[mythtv-users] Why do I need an IR blaster?

[Ray Olszewski]

At 12:07 PM 6/19/2003 -0500, Richard J. Finn wrote:

>         Why is it so hard?
>
>         I was reading up on the idea, and it *reads* like it wouldn't be 
> any more difficult than getting MythTV to work in the first 
> place.  Sending is handled by the "rc" command line program 
> (http://www.lirc.org/html/rc.html).  You do have to define two remotes in 
> the lird.conf, but that seems to be supported.  The MythTV docs give 
> instructions for both recieving and sending commands.
>
>         Is the tricky part having to IR devices defined in the same 
> lird.conf file?

Maybe it is not as hard as I think it is, -IF- both the sending and the 
receiving stuff uses the same physical device. Most (maybe all) of the 
problems I've read about involve trying to run two separate devices on two 
serial ports. And I still cannot recall reading anyone's specific 
description of an actual send-and-receive setup that worked both ways on 
the same host (neither the LIRC nor the Myth docs are that specific, for 
example).

After you get it working, please tell us what you did, any special problems 
you had to overcome, and what hardware was involved. The Internet is way 
too full of messages that say, more or less, "I did it and it was easy" ... 
on this topic and others ... but that do not explain how actually to do it, 
to help the folks who do not find it "easy" when they try.


>Ray Olszewski wrote:
>...
>>Because running LIRC to both send and receive is tricky ... I don't 
>>actually recall ever seeing a working setup described, either here or on 
>>the LIRC list, in the sort of detail needed to allow someone to replicate 
>>it ... this sort of setup is easier to construct if you have separate 
>>backend and frontend hosts.
>>BTW, an IR Blaster doesn't just "re-transmit" the signal. In principle, 
>>it sends its own set of codes, allowing  the possibility  for the code 
>>set used by the Myth host to be different from the one used by the 
>>digital-cable box.