Wake and record signal from stb

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No1Daemon

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Master Geek

#17580 2-Dec-2007 19:31

Hi all

Can anyone tell me what is the signal that is output from your external satellite tuner box that can wake your hard drive recorder etc to record?

It occured to me that I may be able to use this signal as a means of bringing my pc out of standby with my remote.

I have an external stb connected to my av receiver as well as an HTPC.

The HTPC is set up to go into standby mode when I use the remotes power button and I have a learning remote with the Onkyo receiver which I have programmed with macros so when I press the programmed button it turns off the television, av receiver and also the HTPC.

The set top box runs constantly so I am hoping to teach my remote a remote command that can send a "wake to record" signal to my HTPC to bring it out of standby.

At this stage I am just hoping someone can tell me what sort of signal is sent from the satellite box to power on and start recording of television programs from the epg and if the same signal would be sent to an input into the HTPC.

Thanks all
Steve

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Snowflake

#97943 2-Dec-2007 21:31

if you were using MCE on your HTPC it would automatically wake up to record stuff you have scheduled to record from the EPG. I'm not sure whether other PVRs will do that or not.

i'm not sure what you are expecting to achieve from your set top box sending a signal - are you going to schedule recordings on that somehow? As far as I know there is no special signal sent from the STB to a PVR - the epg is usually set and scheduled on the PVR, not the STB.

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No1Daemon

172 posts

Master Geek

#97945 2-Dec-2007 21:42

Hey Regs

Great to get a reply from you. I have used your how tos and forum posts during my set ups and found them great.
From my browsing on the internet I have seen that it is not possible to wake the pc from standby with the hauppauge remote as the remote is powered off during standby and the only way to get the pc to wake from standby is to purchase a usb device which I believe means another remote.
I was just curious, because I used to have a hard drive recorder connected to my satellite tuner box and when I set up a scheduled recording on the satellite tuner box and then turned all the equipment off, at the scheduled time the set top box(I presume it was the set top box) would send a signal(another assumption) to wake the hard drive recorder and record the service.

However, if you are correct that will be the end of what I was hoping for. I realise you can wake the pc from standby at a scheduled time, but I was hoping to do it by remote.

I wanted to wake the pc from standby without having to get yet another remote.

Does that make sense?

On my set top box I used to select the programme to be recorded, and all I had to do on the hard drive recorder was set it to allow the stb to wake it.

sbiddle

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#97947 2-Dec-2007 21:53

What program are you using to record the show when the PC does wake up and how is this going to know to record the show?

Using something like MCE or GB-PVR that you can have an EPG in and set it to wake up the PC and record the input from the STB seems to be the obvious solution to me.

No1Daemon

172 posts

Master Geek

#97949 2-Dec-2007 22:14

Hello

Yes, I can set up and record from the epg. I am using mediaportal.

However, I am actually trying to find a solution to return the pc from standby by remote without having to purchase another usb remote.. Nothing to do with recording or scheduling the pc to start a recording at all.

I am trying to find a solution using the hardware I currently have and I was hoping to use a remote signal to my stb to wake up the htpc from standby.

Nety

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#97968 3-Dec-2007 06:32

I have no idea if this would work at all but in Windows you can set some things to allow them to bring the PC out of standby (a mouse for example). Is it possible to do that with you tuner card? Then when the signal is recieved by the card it would wake your PC.

Problem is that I have no idea if the tunercard is still powered when the PC is in standby (I suspect not). If it is not powered then even if there was a signal from the STB the turner card will not work anyway.

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No1Daemon

172 posts

Master Geek

#97986 3-Dec-2007 09:32

Hi

Thanks for the reply.
You can do that but not with the tuner. There are only certain devices that have a power management option available when you select thier properties.

Even if you could allow the tuner to wake it from standby, which I think may be set by default anyway because it is able to wake to record on a schedule ok, you would still need to get a signal to the tuner via the remote which is just a ir receiver plugged into an ir port. Usually you can bring a pc out of standby only via the modem or a usb device.

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#97998 3-Dec-2007 10:38

GB-PVR used to return a PC to standby once it was done, but i'm not sure if it does in the lastest build. It will definitely wake for a recording, as will Win TV 2000 (Hauppauge's software)

sbiddle

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#98001 3-Dec-2007 10:57

allstarnz: GB-PVR used to return a PC to standby once it was done, but i'm not sure if it does in the lastest build. It will definitely wake for a recording, as will Win TV 2000 (Hauppauge's software)

I've never had any issues with my GB-PVR box waking up or going back to sleep after a recording has finished. There have been a couple of issues with GB-PVR crashing on waking up from suspend mode but this was database issue fixed with delayedstart.exe running upon wakeup.

No1Daemon

172 posts

Master Geek

#98002 3-Dec-2007 11:01

Hi

I am pretty sure even in GBPVR it cannot do this because to return from standby requires hardware support. As there is no power to the tuner or the ir port ect then no signal can be received.

I was using GBPVR up until quite recently but I had never ending issues with the aspect ratio. Sub tried his best to help me sort them out but it never quite worked consistently so I had no option but to change to mediaportal, which functions perfectly as far as the aspect ratio goes.

Although as far as features and plugins etc GBPVR is miles ahead as far as I am concerned, but for functionality, mediaportal at least for my hardware, seems to be the one for me.

No1Daemon

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Master Geek

#98033 3-Dec-2007 15:07

Just as a further clarification before the thread gets too far off subject, I am concerned with returning pc from standby with the ir remote, not with problems relating to waking from standby on a schedule.

To make it a bit clearer, I guess I was hoping that I could use a signal to my stb via ir remote to send a "magic packet" neccessary for the pc to wake on lan.

Does that make more sense?

sbiddle

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#98045 3-Dec-2007 15:37

Some people do tell me I'm a little slow sometimes....But am am still trying to establish exactly what you want to do.

You have a STB that you're booking a show so it can be viewed.

You have a PVR that you want to record the show onto.

Why exactly do you need a remote control to being the PVR out of standby? If you're using something such as Media Portal you can just schedule the booking into Media Portal which will wake the PC up at the same time and start recording the show. If you were to purchase something such as a Windows MCE remote you could use the blaster to remotely change the channel on the STB but I'm assuming you don't want to spend the extra money to get one of these as you have a working remote.

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No1Daemon

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Master Geek

#98046 3-Dec-2007 15:44

I have an stb that sits there turned on all day
I have a pvr I have put into standby mode
I have a remote, I want to push a button on and get the pc to come out of standby
No schedule, no recording.
Just a remote button pushed, nothing more, nothing less.
pc comes back from standby.

Sorry, It sounds like I am being cheeky, believe me I am not. I just don't know how else to say it.

Thanks for your help.

I see where the confusion comes from, from my first post I indicated I wanted to send the stb a wake and record signal but I only intended to use the signal to wake it and not to actually record anything.

sbiddle

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#98048 3-Dec-2007 15:58

What type of IR receiver do you have hooked up to your PC?

No1Daemon

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Master Geek

#98049 3-Dec-2007 16:00

It is a hauppauge ir remote just plugged into the ir port on the back.

sbiddle

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#98054 3-Dec-2007 17:16

There is probably nothing you can easily do with your existing setup. My only suggestion would be to check if you have a WoL connector on your motherboard as you could build a circuit to interface to the STB and deliver +5VDC and turn the PC on.

If you buy a Microsoft MCE remote it can power of/off your machine from the remote. This is the simplest solution and also gives you IR blasters to change the channel of the STB from the PC.

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