Setting up Hauppauge Colossus IR blaster blues... (1 Viewer)

[nzdreamer55]

Hello everyone,

So I have been setting up Media Portal 1.2.3 on a new windows 7 x64 computer. I have it set up as a TV Server and client. I have got the Schedules Direct EPG Client plug in working and mapped my channels to the Hauppauge Colossus card. I can play TV through Media portal but I have to change the channel using my STB. I have this through a cable provider in the US. My STB box is a cisco Explorer 4660HDC,

I have also enabled the ServerBlaster V 1.1.1.0 plugin and set it to Hauppauge. I installed from the Hauppauge install cd the WinTV Ir.exe, and BlastCfg.exe and dll's. I have made sure that the Win TV Remote control app is running (this is the IR.exe).

I can run media portal and using the BlastCfg.exe send channel changes to the STB so I know that the blaster works. For some reason I cannot get media portal to send the command via the Hauppauge blaster.

Since this is pretty new, I have read a lot of stuff that I think might be too old (need a hacked serverblaster, need to use TV3 Blaster Server plugin, use the IRSS application) to be applicable.

There are a few things that I think might be the problem, but am not sure. I am currently using a generic USB IR receiver to control media portal and have enabled the "Use Microsoft MCE remote or keyboard" with in the mediaportal configuration remote section and the wiki for setting up set top box channel changing says that this need to be unchecked for IRSS to work. I'm not sure if I need this checked or unchecked given my situatuation. My hauppauge card has both a blaster and receiver on it, but I currently have a harmony one remote doing my channel changing and have programmed it like a Microsoft remote. Once I get this working can I just use the Hauppauge IR receiver?

I know that I could buy a combo USB IR blaster and receiver, but that is going to add cost to my project and I would like to use what I have if possible.

I can post what every will help diagnosis my problem.
Thanks
Steve

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Steve

I have also enabled the ServerBlaster V 1.1.1.0 plugin and set it to Hauppauge. I installed from the Hauppauge install cd the WinTV Ir.exe, and BlastCfg.exe and dll's. I have made sure that the Win TV Remote control app is running (this is the IR.exe).

I can run media portal and using the BlastCfg.exe send channel changes to the STB so I know that the blaster works. For some reason I cannot get media portal to send the command via the Hauppauge blaster.

Since this is pretty new, I have read a lot of stuff that I think might be too old (need a hacked serverblaster, need to use TV3 Blaster Server plugin, use the IRSS application) to be applicable.

My understanding is that the built in blaster plugin (ServerBlaster) is rarely used these days - IRSS with the TV3 Blaster plugin are much more common. Could be wrong about that.
Just to be clear: BlastCfg is a Hauppauge component... correct?
I suspect the problem is likely in the connection between ServerBlaster and the Hauppauge blaster controls/configuration.

There are a few things that I think might be the problem, but am not sure. I am currently using a generic USB IR receiver to control media portal and have enabled the "Use Microsoft MCE remote or keyboard" with in the mediaportal configuration remote section and the wiki for setting up set top box channel changing says that this need to be unchecked for IRSS to work. I'm not sure if I need this checked or unchecked given my situatuation.

Since you're not using IRSS I think it would be not relevant. Again, could be wrong.

My hauppauge card has both a blaster and receiver on it, but I currently have a harmony one remote doing my channel changing and have programmed it like a Microsoft remote. Once I get this working can I just use the Hauppauge IR receiver?

I think you could... but don't quote me on that. Would be a matter of trial and error with the Hauppauge remote config in MediaPortal configuration.

I can post what every will help diagnosis my problem.

TV Server logs would be a good start - only the most obvious/basic problems can be solved without them... and this is a non-obvious problem for me.
1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Click "open log directory" in the top left corner.
3. Zip up the files you find there, and attach the zip file here.

Would help if you could enable extended logging in the blaster plugin and have a go at changing channels again to see if we can get some good detail in the logs.

mm

 

[mm1352000]

After a brief look at the code for the ServerBlaster (which seems quite straightforward)...
Everything relies on a DLL called hcwIRblast.dll. If TV Server can't find that DLL then it won't work...

 

[nzdreamer55]

Thanks for the help! I checked on that dll and it is located on my computer here

C:\Windows\SysWOW64

Here is a zip of my TV server logs from when I was working with it yesterday (trying to change channels and setting up the STB blaster. Maybe I should put it in a different folder so media portal can find it? Could it be that I am running the win x64 and thus media portal is looking somewhere else?

So I also looked in the Windows\System32 and it was also there.

-Steve

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Steve

To me it looks like the blaster is/was trying to work. Part of the problem seems to be that at least some of your channels are/were not configured correctly. The last two channels that you tried to tune in the logs did this:

2012-07-04 20:39:09.272454 [(13)]: card: Tune 2 to
2012-07-04 20:39:09.274454 [(13)]: card: user: SS-HTPC:2:-1 tune tv: Freq:0 Channel:4 Country:The Netherlands Tuner:Cable Video:Tuner Audio:Tuner
2012-07-04 20:39:09.280455 [Remote blaster(12)]: Blaster Sending: Channel:4, Card:2, VideoInput:Tuner
2012-07-04 20:39:09.282455 [Remote blaster(12)]: ServerBlaster.Send: Case 2
2012-07-04 20:39:09.285455 [(13)]: HDPVR: Tune:-1, tv: Freq:0 Channel:4 Country:The Netherlands Tuner:Cable Video:Tuner Audio:Tuner
2012-07-04 20:39:09.287455 [Remote blaster(12)]: ServerBlasterend Finished

Then an error before the blaster got a chance to do the real work:

2012-07-04 20:39:19.359031 [(13)]: HDPVR: timed out waiting for PMT after 10.000572 seconds
2012-07-04 20:39:19.364032 [(13)]: Setting pid to 0 to search for new PMT.
2012-07-04 20:39:19.367032 [(13)]: subch:0 SetupPmtGrabberid 0 sid:1
2012-07-04 20:39:19.371032 [(13)]: subch:0 set pmt grabber pmt:0 sid:1
2012-07-04 20:39:29.382605 [(13)]: HDPVR: timed out waiting for PMT after 10.000572 seconds

For the Colossus (and HD-PVR), PMT timeouts/errors occur when the video stream is not detected by the driver... which indicates that the wrong input is selected. The Colossus obviously doesn't have a tuner input. The re-import that you did from SD after that should help with this - looks like you set the video and audio inputs in there correctly...
Previous to that, you tried some other channels which seem to have been closer to working, but then you really did get blaster errors:

2012-07-04 19:56:37.334827 [Remote blaster(12)]: Blaster Sending: Channel:761, Card:2, VideoInput:YRYBYInput1
2012-07-04 19:56:37.337827 [(20)]: card: CardTune 2 761 FOODHD SS-HTPC:2:-1
2012-07-04 19:56:37.339827 [Remote blaster(12)]: ServerBlaster.Send: Case 2
2012-07-04 19:56:37.342827 [(20)]: card: Tune 2 to 761 FOODHD
2012-07-04 19:56:37.344828 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Changing channels: 761

...

2012-07-04 19:56:37.656845 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: UIR_GotoChannel() failed: 1
2012-07-04 19:56:37.658846 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Finished Changing channels: 761
2012-07-04 19:56:37.661846 [(20)]: card: Tuner locked: True
2012-07-04 19:56:37.664846 [Remote blaster(12)]: ServerBlasterend Finished

That UIR thing is critical - if that doesn't work then nothing will work. There is absolutely zero documentation about what the error code might mean. Apparently the value that is meant to be returned is 0, but beyond that I don't know what is going on there...
Might pay to have a read -->here<--. That thread seems to be where this Hauppauge option was added to the blaster, and ralphy (the coder I assume) was quite good with responding to people. He suggests you need to close other applications including BlastCfg and restart after that error occurs. His setup instructions are -->here<--.
(Maybe you saw that thread before and thought the info was obsolete - I would say it is probably still relevant.)
Previous to that again, when I look at the blaster loading I see:

2012-07-04 18:44:22.631905 [TVService(6)]: TV Service: Plugin: ServerBlaster started
2012-07-04 18:44:22.631905 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.Start Version 1.1.1.0: Starting
2012-07-04 18:44:22.647505 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.LoadRemoteCodes: Could not find file 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\ServerBlaster.dat'.
2012-07-04 18:44:22.647505 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.LoadRemoteCodes: Default port 1
2012-07-04 18:44:22.647505 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.RemoteType 2
2012-07-04 18:44:22.647505 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.DeviceSpeed 0
2012-07-04 18:44:22.647505 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.Blaster1Card 0
2012-07-04 18:44:22.663105 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.Blaster2Card 0
2012-07-04 18:44:22.663105 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.Type 2
2012-07-04 18:44:22.663105 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.AdvancedLogging True
2012-07-04 18:44:22.663105 [TVService(6)]: ServerBlaster.SendSelect False
2012-07-04 18:44:22.663105 [TVService(6)]: plugin: ServerBlaster start sender
2012-07-04 18:44:22.663105 [TVService(6)]: plugin: ServerBlaster.Start started

...

2012-07-04 18:45:35.153044 [Remote blaster(12)]: Blaster Sending: Channel:12, Card:2, VideoInput:YRYBYInput1
2012-07-04 18:45:35.155044 [Remote blaster(12)]: ServerBlaster.Send: Case 2
2012-07-04 18:45:35.159045 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Changing channels: 12
2012-07-04 18:45:35.281051 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Device : 2 Vendor : 75
2012-07-04 18:45:35.284052 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Region : 0 Code set : 76
2012-07-04 18:45:35.286052 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Digit Delay : 100 Minimum Digits: 3
2012-07-04 18:45:35.288052 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: OneDigitDelay: 0 Tune Delay : 0
2012-07-04 18:45:35.291052 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Need Enter : 0 Enter Delay : 0
2012-07-04 18:45:36.503121 [Remote blaster(12)]: HCWBlaster: Finished Changing channels: 12
2012-07-04 18:45:36.505122 [Remote blaster(12)]: ServerBlasterend Finished

I can't comment on whether any of that is correct - perhaps you are able to check it against the configuration that you set when loading BlastCfg. I do note the minimum digits there is 3 and on quite a few occasions you've tried to blast to channel 11, 12 etc. - that could be an issue. I note that ralphy explicitly mentions that -->here<--.
Does that help?
mm