[mythtv-users] IRBlaster Problems / Suggestions?

[Jason Sharpe]

Good Day,

I have been using Myth for over 2 years now and love it, however I have been
experiencing problems with my IRBlaster for some time now.

I purchased a serial IR Blaster from www.irblaster.info a couple of years
ago and installed Fedora Core 4 and Mythtv 18 (or 19) on a dedicated backend
and using the latest version (at the time) of LIRC it worked flawlessly for
over a year, never missed a channel change on a Dish Network 301 STB.

The blaster is stuck directly on the STB with a bit of double sided tape
over the IR receiver. The receiver is in a room that has no windows and has
no light on 24 hours a day (Except for the once a week I walk in that room
and have a light on for 5 mins) so there is no ambient light at all.

I upgraded to Myth .20 when it came out and all was well. Then about 6 or 8
months ago I started getting missed changes, during the 3 digit channel
change, it misses a number and I record HSN (channel 84) instead. It does
seem to have a high failure rate, probly around 25-35% of the time it fails
to properly tune the channel. I adjusted the placement of the irblaster over
the receiver a bit to the left and right thinking it might not be hitting
the eye properly but that didn't seem to help.

Hoping it was a software issue, I took the change to schedulesdirect.org as
an opportunity to rebuild the backend from scratch.

After looking around I decided to try MythDora which turned out to be a
great choice as it was VERY easy to install and configure and got my systems
backup and running very easily after the format. (I saved all my recorded
content and database which I just reimported after I installed). I setup
LIRC from scratch again and didn't use any of my old files to configure it
hoping I would eliminate the issue.

However the problem persists, I have been running MythDora since Sept 1st
and still continue to have missed changes quite often.  I can't discern a
pattern from misses and it happens at all time of the day, to any channel,
and it doesn't matter if the backend has no load or is under heavy load.

I have given up on trying to resolve this and I am down to trying a
different IR blaster. I am open to Serial, USB, etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions that works well with a Dish Network
receiver?

Thanks

Jason


Setup:
Dedicated Backend
MythDora 4.0
AMD64 4400+
2 Gig of Ram
3 Input Sources:
DCT-6200 Via Firewire
Dishnetwork 301 Via PVR-250 PCI Card
OTA HD via a HD-3000 PCI Card from PCHDTV.com
<mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
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