I have two Hauppauge TV Tuner cards and I can control them fine with any MCE compatible remote - so I assume you are trying to control a "Colossus" capture card?
I have one of these too, and I was able to somewhat control it with a standard remote, using a IR blaster plugged into the Colossus, but I never got it 100% problem free. I was getting double numbers ( I would press "442" and get 444442). Other than that it seemed to work fine with my Harmony remote. I never installed any software from Hauppauge to get the remote working. I don't have SAT anymore so I just use it to record something off FireTV from time to time (where I don't need to use the remote).
What is the problem you're having?