[mythtv-users] USB IR receiver with TIVO 34 remote?

[Tom Dexter]

On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 3:02 PM, Gary Buhrmaster
<gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 6:07 PM, Hika van den Hoven <hikavdh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> That depends on the receiver. It must understand the protocol the
>> remote is using.
>
> I have this recollection (but I could easily be wrong, I have
> only physically seen a peanut, never used one)  the TiVo
> remotes use the NEC protocol (which many receivers support).
> But then there is the code mapping (standards are wonderful
> things, and many orgs chose their own code points).  I have
> no idea if there is a current mapping.
>
> But, in the end, this will be an exercise.  To minimize future
> efforts, I would look to see if one can move to using the
> kernel support for evdev and ir-keytable for a receiver
> only approach (ir blasting is a different kettle).  There are
> some docs in the wiki as I recall (and likely the list archives).

Thanks for the info. I've actually ordered an MCE USB receiver I can
experiment with. I seem to read that those receivers can possibly work
for other existing IR remotes, though I'm not at all clear yet on
anything. The whole topic is so confusing, but nothing can be worse
than what I'm going through with the 4.12.5 kernel move from
lirc_serial to serial_ir. I'm now fairly convinced I have that set up
correctly, but the data it gets just does NOT resemble that from
lirc_serial. Maybe it's an issue specific to that Philips TIVO34...who
knows.

I wish I at least understood what my possible options are with the MCE
receiver, especially when trying to use an existing remote. I know
there's a kernel driver for it, but I'm confused about
that...especially as to whether it just picks up the IR signal in a
similar fashion to a serial port receiver (where you could use an
existing remote configuration or create one with irrecord). Totally
confused at this point.

The ir-keytables approach sounds interesting, thought I don't fully
understand that either. I take it that ir-keytables is a program in
v4l-utils(?). It also sounds as though this can be done without
LIRC...where I assume the remote just maps as a keyboard(?). I don't
need a blaster, so this sounds like a great approach for sure.

Thanks again!
Tom