Greetings all,
I've been tinkering with MP and other WinXP HTPC software using various leftover hardware parts around the house the past month or so and MP is at the top of my list. Now I am interested in building something quite a bit bigger. (Thanks to all the Developers / contributors for their efforts - nice work!)
I'm wondering what hardware/software solutions folks are using to support 3 or more set top boxes in regards to IR Blasters? I'm interested in consolidating 3 external tuners (U.S. DirecTV to be specific) to a MP solution and add a 4th external HDTV tuner. What sort of IR devices are you folks using to control 3 or 4 tuners? At the moment I have a U.S. MCE remote + it's included 2-emitter IR Blaster. I see in the forums that the USB-UIRT appears popular but my fast scan of www.usbuirt.com shows it appears to have 2 built in and a third external port? Is anyone using more than 1 of these USB-UIRT devices on a single PC in combo with Girder or something to achieve this? Ideally I'd run more to also control the Amp, TV, X10, etc… but can use the Pronto remote macros for these other functions if thats overkill.
The other item that eludes me is how one maps these all these bits together when you are talking more than 2 IR Blasters. (Ex: MP decides "tuner 3" needs to record and starts it; something tells "IR Blaster 3" to change "External Tuner 3" to channel 248). Are most folks using Girder for this something to glue it all together or does the MP USB-UIRT implementation handle this?
Thanks for any input, just not coming across the answer in the forums other than some mention of USBUIRT "zones".
I've been tinkering with MP and other WinXP HTPC software using various leftover hardware parts around the house the past month or so and MP is at the top of my list. Now I am interested in building something quite a bit bigger. (Thanks to all the Developers / contributors for their efforts - nice work!)
I'm wondering what hardware/software solutions folks are using to support 3 or more set top boxes in regards to IR Blasters? I'm interested in consolidating 3 external tuners (U.S. DirecTV to be specific) to a MP solution and add a 4th external HDTV tuner. What sort of IR devices are you folks using to control 3 or 4 tuners? At the moment I have a U.S. MCE remote + it's included 2-emitter IR Blaster. I see in the forums that the USB-UIRT appears popular but my fast scan of www.usbuirt.com shows it appears to have 2 built in and a third external port? Is anyone using more than 1 of these USB-UIRT devices on a single PC in combo with Girder or something to achieve this? Ideally I'd run more to also control the Amp, TV, X10, etc… but can use the Pronto remote macros for these other functions if thats overkill.
The other item that eludes me is how one maps these all these bits together when you are talking more than 2 IR Blasters. (Ex: MP decides "tuner 3" needs to record and starts it; something tells "IR Blaster 3" to change "External Tuner 3" to channel 248). Are most folks using Girder for this something to glue it all together or does the MP USB-UIRT implementation handle this?
Thanks for any input, just not coming across the answer in the forums other than some mention of USBUIRT "zones".