[mythtv-users] controlling a dishnetwork receiver

Chris Petersen lists at forevermore.net
Fri Jul 23 01:19:33 EDT 2004


> The one at that location is not amplified, but 
> http://www.lirc.org/improved_transmitter.html is.  It uses a (big) cap 
> to store energy from the serial port so as to prevent a huge drain all 
> at once.

ah, yeah.  I saw that one.  looked like overkill to me.  heh.

> I do recommend starting 
> with the simple transmitter--it's much easier to debug (i.e. get your 
> LIRC software and remote definitions working, then try upgrading to a 
> much-easier-to-miswire circuit).

I'm just more concerned about cost at the moment.  And cost of parts vs 
cost of blowing out my motherboard.

> Actually, it does.  You hook it to the signal ground (GND - pin 5) and 
> data terminal ready (DTR - pin 4) pins. ( See 
> http://www.infonewsindia.com/pinout/Index.html#3 (Sections 3, 4, and 5) ).

ah.  I was more confused by the lack of specific values for the 
resistors, etc.

> That's what I thought, but if you want your transmitter to control 
> devices other than the Dish receiver (i.e. A/V receiver, TV, DVD player, 

Nope, no need.  Although I admit that it'd be cool to be able to control 
everything with the lola, but it sounds like a configuration nightmare 
(especially since I couldn't get the lola to work with lirc).

>> 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.
> Any recent one should have IR capability built-in.

Yes, I was more concerned about driver/signal differences -- I read 
somewhere about certain models not working properly.

> To the best of my knowledge, none of the Dish receivers do.  It seems 
> that Dish wants you to buy their DishPlayers instead of hooking to your 
> own...  Then, for $5.99/mo you can have 1/10 the capabilities of Myth.

Yeah, that seems to be the case.

> According to the product brochure 

ooh, cool.

>    a) you have to keep it plugged in to a working phone jack or they 
> charge you the $4.99/mo receiver charge (not good if you only have a 
> cell phone),

hmm, sounds like viewing-habit-tracking....  I'll have to ask.

>    b) the dual-tuner receivers have one S-Video out and one composite 
> out--you can't do dual S-Video,

no biggie for me, but mildly annoying.  Plus, the svideo plug on my TV 
is already taken up by the mythbox.

>    c) they do not have digital audio output (my Dish 4922 has digital 
> optical out, but even the 301 single-tuner receiver doesn't have digital 
> audio out--only the DishPlayer PVR's and HD receivers have digital audio 
> out anymore)

No digital audio receiver, and honestly I doubt I could tell the difference.

> Therefore, for me (with only a cell phone), the dual-tuner receiver 
> would cost the same as getting two single-tuner receivers, and the two 
> receivers would give me two S-Video outputs, two IR receivers (i.e. not 
> having to find a way around the RF only "blue" tuner on the dual-tuner), 
> and an option to purchase right away.  (Of course, I'm delaying, anyway, 
> because I don't "need" a second receiver.  That may change when the next 
> season starts up, though.)

Ah.  I only have one input card in my mythbox, so it wouldn't do me any 
good, anyway.  One tuner for the tv, one for the mythbox.  And maybe a 
second card in my workstation, but that'd be plugged into another 
receiver box.

That, and I have to keep my phone line around for dsl (it ends up 
costing like $2/month more to keep my phone line vs getting the "one 
link" program from speakeasy -- costs $15 extra to not have a phone 
line).  But that explains why the sales gal didn't mention the extra 
$5/tuner fee.

> I highly recommend checking out 
> http://losdos.dyndns.org:8080/public/mythtv-info/MythTV_DISH_IR_LED_TX_via_Modified_LIRC.html 
> for info on setting up two instances of LIRC.  You'll have one for your 
> Lola (in my case it's the ATI Remote Wonder, but same drivers), and one 
> (called ledxmit) for your Dish transmitter.

I don't use lirc for my lola.  That was one of the big problems I had 
with lirc -- I got it going to the point that lirc was seeing the remote 
events, but wouldn't transmit them to mythtv for some reason.  I ended 
up going with the atiusb kernel module that was posted here, and it 
worked like a charm the first time I turned it on (of course, it stops 
working if lirc is running, so there may be some work to get that working)

-Chris


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