[mythtv-users] controlling a dishnetwork receiver

[Chris Petersen]

Ok, so I just got off the phone with a Dish rep, who tells me that for 
$45/month (same price I pay for analog cable), I can get two dual-tuner 
receivers (not dvr) and all of the channels I'm looking for (basically, 
their "120" package).

Anyway, this seems like a good deal to me -- pay the same price, and get 
digital quality with a handful more channels, but I need to have my 
mythbox all set up and ready to go for the switchover.  I know that 
there are a number of schematics out there for controlling things, but a 
friend of mind had a hard time with schematics linked to from the lirc 
website.

So I'm looking for a known-good schematic.  Searching the mythtv-users 
archives and lirc.org brings up some info, but I was hoping for some 
real-world schematics for an amplified circuit like the one listed at 
http://www.lirc.org/transmitters.html -- unfortunately, this 
amplified/clean one is only theoretical, and I'd rather not blow out my 
serial port (especially since it doesn't list which serial pins to 
connect the power wires to) by hooking up the wrong wires or getting a 
cap/transistor of the wrong value.   (I guess I don't need a "receive" 
circuit, since my Lola remote has been working wonderfully)

I'll also admit that I've had relatively poor luck with lirc, too, and 
have heard that there are some non-lirc scripts for controlling serial 
devices -- if anyone has info about these, I'd appreciate it, too 
(someone sent me something last time I posted about this, but I have 
apparently lost the email)

And after searching the mythtv-users archives some more, I see that I 
should also check which version of the receiver I'll be getting.  Do any 
of them have plain serial port controls?  Also, has anyone had 
experience with these dual-tuner receivers?  Do they have two IR inputs 
or something?

And hopefully, once I have all of this info, I can either get Jarod to 
add it to his guide, or put it into the wiki (which is REALLY slow, btw).

-Chris