[steve1977]

As many of you, I have a HP MCE remote and receiver (e.g., http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-OEM-MCE-KIT-...43ba456658).

It actually works very well with the included remote to control my HTPC (which the receiver is connected to via USB).

I understand that I can also use this receiver to blast signals of other remotes. I pointed my sat-receiver to it and the HP receiver indeeds shows a red light that indicates to me that it receives a signal. I have an IR emitter cable plugged into the HP receiver with the other end pointing to the sat-receiver.

Unfortunately, this blasting function does not work at all. When looking at the end of the IR emittent cable, no light lights up when using the remote (neither with the HP remote nor with any other remote). The red light only lights up at the HP receiver, but not at the end of the IR emittent cable.

The easiest thing could be that the IR emittent cable is broken, but I also think that this is the least likely. Wanted to pick your brains:

1) Do I need to activate the blasting function of the HP MCE?

2) Is the end of the IR emittent cable supposed to blink red?

3) What else can I try or could I be missing?


Thanks in advance for any ideas!!!

[noggin]

I don't think many apps support the IR blasters in MCE remotes. LIRC does have support for it in Linux I believe - and I wouldn't be surprised if MythTV could drive a cable/satellite box this way.

The blaster functionality was really there for Win XP MCE and Win 7 MCE which allowed you to connect a composite analogue capture card to a cable or satellite box to capture the SD output, with the IR blaster changing the satellite/cable box's channels under PC control.

[steve1977]

Thanks for your reply. Do I actually need any app or software or can I "just" use the blaster functionality?

My issue is that my sat-receiver is in a cabinet and I need to find a way to get the IR signal to it. Thought it could work with the MCE receiver without having any app involved? What am I missing?

[noggin]

The USB blaster isn't a repeater - it is a USB output device. It needs the PC to send the right USB commands to fire IR commands, and so the PC needs to be running software that is aware of the device it is controlling.

In Windows Media Center, which it was designed for, it was there to control an external set top box. If you were watching live TV, when you pressed Channel + or - on your MCE remote, Windows Media Center would recognise this and then send commands to the IR blaster to send the right IR commands to your set top box to change the channel. It would also do this for scheduled recordings - changing the channel by the IR blaster. Early Tivos did the same thing. Not always the most reliable system on some satellite platforms (particularly those without discrete power on and power off codes etc.)

It doesn't allow you to use an RC6 MCE remote to control other items of equipment directly.

[steve1977]

Got it, this is very helpful. This also means though that I "just" need some form of software to make it work what I want to achieve. Right?

Did WMC "learn" the IR signal that was required to change channel of the STB?`If so, how and would you recommend me any specific software?