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[Rick2018]

The television setup is consistently showing that my USB-UIRT IR system is failing to start in MC24 64-bit in Windows.  Is anyone else having this problem?  Using exactly the same configuration, MC23 has no problem using USB-UIRT.  I will be trying this with the 32-bit version, but the problem makes MC24 64-bit useless to me since I heavily use JRiver for television.  Is JRiver aware of the problem and intending to fix it?

[Awesome Donkey]

First thing that comes to mind is, does the USB-UIRT have actual 64-bit device drivers? That could be a reason why it won't work with MC24 64-bit, if it doesn't have 64-bit drivers. Why I'm asking is because of it working with MC24 32-bit but not MC24 64-bit, which could mean there's no 64-bit drivers for the USB-UIRT. If that's the case, the manufacturer might need to release 64-bit drivers. While the USB-UIRT drivers can be installed on 64-bit Windows, there's a chance the drivers are 32-bit and only work with 32-bit applications like the 32-bit version of MC24. 64-bit applications like MC24 64-bit are actually still kinda rare in the media player world, so that could be why.

Unless you're doing something like 4K UHD video or something like that, you could stick with the 32-bit version of MC24.

[Rick2018]

Thanks for your comments!  The USB-UIRT website claims they have 64-bit (and 32-bit) drivers.  Since there doesn't seem to be any provision for selecting one or the other, I assume their driver package installs a 64-bit driver for 64-bit Windows 7.  If anyone knows anything about the driver installation for USB-UIRT, I'd love to hear about it.  I don't know if both 32 and 64-bit drivers can be installed in the same system or if there has to be some procedure for choosing one.  Since USB-UIRT is (or was) widely used in the home theater community, it would be good if JRiver looked into the situation.  MC24 64-bit still has provisions for using USB-UIRT (but that may be untested and left over code).

I can confirm that MC24 32-bit does work with USB-UIRT, and I will be using it.  The future, however, is 64-bit and reliable IR control is essential.

[Awesome Donkey]

I looked into the USB-UIRT driver package. Indeed, there appears to be a 64-bit driver (for at least a 64-bit OS)... however, it hasn't been updated since 2009. In fact, the main USB-UIRT driver package itself doesn't look like it's been updated since 2012. More Google searches seem to verify this, no driver updates since 2012 and there's no tech support in general for the USB-UIRT (according to Amazon reviews, for example).

My guess? There could be a bug in the 64-bit driver for a 64-bit Windows OS that prevents it from working (or something else like Windows Updates could have broke it over time). When the driver was created, there were very few 64-bit apps that could use it. Even today, MC23 and MC24 both are just a couple of the handful of Media Center apps that have a 64-bit version available. Also with more Google searching (and searching of the USB-UIRT forums) seems to indicate it doesn't seem to work too well for 64-bit OSes in general, and the ways for getting it working vary like for example hacking/modifying the drivers and enabling test mode, which in my opinion really isn't a proper solution (not to mention a possible security risk because with test mode unsigned drivers will load).

It working fine with MC24 32-bit is pretty telling, meaning at least for 32-bit the drivers work fine. The downside? Well, since the USB-UIRT hasn't had driver updates in 6 years (and almost 9 years for 64-bit drivers) there's likely nothing JRiver can do about it and is likely incompatible with MC24 64-bit due to lack of proper driver support. For a device to work properly like that, they need to have working drivers. And since the developer isn't releasing driver updates anymore, there's likely nothing JRiver can do about it. My advice? Start looking for alternative IR control that actually receives tech support and driver updates (and has a 64-bit driver available)... or just stick with the 32-bit version of MC. For an older OS like Windows 7, the latter is probably not a bad idea.

[Rick2018]

Thanks! You went well beyond the call of duty and I really appreciate that. Looks like I will stick with 32-bit until the USB-UIRT breaks or I have to change operating systems.

[~OHM~]

Thanks! You went well beyond the call of duty and I really appreciate that. Looks like I will stick with 32-bit until the USB-UIRT breaks or I have to change operating systems.

Awesome Donkey (A true and trusted "Guru")