[mythtv-users] OT: USB to Serial cable and LIRC

[Brian Wood]

On Sep 20, 2006, at 7:08 AM, William Munson wrote:

> Jonathan Smith wrote:
>> Thanks, I am leaning towards a true USB solution, so I have been
>> looking into the USB-UIRT capability, I found that there is a patch
>> for the .7.x version of Lirc and I see many posts from 2 years with
>> success stories, but I dont see that the patch has been applied to  
>> the
>> latest version of LIRC, does anyone know if the patch has been
>> integrated?  If not, then I would have to revert to an older version
>> of LIRC, which doesnt seem to be a good approach.
>>
>> Thanks again.
>>
> I use a standard usb to serial converter with a MyBlaster brand  
> blaster
> (www.my.tv) and a 30 foot homemade serial cable. This device does not
> use lirc at all. There is a perl  script that lets you control the
> device and even has a learning mode. The MyBlaster works very well
> controlling the known problem units from Dishnetwork and I have never
> had a channel change failure. Dont limit yourself to only lirc  
> solutions.


I second that. The MyBlaster took perhaps 20 minutes from receiving  
the box to working, and I've had no failure to change channels  
correctly in 6 months.

The slight additional cost is well worth it for the time and  
aggravation that it saves. The thing "just works", and you can't ask  
more than that.

Although the hardware is commercial, the software required is open  
source (perl and a perl script) so you are not polluting your system  
if that's a concern for you.