stumped with 2 sat receivers

[timmytee]

Help, I've read a bunch of threads here and at the SnapStream site and I'm still confused.

Snapstream support confirmed that in BeyondTV 3.5 they do not have native support for a single usbuirt to control 2 identical satellite receivers, they recommend using a second ir blaster of some kind. My starchoice receivers do not have serial support, so that is not an option.

I'm thinking of doing this:

1) Using girder with the usbuirt to control the receivers, with the help of external emitters, and shutting off BeyondTVs support for the usbuirt directly and getting girder to do all the work. These receivers can use "addresses" so shielding may not be needed. One could watch for IR signals on channel "000", the other on channel "001".
2) Or do I just need to get girder working with one of the receivers and have BTV control the other with its native support?

So, how does BeyondTV tell girder to do a channel change? Or am I missing something entirely?

I may go with 3 receivers, 2 to record and the 3rd to watch TV live. I have 2 Hauppauge pvr250s and a AIW 9600. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do this with BTV 3.5?

[jrhees]

Timmylee,

Are you using the latest BTV which supports multiple capture cards?

If so, does it allow you to choose two different IR configurations, one for each STB (i.e., if you had two separate brands of STB's, could you have BTV control both and pick RCA for one and Dish for the other, for example)?

Forgive me but I'm not too familiar with how BTV has implemented their multiple tuner support yet.

-Jon

[timmytee]

Yes, it supports multiple capture cards. Yes, I could select one IR config for one receiver and a separate IR config for the other. But I only have one usbuirt and don't want to buy another blaster device.

Let me know, and I can email screen captures of the settings if you like.

[jrhees]

Timmytee,

Since you can select a separate IR config for each capture device, I wonder if you can simply select the USB-UIRT for both and then set your two Sat boxes to different addresses and have two differen IR profiles -- one for each address.

-Jon

[timmytee]

BTV can only transmit on one address: "000". If the second receiver is set to "001", there is nothing in BTV to tell it to transmit on the other address.

I tried deleting my video sources and set them up again, that does not fix it.

Snapstream support confirms a second blaster device is needed.

What else could I do? I'm thinking of getting a myblaster, since it would add a new selection to the setup menu, which could be used with the second video feed.
Please see http://www.mytvstore.com/snapstream.html

[timmytee]

Just another comment - I'm interested in the 'plug n play' nature of any blaster, rather than having to train the blaster device to change the satellite channels for me. It seems usbuirt is mainly used with girder to allow a remote to control the computer. I'm not interested in that, since I can use BTV Link, some other device like a prismiq or hauppauge media mvp or another computer to watch pre-recorded TV from another room, over a LAN.
I have a very capable server, why not use it for loads of recording and leave it hidden in the den? No worries about noise or heat.

[jrhees]

BTV can only transmit on one address: "000". If the second receiver is set to "001", there is nothing in BTV to tell it to transmit on the other address.

That's not necessarily true. BTV doesn't really know what it is transmitting -- it is merely transmitting IR codes from a file. So, if you have two IR files, one with Address 000 codes and another with 001 codes and you tell each capture setup to use a unique IR file, it should theoretically work.

-Jon

[timmytee]

OK, so I need to identify the files that are created by the BTV setup, and edit them? There is nothing in the BTV interface to tell it to discover the address of the sat receiver. Perhaps it needs a "customize" option somewhere in the BTV setup wizard.

What I would like to see is something like this. If I program 2 shows to record at the same time, two IR command sets must come out of the usbuirt. One that says "go to channel 300 to record the news", and blast that on address 000, and then a moment later, another command that says "go to channel 602 to record a movie" and blast that on address 001. Notice that zone support isn't necessary with this approach?

Seems hardly worth the time to hack into it. I should get another blaster if there is no other approach. I realize it can all be done, say with girder or multi-zone support in the usbuirt, but all I want is something really easy. I'm not a programmer. I looked at girder and thought there was no reason to use it, and a big pain to train it. Seems easier to buy a device.

(BTW, as part of my testing I have 2 identical satellite remotes - one that changes channels and gets options and menus for each satellite receiver, but when in use does not affect the other receiver)

[jrhees]

timmytee,

I think you're missing the point. You don't need to (I don't think) hack anything. BTV has a 'learn' wizard it can use to learn the singals from your remote control. So, if you have a remote which can emit the different IR codes for address 000, and another remote that can emit the codes for address 001, then you would use the wizard to create two IR profiles.

-Jon

[timmytee]

There is no learn wizard in BTV 3.5

[jrhees]

I haven't tested the latest version of BTV, but I do *not* think they took the remote learn wizard out of previous versions. BTV has always has the ability (since USB-UIRT support was added) to allow you to not choose a pre-defined profile and instead create your own and 'learn' your remote.

-Jon