IR control of TV2 on 722?

[Jim5506]

TV2 is designed to be used from a remote location - another room, where IR will not work.

You are using TV2 in a manner for which it wan not designed, but Dish is working on an IR to UHF converter that will allow an IR remote or an IR blaster to control TV2.

This is the opposite of the UHF to IR converter.

 

[Awohar]

the ir to uhf simply allow an ir signal to travel down coax to the remote anntenna in. so if you want to use ir remote such as harmony in tv2 room, you will be able. if you want to use tv2 remote in same room as box, simply use uhf remote. if you want to use harmony remote for tv2 while in same room as tv1, simply buy the ir to uhf converter and connect it direct to the remote antenna in.

designing ir control into box for tv2 probably benefits less than 1% of 722 users, so if costs more then there is no reason to do it. just sell extra part to that 1% instead of making the box more expensive to all 100% of customers....this is same reason all new boxes don't have OTA module built in, less hardware and keeps cost lower.

 

[chainblu]

Awohar, your 2nd paragraph makes sense and everybody understands that. The main idea of this thread is if all it takes is a few lines of code to the existing software to have IR control of TV2, it wouldn't add to the cost of a receiver.

 

[STL]

Huh? I thought you got these two devices straight!

I do, and my point was the new device they are making handles converting IR to UHF and distributing it back to the 722 (via existing coax). I (and many others) don't need the distribution part -- which is the part that requires new hardware -- and would rather DISH just add a few lines of code to the 722 so it allows control of TV2 with IR.

 

[TheKrell]

I do, and my point was the new device they are making handles converting IR to UHF and distributing it back to the 722 (via existing coax). I (and many others) don't need the distribution part...

We fully agree on this point. My only slant is that the total number of us wanting IR-to-UHF TV2 conversion is (much?) bigger than the subset of us who want only to extend their beloved IR remote rather than using a DishPro/UHF remote.

I (and many others) don't need the distribution part -- which is the part that requires new hardware -- and would rather DISH just add a few lines of code to the 722 so it allows control of TV2 with IR.

Ahem. We part company on that "requires new hardware" part. I claim we all need the new hardware converter precisely because of hardware limitations in the 722.

Does this hardware limitation really exist? I don't know for sure. But it just doesn't make any sense (to me) to design the IR-to-UHF TV2 adapter if all we really need is a quick software update. And oh by the way the "IR extender" people would also benefit from a software fix via all the many cheap IR extender solutions on the market already. So the "IR extender" people don't really need an expensive Dish hardware solution either (if a software solution is possible).

 

[STL]

Does this hardware limitation really exist?

No it doesn't. I have Electrical Engineering degree and built my IR distribution system from scratch, so I have a pretty good understanding of the concepts. Absolute worst case, DISH could take TV1 remote address 16 (which we know the IR eye on the 722 can see) and reassign it so those IR commands are routed to control TV2 instead of TV1. That code could be written and tested in a single day. I even offered DISH my services for this for free, but of course I'm sure my email never made up to anyone that is actually in the know.