[mythtv-users] DirecTV USB->Serial Adaptors

[Brad DerManouelian]

I just wanted to warn people who are trying to use a USB to Serial  
converter to control a DirecTV box. I just went through 3 converters  
(all listed as working just fine on the wiki) and could not get any of  
them to work.  I discovered that the devices that were previously  
pl2303 devices are actually now pl2303X devices. The manufacturer  
decided it would be great to report them as the same vendor ID and  
product ID in these new not-compatible devices. They also look  
identical to the old ones, so there's no way to tell which one you're  
getting when you order.

Luckily, there is a patch available to the pl2303 driver that will  
auto-detect which adaptor you have plugged in and use the right one. I  
haven't installed it in Ubuntu yet, but I'm hopeful I can get it to  
work.

If you run:
$ lsusb
note the device ID of your USB to Serial adaptor, then run

$ sudo lsusb -v -d  [device id] | grep bMaxPacketSize0

and you get:
bMaxPacketSize0        64

Then you probably need the patch here:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/lonnberg/pl2303x.html

I tried to update the wiki, but it's being unresponsive right now.

-Brad