[mythtv-users] PVR-150 and the IR Blaster

[Nick]

On 21/10/06, Rich West <Rich.West at wesmo.com> wrote:
> I apologize if this was asked and solved on this list before, but I
> couldn't find many, if any, references to a solution.
>
> I have DirecTV and I am setting up a MythTV box.  Actually, the box is
> set up and everything is working well except for the obvious fact that
> the MythTV system cannot change the channel on the set top box.
>
> Now, I could go and get a script
> (http://www.pdp8.net/directv/directv.shtml) and some hardware
> (http://www.dtvcontrol.com/index.aspx?content=cable) which will do the
> trick (I have to check to see if I can build one of those cables from
> supplies available at RadioShack).  However, since the PVR-150 already
> has an IR blaster, I thought it would make the most sense to just use
> that.
>
> I've seen references to the latest lirc being able to TRANSMIT IR
> (http://www.lirc.org/html/install.html#sending) but I'm wondering if I
> am barking up the wrong tree.  The receiver I am testing with is the
> D770, so I took that remote config file and the Hauppauge remote
> config file and combined them together in to one lircd.conf file.

That's exactly what you should do if using a single installation of
LIRC with an IR receiver and IR transmitter.

> However, I am not sure if that is the right thing to do.  Would I then
> use irsend to have it do the transmit?  Will myth even know what to do?

Using irsend (with a suitable channel change script) is the normal
route. MythTV needs to know what 'numbers' you remote is going to
transmit, so you need to make sure that for any channel being recorded
from the cable box and controlled with the IR blaster, the frequency
(freqid) corresponds to the channel number you would press on the
remote. I've been using two serial IR blasters for the past 2 years
with no problems. I've got the PVR-150 blaster dongle, but haven't
used that as I haven't needed to so far.

> There's no how-to on this that I can find (I'll put together one if I
> can get this working. :) ), so I was hoping to get some ideas/input
> from the folks on the list..

There's a good write-up about the setting up the PVR-150 IR blaster
here: http://www.blushingpenguin.com/mark/blog/

Nick
-- 
MythTV Official wiki:
http://mythtv.org/wiki/
MythTV users list archive:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin