[mythtv-users] The Green-Button (MS MCE) USB Remote

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Tue Apr 4 21:12:46 UTC 2006


On Apr 4, 2006, at 1:58 PM, Nathan Vidican wrote:

>
> Has anyone tried using Windows Media center 2005 USB - IR remote /  
> transmitter
> with mythtv?
>
> I like the remote itself, and it's handy the way the IR  
> transmitters just plug
> right back out of it... but are there any drivers out there to make  
> use of the
> remote and/or transmitters from myth tv? Or is lirc what I need for  
> that?
>
> Also, wondering if anyone has a good suggestion for an IR emitter/ 
> transmitter
> setup? I'm trying to control 3 external satellite receivers tied to  
> a PVR-500
> and a yet-to-be-purchased third input card, as well as a decent DTV  
> (SD/HDTV
> air signals). Ideally I'd like to place the server (mythbackend) and
> corresponding satellite receivers and other equipment in a closet  
> out of
> sight/hearing distance like - so the backend box has to have the
> transmitters/emitters while the front end machines (still  
> experimenting with
> options there, but I need like 5 of them) each will have their own  
> independant
> remote controls. Ideally, I'd like to have the same remote at each  
> of the
> frontend-boxes, with all of them connecting externally (via usb,  
> serial, etc -
> to avoid need for pci cards and be able to operate cheap/fanless/quiet
> frontend boxen).


As for controlling multiple satellite receivers, you didn't mention  
what type. DirectTV had some receivers that can be controlled  
directly by serial port, obviously you would need a port on your  
computer for each receiver (I suppose you could work out some way to  
multiplex them, but it would not be an "out of the box" solution).

For Dish Network your only option is an IR blaster of some type. Dish  
receivers let you set each remote/receiver pair to a separate  
"address", so they can be independently controlled without  
interfering with each other (I think up to 10 different addresses).  
You can also use a USB-to-Serial adapter if you do not have a serial  
port.

I'm using a "MyBlaster", which costs around $40US and uses a perl  
script to control it through the serial port (thanks to William  
Munson). You can set it to a particular address, or use multiple  
copies of the control script and control multiple receivers.

You can also use LIRC, which allows you to use a much cheaper ($10US)  
IR transmitter but requires much more "smarts" in the control  
software, and is generally a lot more trouble to get set up (IMHO).

So your multiple sat receivers are do-able, I'll let somebody with  
more experience in that area figure out your remote question.



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