Comments on: DIY TiVo IR Blaster

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:22:41 +0000

That’s awesome. I came across your posting looking for an ir blaster to purchase because my cats destroyed mine. I do not have the skills or tools to build such a thing but I like the fact that there are people out there that can and do.

By: Speedybob

Speedybob — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:51:06 +0000

Thanks for posting this! The IR LED seemed pretty dim with a 1k limiter when usedd with a Panasonic Replay (compared to the remotes led’s), & I’d feel safe starting out using something around half that value, but I really dont want to take it apart! Thanks again!

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:13:46 +0000

You all sound like you’ve got this stuff figured out so I thought I’d ask what may be a dumb question. We have a series 2 single tuner Tivo and get out local channels through an OTA antenna. We also have Dish satellite (not HD). Our TV is HDTV so we now can view OTA in HD (really great). My question is whether or not it’s possible to hook up both a digital converter box and satellite box to the Tivo and have it record from either source. I have 2 sets of Tivo IR emitters and have seen a coupler (outrageously priced at $20) but don’t want to buy the coupler if it won’t allow you to record from both sources. Also, would a simple headphone splitter work as a coupler? Thanks so much.

By: Brakk

Brakk — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:18:24 +0000

I wouldn’t call it a dumb interface. Someone had to come up with something that worked with existing technology from many vendors, so even though it’s not ideal, I think it’s a pretty good idea. I like how simple your solution is. I’ve seen plans on building them before and I thought they were more complicated.

I use a MythTV box and it connects to my digital cable box (motorola) through a serial port on the back (like Tom mentioned). It’s much faster than using the IR blaster too.

Another cool trick is that some cable providers still send the analog channels over the wire even if you have digital cable, so if you have a MythTV box with two tuners, or I think some TiVos have dual tuners, you can connect one directly to the cable and one to the cable box. This means you can record two shows at the same time if at least one of them is on one of the analog channels.

By: How-To: DIY TiVo IR Blaster | DIY Blogs

How-To: DIY TiVo IR Blaster | DIY Blogs — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:41:18 +0000

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By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:31:50 +0000

I agree IR Blasters are dumb. But what choice does TiVo have?

I used to have DirectTV. TiVo has a serial port adapter you could use instead of the IR Blaster. It worked great until DirecTV upgraded the firmware. The IR Blaster continued to work.

I have FiOS now and that can only do IR.

All the cable boxes are designed to be used by a human with a remote. So are TVs, DVDs, Stereos, VHS. Someday, there will be a universal wired protocol & adapter to connect them, probably on ethernet. Each vendor will come up with thier own values for each device they make, just like remotes are today.

It’s a kludge, but it’s good enough.

By: Jeff H.

Jeff H. — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:00:26 +0000

The only way to get Top Gear is to download it off the internet anyway. Can you say GigaNews? =)

By: Alan Parekh

Alan Parekh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:49:42 +0000

Great idea, projects that cost $0.00 are the best.

By: Whiz

Whiz — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:42:59 +0000

“Not bad for $0 in parts (all stuff from my junk bin) and a few minutes of soldering.”

That’s what you get for having that huge junk electronics pile stashed away somewhere in your house =) Love it.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:13:44 +0000

Tom – Thanks for reading the blog. I wish I could post more often but work is keeping me tied up these days. That and getting ready for the Maker Faire. I’m hoping that within the next few years I can cancel cable and go 100% internet viewing. It’s coming…

Matt – The TiVo is pretty fast. However, there is still that 1/2 – 1 second delay changing channels due to the cable box itself which annoys the heck out of me!

By: Matt Mets

Matt Mets — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:45:10 +0000

I like your replacement solution . Back in high school, we used to have a building-wide AV network that was controlled in a similar manner. Each classroom had a regular TV hung from a wall, with a control signal coming from some central location, that could turn the TVs on remotely and tune them to the school ‘news’ at a certain time. It was interesting the first few times, but watching the system slowly send out each digit of the channel got boring after a while. I hope the Tivo version is faster!

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:15:52 +0000

New commenter… read your blog as often as you post
I agree wholeheartedly. Dumb dumb dumb interface. Yes, it works without necessitating that Cable Box manufacturers add another way to interface, but simply is too problematic. We spend time adding IR modulation, demodulation, and optical transmissions. Either the blaster IR moves away from the sweet spot and fails to change the channel, or some fluke occurs on the Cable Box, and presto, instantly missed recording my favorite show.
It is a problem with Windows MCE as well.
Thankfully I can find most shows on-line for post air viewing… but is that really the point?