Hauppauge HVR-2250 - MCE IR Blaster Help

[bellyman]

I am migrating Sage from an XP machine (HVR-1600) to Win8 (HVR-2250) and have ran into a snag. Sadly I asked if the HVR-2250 was supported by Sage - and even stated "MCE" version and was told it was. Yes it technically works with Sage as well as the remote, but the IR Blaster apparently does not.

I just want to confirm and ask for help with the driver that supposedly does work.

1) I was able to install Sage and choose the Hauppauge blaster when setting up the video source.
2) I installed the WinTV IR Blaster software and was able to program from the remote to change channels on the cable box (and tested that via that software)
3) Sage TV will not change the channel. I found this thread that uses the EXETuner plugin with the HIP software.

Within this thread it speaks of driver issues - that you cannot program the IR via the remote. When you add the IR it says press a key and then immediately returns an error. Here is that post from the thread.

What I am NOT seeing, is any solution to make this piece work. Without it, it fails. Sadly Hauppauge doesn't give you a way to "send an IR signal" based on the learn side via a command line prompt. If so then I could simulate this with the EXETune trick (I believe)

I just want to confirm:
(A) That it is true the HVR-2250's MCE IR Blaster won't work with SageTV without the workaround stated in the thread.
(B) Is there any updated MCE driver to work with Windows above Vista? A Win7 driver, I am sure, would work fine under Win8.

Other options I have:
1) Migrate the HVR-1600 card from the XP to the new box (it has one PCI slot available) - then use it's blaster. Kind of old and wanted a newer card. The 2250 has dual tuners but I bought that years ago and never thought about the move to HD. I will be upgrading cable boxes to support HD and will leave the SD version for this - and may upgrade to an HD device later.

2) I did buy the USB-UIRT. I believe I tested and was able to get Sage working with that. The only negative at the moment - I bought a separate IR cable and cannot find it and don't want to use the main USB-UIRT to control the cable box. I prefer to "tape" the IR blaster to the cable box and the main blaster on the UIRT is bulky.

Any help would be appreciated. I would have posted to that thread but I see no activity since 2009 and don't want the world to come down on me that I am posting to a dormant thread.

Thanks,
belly

[firenice]

Belly

I had so many issues with Hauppauge's IR Blaster that it was easier to change to the USB UIRT. A device shouldn't have to be hacked right out of the box in order to work.

I use a USB UIRT with a HDPVR and can not get the blinker eye to change channels either. I use the main unit to change. It's a comcast box and they are very finicky about IR placement.

The purpose for the post though was to say if your going to eventually get an HD cable box you may invest in an HDHR Prime with a cable card and save on monthly box rental.

Good Luck

[bellyman]

I found my small IR splitter and plugged that into the USB UIRT - working fine so far. I was able to program the base channel choices and then taped the blaster to the cable box.

Today I finally migrated from WinXp to Win8.1 and will see how accurate/inaccurate the UIRT will be.

I will try to migrate a second cable box and use the 2nd part of the IR splitter to control that.

Planning on migrating the HVR-1600 to my other PC so I can start ripping my Sony camera videos before it dies.

Will provide an update as required.

(Thanks firenice - unfortunately, I live in Communist Canada and the idea of a "cable card" is probably no where in the frozen cards for at least a decade (hint of hope if it did happen) until some major shift in policy at the separate agency (mirror to the FCC) the hallowed CRTC. A huge bother we have here - there is no such thing as "unencrypted signals" on the cable boxes - for the "local" stations).

My home has two HD TVs and I need at least two more - then I will migrate to some whole home PVR system. I am less on quality and more on quantity and type of recording. Being able to record Judge Judy and watch that at dinner without commercials is what I really like Sage for. The ability for the kids to watch years of TV recorded Simpsons or Family Guy -- the PVRs have limited space so having the Sage for these reasons are ideal. None of these today warrant any HD move on records ... I am content now with the Win8 box and have no plans to buy any new Sage type gear.

We watch Netflix a fair bit (have unlimited net) so that has taken over a lot of Sage viewing - something is lacking with the Sage/Media boxes. Sadly I bot a Roku 2 - big mistake - the only device that I know that won't support Netflix Profiles - and their support said so much.

But I digress.

Cheers!
belly