IR Blaster Choice (South Africa) (1 Viewer)

[adri76]

Hi
I'm busy planning a HTPC build and need some advice from the SA members on the forum.
I currently have a Tivo series 1 and was very happy with it up until a few weeks ago when it broke down.
Fixing it would not be a major issue, but I think it's rather outdated and I should be able to build a HTPC that can do what Tivo can and much more.
I've decided on most of the hardware already, but still need some advice regarding the remote and IR Blaster for changing channels on my DSTV decoder.
Are there any SA members here that can suggest a remote / ir blaster combo that is locally available?
Any feedback regarding my choice of hardware would also be appreciated. (tried to keep cost as low as possible)
H/W setup:
Tuner: Compro videomate e600f
Graphics: Asus Nvidia EN210
HDD: WD Caviar 500gb
CPU: Intel Dual Core E5700 3ghz
M/Board: Asus P5G41T-M LX
Mem: Corsair 2gb ddr3-1333mhz
Case: Isonic Elegance 101

 

[Heina]

'ello

I personally use a Logitech Harmony 300 for my remote which should be locally available in SA. For my IR & Blasting I use the USB UIRT, which unfortunately is not locally available.

The Hauppauge PVR 150 includes blinkers to blast your dstv set-top box, but that will require you to buy a new PCTV card & i think it is getting a bit long the tooth - because of a driver issue you will not be able to upgrade your HTPC's Memory to 4GB or above. Maybe you can look at some of the newer Hauppauge cards - they are well supported by MediaPortal. I would try to find one that comes with a MCE kit

if you look at South Africa MUG - MythTV Official Wiki you will see there is a person building IR Receiver/Transmitters for the South African market - I have no idea if this is or can be supported by MediaPortal

Im pretty sure the IRSS plugin will support the above mentioned IR transmitter though - it is a very thorough IR plugin and one I recommend using


Best of Luck

 

[adri76]

Does anyone have any experience with the following combo:TV-MCEREMOTE HAUPPAUGE MCE remote with Infra red receiver for the remote control, USB, 2x AAA Batteries, Vista Compliant. No TV tuner...

 

[rekenaar]

hi there and welcome

My only experience is with the Microsoft MCE remote & blaster combination. never missed a channel channel change.

The one in your link above should work the same. Looks like it's missing the 4 color buttons (red, green, yellow, blue). It is not a trainsmash but there are some nice functionality mapped to it like Fulscreen and aspect ratio.

 

[adri76]

Has anyone tried building their own transmitter like this one LIRC - Enrique Vidal's improved transmitter circuit
According to people that have built this, the only change necessary is that DTR is changed to TXD (pin 3) on the serial port.
The circuit is powered by the serial port and I guess if you don't have an open serial port a usb -> serial adapter should also work.
WinLirc software is used to send the signal.
Maybe I should build the circuit and give it a go.