[mythtv-users] Digital Cable newbie questions

[Michael T. Dean]

On 04/11/2007 11:28 AM, Douglas Hitchcock wrote:
>
>  Until now I've used only analog cable, to make my life simple.  Now
>  Comcast is forcing digital on me, and I'm kind of annoyed.
>
>  They tell me they're giving me a DCT 700 converter box, and I have no
>  other choice.  Does anyone use a DCT 700 successfully and happily?
>
>  I have dual tuners, a pvr250 and a pvr350, and a normal 4:3 tv.
>
>  So I guess I need two converter boxes? That means I need two IR
>  blasters?

An IR blaster is simply an IR transmitter that's sufficiently powerful 
and non-directional that it can send signals to multiple devices 
simultaneously.

If you truly get an IR blaster, you only need one--/if/ your STB can be 
set to use different remote "codes".  Then, you would specify a "remote" 
in lircd.conf that uses the codeset 1 and another that uses codeset 2.  
An example is 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/DISHNetworkLIRCConfiguration , 
which actually defines 17 remotes (one for each of DISH's 16 code sets 
and a "default" one just called "dish").

I used http://lirc.org/improved_transmitter.html as an IR blaster for 
almost 3 years and it worked great until the end (I had some sort of 
hardware failure that was causing intermittent transmit issues, but 
since I was dumping the STB's, it wasn't worth diagnosing/fixing).  I no 
longer need one for controlling STB's (I'm using OTA HDTV only, now), 
but I want one for controlling my A/V receiver and some other 
equipment.  I've been looking at http://iguanaworks.net/ (they're in the 
middle of redesigning their website--like the link changed from 
http://iguanaworks.net/ir/ while I was writing this--so you may have to 
give it some time to really see what's up ;).  It has the benefit of 
allowing you to build or buy and to get a serial port or a USB version.

>  I have a microATX case with only one serial port, will the dual head
>  one from http://www.irblaster.info/ work?  I thought I read somewhere
>  about it had to be different kinds of boxes.

With this (which is technically two IR transmitters on cables), the 
principle is the same as an IR blaster.  Since both transmitters 
transmit the same signal, you need to have different remote codes.  If 
your STB does that, you're good.  However, buying an IR blaster like the 
Iguana Works one would allow you to control 2 STB's, your A/V receiver, 
your TV, and anything else in the same room...

>  I think that's it, thanks for indulging a digital cable newbie.  I've
>  searched and read but, I am still confused, I've been willfully
>  ignorant of these things until now and am trying to decide if I'm
>  ready to learn, or switch cable companies :)