Pace DC50X and USB-UIRT?

[mwareman]

Originally Posted by jwilson56

What folder are the .ir files located at?

Assuming you installed to the C: - C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\USB-UIRT Transceiver

I'm happy to report - a fully succesful learning - and Sage in in control of the DC50X. I'm using Zone 3 for my first one (this is the 'main' IR blaster on the USB-UIRT (which I have pointed at both the DC50X and my STB - which use different codesets).

This leaves me two zones on the USB-UIRT for other DC50X devices (or other STBs as I need).

Mine is called DC50X.Zone3.ir. I've attached mine in case you want/need it. Edit the Z3 for Z2, Z1 or just remove as your needs desire to change the zone. You'll (possibly) have to restart the Sage service afterwards if tht's how you run.

Now: I'm a happy camper again.

[jwilson56]

Cool... thanks.. will play with that soon. Anyone have the IR file for the DCH70 STB box?

I am thinking I might try and use that for the Video Composite input on the PVR-500 card if Sage can select that as the input as one of the tuners and use the coaxial input as the other from a DTA.

[VikingCrown]

Originally Posted by jwilson56

I am thinking I might try and use that for the Video Composite input on the PVR-500 card if Sage can select that as the input as one of the tuners and use the coaxial input as the other from a DTA.

Any luck with this? i'm thinking of trying something similar with my now usless MCE500 once i get some DTA's from Comcast. By the way does anyone know how much Comcast charges for those?


~Brian

[VCRUser]

I just got my usbuirt working with my DC50X DTA today. I had initial problems with Sage not seeing my usbuirt tuning plugin. I solved that by finding the dll in the usbuirt installation archve & copying that to the location Sage checks for plug-ins. (I assume that since Sage preceded the usbuirt, the Sage installation didn't find & install it initially - or some such). Anyway, after doing that, and shutting down & restarting Sage & the Service, things worked. I am, however, having a problem with the usbuirt not sending the commands to the DTA at quite the right pace,so sometimes tuning channel 42 gives me channel 2, or tuning 257 gives me channel 57. Not great when you're trying to record a specific channel . Any tricks to fix this?

[jwilson56]

Well I was on vacation so was not able to try anything yet. Has anyone gotten this to work reliably yet? I am about ready to call WOW cable which is also in my area and see if they are forcing people to use DTA's. Would be a hassle to switch but worth it if they are not.

John

[jwilson56]

Originally Posted by mwareman

Assuming you installed to the C: - C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\USB-UIRT Transceiver

I'm happy to report - a fully succesful learning - and Sage in in control of the DC50X. I'm using Zone 3 for my first one (this is the 'main' IR blaster on the USB-UIRT (which I have pointed at both the DC50X and my STB - which use different codesets).

This leaves me two zones on the USB-UIRT for other DC50X devices (or other STBs as I need).

Mine is called DC50X.Zone3.ir. I've attached mine in case you want/need it. Edit the Z3 for Z2, Z1 or just remove as your needs desire to change the zone. You'll (possibly) have to restart the Sage service afterwards if tht's how you run.

Now: I'm a happy camper again.

I read something in another thread that the name of the file and the name in the first like of the file have to be the same. Did you change the filename before you posted your file or doesn't it matter anymore?

John

[mwareman]

Originally Posted by jwilson56

I read something in another thread that the name of the file and the name in the first like of the file have to be the same. Did you change the filename before you posted your file or doesn't it matter anymore?

John

I did change the name in the first line - but only to make them unique just in case (in my mind) this is what Sage used to display the options. They did not match the filenames. I do not recall if Sage listed the filenames or the name on the first line - but either way it seems to work for me.

Michael.

[jwilson56]

Just was refering to post 107-110 in this thread:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...?t=5291&page=6

[jwilson56]

Well after some playing around I now have two Pace DC50X boxes going into a PVR-500 (single tuner - other one disabled) and a PVR-250 and my HDHomerun picking up the local HD channels.

Things look like they are working well. Thanks mwareman for the IR file.

As far as timing goes I used the ones in the IR file but noticed that you can adjust them in one of SageTV's setup screen (somewhere in the video source setup screens).

Crossing my fingers that is all stays working with my HDHomerun for local QAM channels.

[VikingCrown]

Awesome! I'm glad to hear this works, i'll have to get myself a USB-UIRT and the DTA's in anticipation of Comcast killing the expanded basic QAM channels at some point. How would you describe the picture quality, file size for typical recordings and what channels are you able to get?

Regards,
Brian

[jwilson56]

I would say as good as my basic cable was on the PVR-500. Not as good as a STB into a composite video input from what I have heard but then again these DTA are a POS for not having that as an output option. It will get me by until I decided what I really want to do. Even if I use a HD STB down the road I will still need the USB-UIRT so not much was spent to have this working again.

[VCRUser]

Mine is looking better than box-less cable (multiply-split, long runs - before setting it up, I added an amp for both it & the qam tuner), with quality set to "good" I think I get about 1.5gb per hour. On the qam tuner I get about 1.3 gb per hour in sd and about 3gb per hour in hd; the ota channels get 6-7gb/hr in hd. Then I usually convert it down to "good quality mp4 avi", which gets me about 800mb per hour - and it still looks fine. I keep enough stuff around that I've already half-filled my 1T drive in 6 months, so compression is pretty important. I think I got the channel-entry problem I had at first fixed (it would simetimes tune channel 2, 5, 25, 7, or 57 instead of 257, for example) by setting the number of tuning digits to 0.

[doncote0]

Originally posted by DMT:
Caution - this adapter places a lot of STRESS on the WEAK 1/8 jack at the back of the USB-UIRT. I just had to take my USB-UIRT apart and solder one of the terminals back onto the board because it had lifted off from moving around the USB-UIRT too much with the 274-375 adapter attached.

This could reduce the stress problem.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=122

[PaulF]

Originally Posted by jwilson56

Well after some playing around I now have two Pace DC50X boxes going into a PVR-500 (single tuner - other one disabled) and a PVR-250 and my HDHomerun picking up the local HD channels.

How did you connect both boxes to the PVR-500? Hardware hack or mix channel 3 from one DTA with channel 4 from the other? If you mix, why can't you fix one tuner at CH3 and have the other fixed at CH4? That was my plan.

[jwilson56]

I bought a second card and disabled one of the tuners on the PVR-500. You need to re-read my post. Setup is still working great.

[PaulF]

Originally Posted by jwilson56

I bought a second card and disabled one of the tuners on the PVR-500. You need to re-read my post. Setup is still working great.

OOPs I stopped reading after "Well after some playing around I now have two Pace DC50X boxes going into a PVR-500 ...". A case of seeing what you are hoping for.

[mechling-burgh]

I have to start setting this up on my setup this week. I have one mce 500 and one mce 150. I have two DTA from Comcast and I'm going to make one of the mce 500 DTA and the other input svideo from the tuner box and use the firewire to change the channels, this has worked well for me for several years.. The second DTA will go on the mce 150.
I'm losing one analog tuner doing this but after the change I figured I would see what will be left open in clear QAM and if need the tuner back I would just get another hdhome run. I would rather give them the money than Comcast.

[PaulF]

Originally Posted by jwilson56

I bought a second card and disabled one of the tuners on the PVR-500. You need to re-read my post. Setup is still working great.

I don't have another slot so I tried combining the two DTAs with a passive combiner. That didn't work at all. I ended up buying an AVI 40-SC4 channel 4 combiner with active filtering on the inputs(notch out CH4 on one input and pass only CH4 on the other). It works great. I set one tuner to CH3 and the other to CH4. I paid $12 with free shipping on ebay.

Now I need to get my zones working more reliably. I thing my blinkers are too close to the external detectors(I put both blinker and detector in film canisters because they should be light tight.) or maybe I need current limiting resistors.

[doncote0]

i'm thinking of trying something similar with my now usless MCE500 once i get some DTA's from Comcast. By the way does anyone know how much Comcast charges for those?

$2/month for every DC50X beyond the two free ones you get with a standard digital package. You mileage and costs may vary. DO TRY THIS AT HOME.

[n3pla2000]

Find a dealer who will sell you band-pass filters. One that filter out everything but channel 3 place it on the DTA set for channel 3. Do the same for channel 4, put a filter on the DTA that filters out everything but channel 4. Make sure they are narrow enough in band width so the output of the two filters don't bleed onto the each others output signal. DIscuss the dealer, dealers in cable tv equipment should be able to supply such an item. As a HAM I've had to filter two frequence very close to each other. One was an output at 200 watts, one was an input at milliwatts, with only 600hz difference in the signal. So this can be done. two DTAs with one at channel 4, the other on channel 3. How do the cable companies fix the signals of sloppy equipment? Some equipment isn't always producing as clean a signal as it should.