Channel change problems

[Paul]

Hi all,

I've been trying to setup an SVR2000 with a YESS DVB-T1288 STB. I'm using the IR blaster as supplied by Darren King. I haven't been able to get reliable channel changing on the STB. It seems to randomly miss digits. If I change the Tivo to channel 21 I may end up with 2, 1, 21 or no channel change at all. I've tried various positions of the IR blaster. It only seems to work at all mounted directly over the sensor on the STB. Just 10mm away and I get nothing. I've tried covering the STB to eliminate IR interference. I've tried moving equipment and cableing around to minimise electrical interference. I've changed TunerDigitDelay between 150 and 800 with no effect. I've tried using 2,3 and 4 digits. I'm considering finding the current limit resistor in the Tivo and reducing it's value. Has anybody tried this before? Do some IR blasters work better than others? I'm fresh out of ideas so any suggestions are welcome.

cheers

Paul

[Darren King]

Hi Paul. Sorry to hear you are having problems.


Do some IR blasters work better than others?
Not really. But there are lots of other external factors that may be causing this too. The most prominent one being that the codes may not have been captured right in the first place. What happens if you point the STB directly at the "eye" in the centre fron panel of the TiVo? There is an IR Blaster in there too. Do you get the same result..... or better.... or worse?


I'm considering finding the current limit resistor in the Tivo and reducing it's value. Has anybody tried this before?
Yes. If you want to reduce the life of your IR blaster this is the sure fire way of doing so.

I'm sure if you contact me off list we can work something out to establish where the root problem is. Unfortunately I cannot initiate this as I know many people by the name "Paul" and have sold many IR blasters :)

[petestrash]

I agree with Darren, The first thing you should try is pointing the TiVo directly at the STB (or VV). The IR LED in the front of the TiVo is very powerful, so if the codes are ok you should have no problem changing channels. This will help resolve whether you have a fault with the IR blaster cable (very rare).

Is the TiVo having problems changing channels when recording, or just when you are manually channel surfing.

Also is it mainly occuring with just particular digit pairs or fairly consistent regardless of what digit is pressed.

Peter.

[Paul]

I've tried channel changing with the STB directly facing the Tivo and the results are the same. With the distance increased to approx 100mm or more I get no channel changes at all so it looks like the problem is with the captured codes, not the hardware. Next I'll try to capture the codes myself. Is irSliceCreator the prefered method?

[petestrash]

yes, IrSliceCreator is currently the best option. It's flaky, but still better than most others if you don't have a good code to convert from.

Peter

[Paul]

Next problem :(

I've followed the instructions as per http://131.244.9.101/twiki/bin/view/IR/CaptureIrCodesWithIrSliceCreator. The problem I've hit is that when I try to capture the first code (option 3) I just get left back at the menu, as if I'd selected in invalid option. My knowledge of linux is too weak to work through the script, any suggestions?

[petestrash]

What telnet program are you using?

Peter.

[Paul]

Putty, over the LAN from my laptop.

I've also noticed that in "the how" to the "keys captured" setting line shows:

Keys Captured: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

When I try the "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 " is missing. Don't know if this is significant or not

cheers

Paul

[petestrash]

in PuTTY, go to change settings>Connection>Telnet and uncheck 'Return keysends Telnet New Line instead of ^M'

Peter.

[Paul]

in PuTTY, go to change settings>Connection>Telnet and uncheck 'Return keysends Telnet New Line instead of ^M'


OK tried that but the results was the same as before :(

[zollymonsta]

Try changing the delay

Ie: Fast, Medium or Slow...

Also, disable the IR blaster built into the 'eye' on the tivo.
I've done this on both of mine and it seems to have corrected most mis-changes on the channels.

ZollyMonsta

[petestrash]

Zolly, I think you've skipped over pauls original posts.

Pauls first post said that he has tried differerent values in TunerDigitDelay, and this made no difference. When testing channel surfing, this is basically the same as selecting slow,medium,fast.

Paul has also tested with just using the blaster with the same results.

Peter.

[Paul]

Thanks Zolly and Peter for the suggestions. I think I've already covered Zolly's ideas. I didn't have much time to play with it today and now the family wants to watch TV without me and my laptop messing things up. I did get chance to try again with Hyperterminal instead of Putty. The results were interesting. It made it seem like putty was giving double carriage returns. Now with Hyperterminal I can get an error telling me I need to specify frequency, code length and repetitions. As far as I can see I had specified these. Maybe more time to play tomorrow after work.

I did have one idea. If Peter is interested I can open my firewall at let him telnet in for a look. Don't know if that has been done before.

cheers and thanks for everyones help

Paul

[petestrash]

I have used Telnet to fix other issues before. But I can't think of how practical it would be for use with IrSlicecreator, as you still need to send the ir codes yourself locally.


The double carriage returns in PuTTY should have been stopped when you unchecked the ^M's.

Peter.

[Paul]

I've discovered that the link to irSliceCreator at the top of the "how to" page takes you to an old beta (0.9b) version. The link at the bottom of the page is a newer version. (1.0.01). Guess which one I used. The newer verson sort of works. I can capture a code and get it to work using the frequency test option but doesn't work with option 6 test. I'll try again in a dark room tonight.

cheers

Paul

[petestrash]

Good catch, I have updated the wiki.

Peter