[mythtv-users] more than one capture card

[Brian Wood]

On Nov 5, 2006, at 11:44 AM, brian boyle wrote:

> Hey Folks.
>
>     I have a new question. i am wondering how everyone is handling  
> the fact that new motherboards come with only one serial port. i  
> recently built a new backend machine which i love except that it  
> only has a single serial port. i purchased a Startech pci serial  
> port with the expectation that i would be able to use it to control  
> my second capture card (that work great in my old system) but with  
> no luck.
>
>    so basically am i the only one with this problem. i sent several  
> messages to the lirc mailing list and got no love so i have hopes  
> that someone has had better luck with this same problem.
>
> Thanks once again.

By "controlling your second capture card" I assume you mean  
controlling an STB that feeds it? Since you mention lirc I assume you  
are not controlling a DirecTV box by serial cable but rather an IR- 
controlled  box of some sort via an IR blaster?

I thought that there was some way to use an IR blaster to send two or  
more sets of codes and thus control more than one device. I know you  
can use a "MyBlaster" device to control multiple devices through a  
single serial port.

You can also control the MyBlaster through a USB port using an  
adapter. I would assume you could do this with a standard "dumb"  
blaster as well.

A lot of assumptions I know. I'm using a "MyBlaster" because I  
decided the $40US that the device cost was a better way to go than  
beating my head against a wall for a couple of days to get the LIRC  
solution working. It would definitely solve your problem but that's  
not to say that other solutions would not do so as well.