[mythtv-users] Best (and cheapest) IR receiver

Rich West Rich.West at wesmo.com
Wed Jan 1 16:37:46 UTC 2014


On 1/1/2014 1:55 AM, Paul Gardiner wrote:
> Rich West <Rich.West at wesmo.com> wrote:
>> On 12/27/2013 10:01 AM, Michelle Dupuis wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> I need to add an IR receiver for another frontend.  I've been using
>> IRTRANS devices which are fantastic, but expensive.  My remotes are not
>> all RC6 compatible (some strange older ones) so I need a very flexible
>> IR receiver.
>>
>>
>>
>> Would this work?  I see RC6 in the description  - does that mean only
>> RC6 codes are recognized?
>>
>> http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Media-Center-USB-RC6-IR-Infrared-Remote-Receiver-Windows-Vista-WIN-7-XP-/151195461217?pt=US_Remote_Controls_Pointers&hash=item2333f3a661&_uhb=1
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Would something like this work (below)?  Anyone know if the chips used
>> are supported in linux/lirc?
>>
>> http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Infrared-Remote-Control-Receiver-Emitter-USB-Adaptor-IR-Extender-Repeater-FV88-/130978728295?pt=US_Remote_Controls&hash=item1e7ef0c967&_uhb=1
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm sure someone will comment that best and cheapest are
>> contradictory...but I'd like to see the tradeoffs...
>>
>>
>> I waffled back and forth about this one for longer than necessary when
>> I upgraded from my old frontend systems to my new ones.  With my old
>> ones, I had purchased serial IR receivers (I still have them if anyone
>> wants them), got myself an $8 one-for-all remote, and all was good. 
>> With the new ones not having serial ports (and not really wanting to go
>> down the USB to serial adapter route), I settled on:
>> - Refurbished Logitec Harmony 200 off of ebay (these were relatively
>> cheap (<$20), so I bought an extra one.. just in case)
>> - "Vista MCE Remote Control with USB IR receiver" off of ebay (I only
>> wanted the USB IR receiver, not the remote that comes with it.. I now
>> have four of remotes still in the packaging that I have in a trashbag
>> at the moment)
>>
>> My requirements were:
>> - One remote to control all of the devices (TV, Surround Receiver,
>> MythTV frontend)
>> - Programmable remote
>> - IR receiver that translated to keyboard commands via native kernel
>> support
>> - IR receiver that could wake the frontend when it sleeps.
>>
>> It took me a bit to properly map (via the myharmony.com site) the keys
>> on the remote to do what they should, but once I got that ironed out,
>> it worked like a champ. :)
>>
>> So far, I met all of the requirements, and the WAF factor was preserved
>> when my upgrades were complete over the summer.  The only gripe I get
>> is that the Harmony remote's nav buttons seem to be in odd places.
> I've been using a similar set up for years: harmony remote trained to emulate a mce remote, and the remote's usb receiver. But the latest versions of lirc have made this hell to set up. I'm stumped on opensuse 13.1. Just can't make it work. Have you tried any very recent Linux distributions?

Paul, I'm using it on Fedora 19.  I am not using the lirc daemon, though.. I
specifically hunted for an MCE IR receiver that was supported via the kernel
like a keyboard without the requirement for lircd to be running, and I found
the following one that did the trick right out of the box:
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 05a4:9881 Ortek Technology, Inc. IR receiver
[VRC-1100 Vista MCE Remote Control]

My first USB IR receiver wouldn't work natively, which is what pushed me in
the direction of the Ortek VRC-1100..

-Rich


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