[mythtv-users] HD-PVR and vip211k

[Alex Williamson]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 3:30 PM, Steve Anthony <steveranthony at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have the exact same setup...  HDPVR with VIP211k...

Hey me too ;)

> I'm also stuck on controlling the VIP211k with an IR blaster...

I've had this setup since before Jarod had the hdpvr IR blaster
working, so I used a dumb serial IR transceiver.  It worked
wonderfully until a month or so ago, now it's only been about 90%
reliable (worse for some channel sequences).  I can't figure out what
changed.  I think the vip211k may have had it's firmware updated
recently over the air, and that may have contributed to the problems
(I'm not entirely convinced my remote works all that much better than
the blaster).  You can find another recent thread on the list where I
attempted to make a dish blaster using an arduino micro-controller.
It works, but I'm not sure I'd claim it's any better than serial was
working for me (you don't have to use lirc with it, which is a bonus
in my book).

In any case, you *should* be able to control the vip211k using any
lirc compatible IR transmitter, serial, usb-uirt, etc... using the
dish remote lircd.conf file.  I've been polling the list to see what
the preferred IR blaster is these days, but most folks seem to be
clinging onto old hardware that's difficult to get anymore
(myblaster).  If anyone finds a blaster/config that works reliable
with a vip211k, I'd certainly be interested too.

Alex