Comments on: DIY TiVo IR Blaster

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:25:27 +0000

This usually works, provided that the IR blaster doesn’t block the entire IR sensor on the cable box.

By: Barbara Gingrande

Barbara Gingrande — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:34:31 +0000

What if I want to use the cable remote sometimes for OnDemand? I recently moved an older setup from MA to NH and had to get a newer Cable box that would not accept the serial input. Thinking of some kind of clip arrangement for the blaster. Any thoughts? All I really wanted was an old cable box. Sniff.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 13 May 2010 07:59:54 +0000

Awesome! $2.50 is a pretty fair price to pay for one of these.

By: jh1523

jh1523 — Wed, 12 May 2010 04:02:07 +0000

Thanks for the details on the polarity etc. saved me a bit of time on building this. Total cost: $2.50 (one set of junky earbuds from Wal-mart to use for the plug+cord). 420 ohms resistor found in parts bin, same for IR LED – bought as a 20-pack about 10 years ago, never got around to using them anywhere. Also from parts bin: solder, flux paste and a bit of Kapton tape to hold it together.

TiVo up and running with the new (now required) cable box.

Thanks!

By: wvallen

wvallen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:18:28 +0000

i made this yesterday and it worked immediately. I had the mono-plug laying around and walked to a radio shack to pick up the IR LED and 330 Ohm resistors for a total of $3. I also used speaker wire for the go-between. thanks!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:34:50 +0000

Awesome! It’s good to know that Radio Shack still carries enough electronics components to build this project.

By: DCP

DCP — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:13:23 +0000

Thanks for the quick solution. Just built one this afternoon with a Radio Shack IR LED (940nm, Catalog #: 276-143, $1.99) and a 1/8th” mono phone plug (Radio Shack Cat. #:274-286, $2.99 for two).

I, too, used a 1k Ohm resistor (since I had some sitting around), but 330 ohm would have been fine…maybe better/brighter. Anyway, it works fine with a Series1 TiVo and the Motorola DCH70 cable box from Comcast (remote code “00093-Fast” in the TiVo setup).

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:14:08 +0000

I used this exact article to make a replacement IR Blaster for my Hauppauge HVR-1250. I purchased from Radio Shack a 6 ft. 1/8″ Mono Audio Cable, the 1K resistor and a single IR Emitter LED. Total cost out the door was $5.97. Thanks

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

[...] Looks same a pleasant lowercase intro to electronics & soldering, if you’re in requirement of digit of these. solon detailsavailable on the mightyOhm blog. [...]

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? =)