. I'm not familiar with how linux maps these ports. How did you end up doing it?

thanks again,
-jason

Sorry, totally lost sight of this. Still need help?

B

[uggie]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Sorry, totally lost sight of this. Still need help?

B

Nope. Working fine using the built in serial port, the USB-UART adapter I linked to before and a couple of the paterson converters. Thanks for asking though. I may hit you up on your 64bit setup if I'm courageous enough to try going back to 64bit over the thanksgiving break or else the longer xmas break. Been meaning to try out XFS on the media partition as well. ext3 is painfully slow at deletes.

thanks,
-jason