[mythtv-users] USB IR Blaster: close but no cigar

Greg Oliver oliver.greg at gmail.com
Sun Apr 18 15:16:20 UTC 2010


On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Greg Woods <greg at gregandeva.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-04-17 at 18:51 -0400, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>
>> > [mythtv at confusion ~]$ lspci | grep USB
>> > 00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev
>> > a3)
>> > 00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev
>> > a3)
>
>> Pretty sure that's a known-quirky controller.
>
> Looks like I've yet again run hard into a brick wall trying to get some
> kind of IR blaster to work. I compiled the CVS lirc on a different
> machine, also Nvidia as it turns out, but a different model:
>
> [root at anathem lirc]# lspci | grep -i usb
> 00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a2)
> 00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a2)
>
> On this one it works; I can see the flash when I run irsend. Comcast has
> turned my HDHomeruns into bricks (except for OTA) so I now have a large
> number of channels where the HD-PVR is the only tuner that can get them
> and I have many conflicts every week. Replacing the motherboard in my
> backend is not a viable option, and I don't have any free slots to use a
> PCI-based USB card either. So I am screwed, blued, tatooed, and
> extremely frustrated. I don't suppose there is any other way to get
> those "formerly analog now digital and encrypted" channels that doesn't
> require use of an IR blaster? I do know one way: rent another "real" STB
> from Comcast and get another HD-PVR (then I get the deal with the fun of
> trying to keep multiple firewire devices straight for channel changing).
> This is of course a very expensive option but does have the advantage
> that there are a dozen or so HD channels that I record from a lot that I
> would now have two tuners for instead of one. (I have never been able to
> get firewire recording to work either and the channels I want are
> probably 5C encrypted or soon will be anyway).
>
> Does anybody have a USB-based IR blaster that is known to work with an
> Nvidia MCP61 USB controller? I had no idea that a particular chip on the
> motherboard was going to hose me this way and I don't want to repeat the
> frustration with a different USB device unless I can verify ahead of
> time that it is likely to work. Of course, after all the positive
> reports I had heard about the Topspeed MCEUSB device I eventually
> bought, I really thought THIS one was going to work.

Your cheapest bet (if you have slots or pcmcia/pccard available) is to
just buy an $5-10 USB controller..

-Greg


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