[mythtv-users] How turn on / off external box

jedi jedi at mishnet.org
Mon Aug 2 18:43:30 UTC 2010


On Sun, Aug 01, 2010 at 11:17:40PM -0400, Christian Szpilfogel wrote:
> On 01/08/2010 3:57 PM, Michelle Dupuis wrote:
> >I just got my HDPVR and satellite IRD, and I'm figuring out the channel change script stuff.
> >
> >But, what's not obvious to me is how does myth know to turn the external sat box on/off?  And what script does that?
> The others are correct in terms of the typical power draw of an STB.
> It is also shocking how much power they use.
> 
> The main reason you want power control is to ensure the STB is
> actually on before you do anything. Or in some cases you may need to
> press "menu" and "exit" such as with the QIP. Many STBs have power
> downs in the middle of the night, standby modes, or power offs when
> upgrades occur.
> 
> If you only have IR it will be tricky but you could try and write a
> script that checks the success of the HD-PVR and then tries to

    I don't see how you could do that really.

    With a USB cable (or firewire) there's some means to query the box to
make sure it's in the state you want it to be. There really isn't an option
to do this with IR. The communications is only in one direction. You just 
have to throw singals out there and hope they work.

> toggle the power. I recall someone on the list doing something like
> this. If you have some discrete outputs from the box that only
> activate when the box is on that might be easier.
> 
> If you have a firewire/ieee1394 interface then I created a program
> to send commands to the STB including power on/off/status as well as
> other things like "menu", "exit", "channel_up", etc.
> see: http://code.google.com/p/stb-command/


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