TV3 Mce Blaster Plugin (Test Version) (1 Viewer)

[and-81]

hi gdirwin,

If you want to use your existing IR files all you have to do is copy the IR folder from the MCE Replacement plugin's application data area to the IR folder for the TV3 MCE Blaster plugin. The IR commands will then show up in the setup for TV3 MCE Blaster.

With TV3 MCE Blaster you teach the IR commands on the main plugin setup screen and then click STB Setup to assign them to channel changing.

Keep in mind that in it's current incarnation the TV3 MCE blaster plugin and the MCE Replacement plugin can not run on the same pc at the same time or they will interfere with each other. There is a solution coming soon, it's being tested right now ...

hope that helps,

 

[DamnedOne]

I'm a little confused. It appears from this thread that you can use a STB with the TV Server, however, I can't see how you configure this in the TV Server setup program. There is no tab for Ëxternal. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Thanks

 

[and-81]

Hey,

External channels work a little differently in TV Server.

You just create a channel and set it to "tuner" ... I can't really remember the rest ... There is information spread about in a few threads. You're probably best to do a search of the forums or just give it a try.

Hope that helps,

 

[DamnedOne]

Hey,

External channels work a little differently in TV Server.

You just create a channel and set it to "tuner" ... I can't really remember the rest ... There is information spread about in a few threads. You're probably best to do a search of the forums or just give it a try.

Hope that helps,

Thanks for replying. I've had a look around with not much success, so decided to head back to a stand alone MP setup. That's given some new challanges, but I'll place those questions over in the correct thread

 

[and-81]

Just wanted to let people who are monitoring this thread know that I am sending out copies of my solution to the "can't run the two plugins on the one PC" problem in the next couple of days.

See this thread:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/ir_server_suite_testing-t22430.html

And drop me a private message if you'd like to give it a try.

Cheers,

 

[knathraak]

Hi,

I'm running the latest version of the TV3 server along with this plugin.

I have a DirecTV satellite receiver (an RCA DRD420RE if it matters). I was able to find an appropriate profile for serial control (I believe Directv-200 or something similar). All the hex codes look right. Yet, I'm unable to get it to change channels.

When I interface with the box using my perl script under linux, i'm able to see the handshaking back and forth and troubleshoot the communications. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get this type feedback from the plugin in order to know where it's failing.

How should I troubleshoot the plugin?

So far, I have set up the communicaitons profile under "STB configuration." I didn't mess with any of the other dialogs because they didn't look relevant. Everything else looks to be related to IR blasting, which is not what I'm doing. Is there anything else that I should configure?

Thanks

Zach C.

Edit:
So I went back and looked at my perl script to see what it /actually/ does , and turns out this isn't the right profile after all.

Basically, it sends a preamble consisting of (I think) 0xFA46, then then two bytes (which is more than enough to represent 1-9999) representing the channel, then 0x0.

It then expects a confirmation, before sending a clear OSD command.

Since it sends the literal channel number, it doesn't need a definition for each digit. How would this be accomplished in MCE Blaster Plugin?

Thanks

 

[and-81]

If you can send me some example output from the perl script then I could try to work it into a configuration for the plugin ... ?

Cheers,

 

[knathraak]

If you can send me some example output from the perl script then I could try to work it into a configuration for the plugin ... ?

I would be glad to. I'll post that this evening.

If you have perl familiarity, I could send you the actual perl script.

Thanks,

Zach

 

[and-81]

yeah, that would help too.

Thanks mate,

 

[knathraak]

I've attached the perl script that I use for changing channels on my RCA DirecTV receiver. The script is pretty hackish, but I'm not the original author. I just tweaked it to work with my system, and have never been motivated to rewrite it.

Below is the output from the script which includes several extra print statements I used to make sure I understood what it was actually writing on the wire. I left them in the script. Also, in order to get the output, I had to short circuit the call to get_reply, since i didn't actually have the satellite receiver hooked up.

Turning on DSS
@send is 0xFA 0x02
SEND: 0xFA [�] 0x2 []
Changing channel to 233.
$_ is 00e9
$n1 $n2 is 00 and e9
@send is 0xFA 0x46 00 e9 0x0
SEND: 0xFA [�] 0x46 [F] 0x0 [] 0xE9 [�] 0x0 []
Clearing OSD
@send is 0xFA 0x06
SEND: 0xFA [�] 0x6 []


Hope this helps.

Zach