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[CountryBumkin]

I have been trying to set up MC to remotely change the channels on my Directv set-top box so I can record shows with the Hauppage Colossus.
The recording part is work great - but the remote is going nuts.

For example, I setup a recording on channel 247 for 8PM. At 8PM the IR transmitter sends a signal to change the channel. The channel changes. Teh weird thing is that it changed to the correct channel (247) but another IR "change channel command" was sent anyways. This time the channel never made it back to 247. The IR Transmitter kept sending another signal, and another signal, and so on (like 2, pause, 4, pause, 7, pause, 24, pause, 7, pause, etc. Directv box could not keep up with the sped of the IR commands.

I looks like MC thinks the channel is wrong and tries to resend channel change command but the timing is off for the DirectV receiver. So Directv changes to channel 2 then by the time the 47 IR siganl comes, Directv has already changed to channel 2. Now the IR command tells Directv to change to channel 47. The IR signal sending timeing is late/slow and Directv never gets a correctly timed signal "247". It keeps trying to change channels until I close MC.

If there was a way to increase the pause time between the sending of the sequence of three digits, that might solve the problem.

I am using the Media Center remote (HP) sold by JRiver. I am running MC 17.0.50.

I also completely removed the remote device driver (eHome Remote) and reinstalled, and had all the remote numbers relearned. It still didn't work.
Log attached

[JimH]

MC doesn't know what the STB is set to, but the timing sounds like it's a problem.  I don't know of a quick fix.

[Yaobing]

MC would not try repeating the blasts.  MC does it once every time a tune request is made (i.e. channel is changed, recording is started etc.). 

If your STB changes to "2" before MC sends "4" and "7", it means there is too long a pause between the numbers, isn't it?  It does not feel right though as changing channel by hand sure will have longer pauses.

Is your IR emitter close enough to STB's receiver window?  I find that this positioning is very important.

[CountryBumkin]

I reinstalled eHome (again) and deleted all references to any IR tramsmitter in Device Manager (there was an IRTrans device installed - which is probably related to the IR receiver built into the HTPC case) then I rebooted. I just ran a quick test and so far everything is working as it should.
I need to run a few more tests/recordings to make sure - but it looks like problem is with Windows, and is fixed.

[CountryBumkin]

Sorry to report that i am still having problems. Not all the time - but enough failurers that I need to look for a fix. Today I had scheduler set to record channel 229. I watched the channel change to "2222" then "9". TV (Directv box) tried to change to channel 2222 (then said channel not available) then changed to channel 9. So it started to record on channel 9 rather than 229. Obviously this is a Directv issue and not a MC issue - but since Directv is intended for "live" control, the problem can easily be fixed by reentering the correct channel. Unfortunalely with the MC setup I am trying to do an "unattended" recording so I won't know it went wrong until I playback the recording.

So, it looks like a timing issue with the way the IR blasts are sent. I think I need to slow down the speed that the numbers are being sent (a longer pause between numbers) might fix it. I went through Directv remote control  setup but there is nothing available to adjust this. It could also be that the Directv reciever I have (HR21) is more sensitive than other Directv boxes - since no one else seems to have this problem.

Are their any programs/software availble that will let me setup/change the IR blasting timing. For example my Harmony remote lets me adjust the timing between sending its commands.

[CountryBumkin]

I found a forum thread where poster had a simialr problem to mine. In his case the solution was to adjust the IR blast with settings like these:

 Go through the Setup screens. On the screen labeled Code Set Selection, hit the Replay Zones button on the remote. This will give you a screen with fine tune adjustments. The values for General Instruments DCT-1000 and DCT-2000 boxes are as follows:

 Enable Fine Tuning: Yes
 Codeset: 4476
 Send Enter: Yes
 Minimum digits to send: 3
 Interaction delay: 0400ms
 Response delay: 0200ms
 Pre-command delay: 0400ms
 Inter-command delay: 0401ms

But I can't find anything similar in my box (unless it is a hidden menu). Is it possible for JRiver to add adjustments like above (the last four) in a future build?