htpc help needed, everything works except....

jardragon901 · n00b Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 24

Ok I loved Windows XP Media Center Edition and I would love to have my Gentto box setup like that. So I have my pvr350 working fine with the new ivtv 1.10 cvs drivers but I need to be able to change the channel on my digital cable box so I can have a complete pvr. I know windows uses an ir blaster but I have heard some people use a serial line attached to their computers to change the channel. Does anyone know what I would need to get this up and running?(i.e. are there drivers for mythtv) any help would be appreciated because I would hate to have to go back to windows.

starnix · Guru Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Posts: 530

Let me know if you figure this out. I am having the same issue.

bruor · Apprentice Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 239

i just set this up,
you need an ir blaster, you can build or buy one, basically its an IR led with a resistor in series, and lirc will use it as a remote.

your only way to not use one of these is if the receiver has a serial port on it that you can use to issue commands with.

i picked up a couple nice ir blasters http://www.irblaster.info/
they work great, they dont receive IR only transmit

chanigng the channel with one of these requires a lot of cpu power
if you have a pvr card you shold be fine..

gsteinb88 · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2004 Posts: 11

Do you need the digital cable box? Unless you are using it to decode HDTV, or to get channels like HBO, you should just be able to plug the cable line directly into the PVR card, and it will deal with all of the stuff like changing channels etc. If you are using it for HDTV or HBO, then your best bet is to use an IR blaster.
-g