Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia)

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barryhee at gmail

Aug 24, 2005, 6:17 PM

Post #1 of 6 (5698 views)
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Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia)

Hi,

I have been a MythTV user in Australia since 0.15 and bought one of
the first DVB cards available here. I compile MythTV from SVN so I
think I am a seasoned user. I now hope to integrate Foxtel Digital
into my system by buying a Hauppauge PVR150 (retail version) and
connecting via SVideo.

After searching the forums I am unsure of the following aspects
regarding IR transmission. ie controlling the Pace DC420 STB via LIRC.
I did find a product from IRTrans (www.irtrans.de/en/) which seems
exactly what I am after as it states that it controls Pace STBs
although its expensive at 99 Euros.

Has anybody been successfully in controlling the Pace STB via some
IRBlaster? (homebrew or retail product). Also does the retail version
of the PVR 150 contain an IRBlaster as it does in the US?

regards,
Barry
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stevehodge at gmail

Aug 24, 2005, 7:01 PM

Post #2 of 6 (5575 views)
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Re: Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia) [In reply to]

On 8/25/05, Barry Hee <barryhee [at] gmail> wrote:
> After searching the forums I am unsure of the following aspects
> regarding IR transmission. ie controlling the Pace DC420 STB via LIRC.
> I did find a product from IRTrans (www.irtrans.de/en/) which seems
> exactly what I am after as it states that it controls Pace STBs
> although its expensive at 99 Euros.
>
> Has anybody been successfully in controlling the Pace STB via some
> IRBlaster? (homebrew or retail product). Also does the retail version
> of the PVR 150 contain an IRBlaster as it does in the US?

I'm in NZ and am controlling my Sky Digital box with a homebrew
transmitter I build from the plans on lirc.org. I'd be very surprised
if you couldn't get a homemade blaster to control your Pace box. Pace
make one of the models of decoder that Sky Digital use, though not the
one I've got (mine's a Motorla DTH335-4, had a Zenith DTH310-4 before
that) so I don't have direct experience but I'd give it a go anyway as
the parts for the blaster shouldn't cost more than about $20.

Steve
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david at ellisonline

Aug 24, 2005, 7:01 PM

Post #3 of 6 (5591 views)
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RE: Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia) [In reply to]

I'm using a USB-UIRT2 for IR Blasting to a Scientific Atlantic 3200. it's a
pretty good device (considerably less than 99$ EUR), and works well. It has
support for 56K and 36 remotes (which I believe is all of them), and there
is a lirc patch that works for me.

You need to write a little shell script to change your channel, and setup
your tuner to use the external script.

http://www.usb-uirt.com

David

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv] On Behalf Of Barry Hee
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 9:17 PM
To: mythtv-users [at] mythtv
Subject: [mythtv-users] Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia)

Hi,

I have been a MythTV user in Australia since 0.15 and bought one of
the first DVB cards available here. I compile MythTV from SVN so I
think I am a seasoned user. I now hope to integrate Foxtel Digital
into my system by buying a Hauppauge PVR150 (retail version) and
connecting via SVideo.

After searching the forums I am unsure of the following aspects
regarding IR transmission. ie controlling the Pace DC420 STB via LIRC.
I did find a product from IRTrans (www.irtrans.de/en/) which seems
exactly what I am after as it states that it controls Pace STBs
although its expensive at 99 Euros.

Has anybody been successfully in controlling the Pace STB via some
IRBlaster? (homebrew or retail product). Also does the retail version
of the PVR 150 contain an IRBlaster as it does in the US?

regards,
Barry
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martin.conway at gmail

Aug 24, 2005, 7:03 PM

Post #4 of 6 (5589 views)
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Re: Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia) [In reply to]

Hi Barry

I have been using MythTV with Foxtel for a couple of years. I had no
trouble controlling the old "analogue" set top box with a simple
serial port home brew ir blaster and lirc, but no matter what I tried
I couldn't get lirc to learn the codes for the new pace digital box.

Things may have moved on from then and the codes may be downloadable
off the net by now, but being unable to live without MythTV for too
long I came up with a workaround. I built a buffer/opamp based circuit
to simulate button presses on a cheap jaycar learning remote, which
had no trouble learning the foxtel digital codes. This is controlled
by the parralell port of my backend server.

Sorry I don't have a more helpful answer for you, maybe someone else will.

Martin

On 8/25/05, Barry Hee <barryhee [at] gmail> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have been a MythTV user in Australia since 0.15 and bought one of
> the first DVB cards available here. I compile MythTV from SVN so I
> think I am a seasoned user. I now hope to integrate Foxtel Digital
> into my system by buying a Hauppauge PVR150 (retail version) and
> connecting via SVideo.
>
> After searching the forums I am unsure of the following aspects
> regarding IR transmission. ie controlling the Pace DC420 STB via LIRC.
> I did find a product from IRTrans (www.irtrans.de/en/) which seems
> exactly what I am after as it states that it controls Pace STBs
> although its expensive at 99 Euros.
>
> Has anybody been successfully in controlling the Pace STB via some
> IRBlaster? (homebrew or retail product). Also does the retail version
> of the PVR 150 contain an IRBlaster as it does in the US?
>
> regards,
> Barry
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
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jkingkard-hotmail at yahoo

Aug 24, 2005, 10:53 PM

Post #5 of 6 (5578 views)
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Re: Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia) [In reply to]

Hi Barry,

On 25/8/05 9:17 AM, "Barry Hee" <barryhee [at] gmail> wrote:

> After searching the forums I am unsure of the following aspects
> regarding IR transmission. ie controlling the Pace DC420 STB via LIRC.
> I did find a product from IRTrans (www.irtrans.de/en/) which seems
> exactly what I am after as it states that it controls Pace STBs
> although its expensive at 99 Euros.

You don't need the IRTrans, you can build an IR blaster using parts from
Dick Smith Electronics following the schematic here:
http://www.lirc.org/transmitters.html

The first simple transmitter is what I built. Then you stick that on the
front of the Foxtel box.

You need the remote codes for LIRC, which can be downloaded here:
http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/mythtv/lirc/

And a channel change script, which is fairly simple with a couple of caveats
-- you should send the SKY button (FOXTEL button) twice and do a short wait
before changing the channels. (This makes sure the box is switched on and
not in any menus or active services.) Add a wait at the end and set the
Foxtel box's Banner Timeout to 1 second in the Picture Settings menu as
well.

>
> Has anybody been successfully in controlling the Pace STB via some
> IRBlaster? (homebrew or retail product).
Very successful -- the homebrew above.

> Also does the retail version
> of the PVR 150 contain an IRBlaster as it does in the US?

I don't know, but as a side note I'm very happy so far with my PVR150MCE.

Hope this helps.

Joshua King

mythtv at rave-tech

Aug 29, 2005, 5:22 AM

Post #6 of 6 (5540 views)
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Digital Foxtel Integration (Australia) [In reply to]

I'm trying to get this working with an analogue Foxtel at the moment. Will
post again if / when it is up and running. Someone on this list was kind
enough to provide me with an lirc config file that I'm going to try. Not
sure if this will work with digital but maybe worth a try.

I think all of us with analogue boxes are going to be forced to upgrade
within twelve months so it would be interesting to know if we can get the
digital stb's to work.

Regards
Marty
�

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