Problem with Monsoon Vulkano and UK Virgin TIVO

alanrichey · Post by **alanrichey** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:26 am

In the absence of a dedicated Vulkano forum I am posting this here, as the only difference between the Slingbox and the Vulkano is that the latter uses an AXUM IR chip rather than a PL chip. (If anyone thinks it should be in another forum please link to it).

I built a Slingbox remote for this device using the RC-5, Device 10, and it works perfectly on the UK Virgin TIVO box. But when we build an Axum BIN and use it on the Vulkano it works almost perfectly except the user reports the following:

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I enter say 104...104 changes to 115, then I tried 179 and it went to 104,... then I tried 144 and it went to 179 then 151 and it went to 179 so it seems to go to the one you want only after entering another new number.
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I'm stumped, can anyone think of any conceivable reason for that happening ?

Al

Post by **vickyg2003** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:11 am

Does the Tivo require an ENTER, after putting in 3 digits? It sounds like the three digits need to be followed by something or the user needs to wait before starting the next number. It sounds like the TIVO only needs 3 digits and then the fourth digit is past the limit so its starting the next channel.

alanrichey · Post by **alanrichey** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:19 am

That sounds logical, I'll ask him.

Post by **The Robman** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:25 pm

That's a very good suggestion from Vicky. The user would be pressign ENTER without even thinking about it, and the Slingbox is programmed to send ENTER after the numbers for certain setup codes.

alanrichey · Post by **alanrichey** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:30 am

Turned out the user had not setup the page that tells the Vulkano how you change channels on the real remote. Once he did that the problem disappeared. Sorry for wasting people's time.

Post by **vickyg2003** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:43 am

To make up for "wasting" our time,

, can you elaborate on this.

Turned out the user had not setup the page that tells the Vulkano how you change channels on the real remote.

Rob said

the Slingbox is programmed to send ENTER after the numbers for certain setup codes

.

I'm still trying to get a grasp on this whole. I've put out a call in my computer club. If anyone gets a techie house guest with a slingbox, I've asked for a demonstration, so far no go.

alanrichey · Post by **alanrichey** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:05 am

I'll try

As you know, various devices have different ways of sending channel changes using the numeric buttons. Some force you to enter everything as 3 (or 4) digits, even requiring a leading zero, some have a sort of timing mechanism so you can after a waiting time they will react to the input, regardless of the number of digits, others need the Enter button pressed.

As Rob said, if the Slingbox knows how the device works that is fine, if not it pops up an extra page during the setup that asks you which of the various methods your device uses. Same in the case of the Vulkano, there is a page during the setup routine that asks you what method your box uses.

Make sense ?

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:07 am

Actually, I mispoke. I was thinking of ReplayTV when I said that it sends ENTER after the numbers. If you've set up your ReplayTV box to control a STB, when you pick a channel from the channel guide it has to send that channel number to the STB, and if it's required, it will send ENTER after sending the numbers. This is also true when a scheduled recording kicks off.

The Slingbox situation is different because you have a live user controlling things. Briefly, here's how a Slingbox works. You connect it to a device at your home so that it can capture the audio/video output signals from that device and it has an IR dongle that allows it to control the device using IR signals. The Slingbox is also connected to the internet. Then, when you're away from home, you can connect to the internet and use the Slingbox software to control your Slingbox (which in turn will control the device). The end result is that you can watch your Tivo, ReplayTV, etc from a remote location. The Slingbox software includes a virtual on-screen remote, and when you click one of the virtual remote buttons, the Slingbox will send the matching IR signal to the device.

So, bottom line, if you need to press ENTER after entering a channel number, you would do so manually.

eferz · Post by **eferz** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:10 am

vickyg2003 wrote:To make up for "wasting" our time, , can you elaborate on this.
Turned out the user had not setup the page that tells the Vulkano how you change channels on the real remote.
Rob said
the Slingbox is programmed to send ENTER after the numbers for certain setup codes
.

I'm still trying to get a grasp on this whole. I've put out a call in my computer club. If anyone gets a techie house guest with a slingbox, I've asked for a demonstration, so far no go.

Just about any device which acts like an IR command relay will allow you to configure how the channel changing commands are sent. You'll have the option to set zero padding by setting maximum number of digits for the channels, the IR transmission interval between numbers, and whether or not to send the enter command.

This is necessary when the device has it's own channel guide. It must understand how to organize the string of commands in order to properly change the channel to the user's selection from the guide. This is true for the Vulkano, the Slingbox, and even Google TV.

Also, the Slingboxes and Vulkanos aren't something one would bring around with them. Once they setup these boxes at home, they will use a Slingplayer software client to connect remotely. My offer for you to play around with my Slingbox remains open.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:22 am

eferz wrote:My offer for you to play around with my Slingbox remains open.

Just don't change the channel on his STB when he's in the middle of a big movie!

eferz · Post by **eferz** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:59 am

The Robman wrote:
eferz wrote:My offer for you to play around with my Slingbox remains open.
Just don't change the channel on his STB when he's in the middle of a big movie!

Hehe. We're in between seasons, so I haven't used the Slingbox and the Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC since the last one ended.

Post by **vickyg2003** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:07 am

Also, the Slingboxes and Vulkanos aren't something one would bring around with them. Once they setup these boxes at home, they will use a Slingplayer software client to connect remotely. My offer for you to play around with my Slingbox remains open.

Well yeah, I think the slingbox is at home attached to your services, whether the service is a Tivo, a DVR, a comcast box, or your DVD jukebox, but isn't all the stuff that you guys do with the remote, portable and on the laptop? You realize that I just really really don't get what this is all about.

I really am that clueless, the people that read the JP1 forum know how hard I worked on JP1 before the light bulb finally went on.

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:17 am

vickyg2003 wrote:Well yeah, I think the slingbox is at home attached to your services, whether the service is a Tivo, a DVR, a comcast box, or your DVD jukebox, but isn't all the stuff that you guys do with the remote, portable and on the laptop? You realize that I just really really don't get what this is all about.

You understand more than you think because yes, what you describe is true.

So picture this situation. You have a Tivo at home with a Slingbox attached to it. You go on a business trip and are staying at a hotel with high speed internet (doesn't have to be wifi, you can use a cable). You fire up the Slingplayer software on your laptop and it connects to your Slingbox at home. You bring up the list of recorded shows on your laptop screen and select a show, then you watch it on your laptop. If you spouse happens to be at home watching the Tivo, they will be able to see what you are doing.

When you use the Slingplayer software you will be shown onscreen a virtual Tivo remote. When you click the "Channel Guide" button on the virtual remote, the Slingplayer software will tell the Slingbox to send the correct IR signal for "Channel Guide". The Slingbox itself has a remote control chip onboard which is made by UEI, so it uses UEI style upgrades. If your Slingbox doesn't have a built in setup code to work your Tivo (or whatever) you can create an upgrade using RM which you save as a BIN file and then load into your Slingbox.

Does it make more sense now?

eferz · Post by **eferz** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:45 am

Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words...

My Sony DVP-CX995V DVD Jukebox

Slingplayer's Channel Guide

My Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC DVR

Post by **The Robman** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:07 pm

Earl, is that Channel Guide a property of the Slingbox as opposed to being a property of your STB? If so, when you select a channel, the Slingbox would need to send the channel numbers to the STB and, if required, follow them a press of the ENTER button. Which means the Slingbox would act in much the way as what I described earlier for ReplayTV.