Sending IR to remote location -best practice ??

[Bkphillips]

I recently added a PVR to my home. (Personal Video Recorder) –essentially a computer that replaces your VCR by recording television to the hard drive. I use DirecTV satellite service and have 2 receivers. I have 2 televisions either ends of my home, of course. I'd very much like to have one receiver to run both TV's and have the PVR dedicated to it's own receiver. So, both receivers will then end up in the same room as the PVR. By putting all the audio and video in one area this opens up a multitude of options for the surveillance system and only needing one DVD player, etc.

The only problem that I have is controlling the channels of the dish, and the special functions that the remote provides. I could use a smart universal remote, but the learning curve for the lady isn't worth the earful I'd get, so using the receiver’s remote is a must. If the solution gets costly, my other option is just purchasing another receiver and leaving everything right where it is

Brent Kacian www.bkacian.com
phillips_brent@hotmail.com
Homeseer - Ocelot
&hs.please "sign" @the, guestbook,true

[huggy591]

I have a similar situation with a different twist: I have three sat receivers in different rooms and I wanted to control the main PVR unit and the AV stack in the family room from my office on the other side of the house. In addition, I wanted to have most of the AV stacks in the house under computer control so one-button solutions could be available for higher WAF.

I tried a couple things before settling on my solution. I used a few of those IR-to-RF transmitter/receivers (like the Powermids), but they were very susceptible to RF noise and my sat receiver (Dish Network Web TV unit) was a little too sensitive and was easily overloaded by the noise.

Since I have a cabling distribution system for cable TV (RG-6), I got ahold of the Xantech IR over coax system (291-KIT plus extras) to allow the computer to issue IR commands to the remote AV stacks. It works much better than the RF units, and works with my Web TV unit which has a higher-frequency IR signal.

I would recommend the Xantech units - you can use multiple inserters with multiple outputs. The issues would be keeping the various duplicate hardware (receivers) on separate cabling so turning one on with the remote wouldn't turn the other one off/on at the same time. In my case this wasn't a problem as the units use different IR encoding.

In your case, of course, using two TVs on one receiver means both TVs would be watching the same channel. As long as this isn't a serious limitation for you, you should be able to do what you want.

The other nice thing to know is that you can now have up to 4 receivers on your system with the newer sat dish switches. I just added a 4-receiver switch to my Dish Network setup and a third receiver. I still use a TV in the office that sees the PVR sat unit in the main family room AV stack over the RF cabling, so I use the Xantech unit to control the sat receiver through some web pages I wrote - all run by HS, of course.

- Gordon

"When I finally found a spam filter that worked, I no longer received any email!"

[Bkphillips]

Gordon -
Thanks for the insight. I did realize that I was creating a limitation with on receiver for 2 TV's, but in the event that she wanted to watch something 'girly', I could then hit up the PVR and pass the time.

I was looking at the Xantech system you speak of, and since you have it working all the same lines - you therefore must have different receivers. I realized this and was seriously considering keeping the Xantech completely separate from the other equipment. This is going against my home automation law, since I have worked so hard to get my Ocelot IR working, including a web page that I just got working and had such dreams of advancing further.

How are you doing this?? "so I use the Xantech unit to control the sat receiver through some web pages I wrote - all run by HS, of course." - I might be over thinking this, are you using a IR blaster into an injector?

[huggy591]

Like, you, I have an Ocelot acting as my HS IR device. So... a Xantech mouse emitter is hooked from the Ocelot output and taped to the 291 receiver, which then hooks to the coax in-line insert. That way I can still use a regular remote if I want, just point it at the 291 receiver. In my MBR, I have one receiver with the emitters hooked to both the sat receiver and the TV. I got most of my IR commands recorded for each unit into the Ocelot.

Now, I've written a series of scripts and events so that I can control the various components from a variety of triggers. In the master bedroom (MBR), for example, I have a couple 4-switch plug-in X-10 controllers (one on each nightstand), and one switch controls the TV/sat combo. I have an event that turns them on and changes the sat channel to the preferred local news station for a weekday wake-up call - we wake to news, weather, traffic reporting each weekday morning.

In the family room I have mostly Pioneer components (including TV/monitor) and they all hook into the daisy-chained Pioneer SR remote system (wired from unit to unit). I use a pair of dual emitters to cover the Pioneer A/V receiver (head of the chain), the sat receiver, a VCR and a Radio Shack A/V switchbox that works with IR commands. At present I only use one IR zone, but it could easily expand to multiple zones with more Xantech amd Ocelot gear. That is necesary if you have similar components using the same IR commands - put them on different zones so the commands don't interfere with the wrong unit.

Now, HS can send IR using the Ocelot to any component in those two locations, and I can trigger the events from just about any HS trigger - we use the web and X-10 commands mostly (we have birds so voice recognition isn't very reliable). The web page uses regular form posts that pass and run events in HS to send IR so that I can use Audreys from 4 places in the house, or a regular browser on any machine on the network (like in my office).

One page controls most components and A/V receiver source, while another allows quick one-button selection by logo of the various sat channels we use most (about 25). Depending on which source I select, the ACTUAL functions behind the web page buttons change. I can even punch in a channel number with my finger on the web page on an Audrey and press the GO button to change channels or presets or disks or track on the sat, FM, AM, CD, DVD, etc.

I'm working on getting two last components' status into the computer - they don't have discrete on and off commands and so I need a way to "know" they are on or off so thast I can have one-button source and power control.

That is, I want my S.O. (and others) to be able to punch one button, say DVD, and have it turned on and selected automatically. Or hit a master OFF button and have it shut everything down properly. The idea is that HS knows the current state of the components (on, off, source, preset, etc.) and automatically turns on or off the appropriate devices and selects the right source, setting an initial volume and maybe even dimming the lights... (hehe). I'll be using the input from my TEMP05/relay board to tell me whether those last two components are on or not.

There are a lot of threads here dedicated to similar info and ideas - search on the board for them.

- Gordon

"When I finally found a spam filter that worked, I no longer received any email!"

[Bkphillips]

After reading your reply a few times, I think I have a handle on everything. Thanks much....

[jcterrier]

You wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I can even punch in a channel number with my finger on the web page on an Audrey and press the GO button to change channels or presets or disks or track on the sat, FM, AM, CD, DVD, etc.

I'm working on getting two last components' status into the computer - they don't have discrete on and off commands and so I need a way to "know" they are on or off so thast I can have one-button source and power control.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Your plight with devices lacking discrete on/off commands is something we all share.

There may be a somewhat not obvious solution for your DVD : most recent DVD players will turn on when they receive a PLAY command. If you have one of those, you can send PLAY to turn it on and PLAY+Power to turn it off.

Good luck
JCT

[huggy591]

Thanks, JC, knew about that one, and I think it will work for my DVD player. The two units I have problems with are my (old) TV/monitor and the Web TV sat receiver - neither seem to have anything that turns them on except the power toggle. I've picked up some toroidal current sensors which I'll hook into one of my A/D input devices and that will tell me when power is on or off.

What's keeping me from completing things is that my HA PC is not in the same area as my those components, so I've got to get a remote A/D input over there. It's always something! ;-)

- Gordon

"When I finally found a spam filter that worked, I no longer received any email!"

[wpiman]

I am looking at a video distrubution system- possibly channel plus.....

Can I use xantech product with this system? I believe channel plus may have their own- not sure yet......

[huggy591]

I believe you can, but you can always check the Xantech web site and contact their pre-sales support for more info.

- Gordon

"When I finally found a spam filter that worked, I no longer received any email!"

[Czechmarty]

Did anyone try this system?

http://www.homeautomationnet.com/avcast/avcast_prod.asp

Any comments/reviews/feedbacks????

Please let me know.
Xantech looks good but it's kinda expensive.

Marty