IRTrans with MCE

[Sir Ranulph]

Hi all,

I just splurged on a Zalman HD160 case which has a VFD controlled by IRTrans software. I managed to get it all working despite the rubbish instructions that came with it, and it displays info about what's currently playing in MCE. All well and good.

However when the pc wakes from S3 standby to do a recording, i get a message saying "Media center encountered a problem and was unable to record <whatever>" or something like that, and doesn't record anything. If I stop the IRTrans server it works fine, but i get nothing but date/time on the VFD.

So now all i have a very expensive clock on the front of my case, and without the server running the time will never be updated either, so it won't even be showing the right time

Does anyone have an IRTrans receiver/display working ok? Or does anyone know of alternative software which can drive the display without the server?

Thanks

[Dan L]

Have you tried FrontView?

http://www.mediacentermagic.com/

[BigBry]

Or LCD Smartie which is free;
http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net/

Frontview was free up to version 204, so if you like the trial version you may want to see if you can get your hands on an older version (looks and operates virtually the same as the last version I looked at).

[Sir Ranulph]

Yeah, i had a look at these. Unfortunately they both talk to the display via the IRTrans software, and that's what prevents my machine recording out of standby.

[trifin]

yes i have it working fine.

i dont know what else to tell you though...

[widgetuk]

I have just purchased the same case, and the first thing to note is yes, the instructions for IRtrans are rubbish!! Ah well. I appear to have the software running ok, and initially I am VERY happy with it - especially the silent operation.

However, I've not put the TV tuner card in it yet (should be doing that today if it arrives in the post), so I cant say how the IRtrans software affects recording ability. Once i've set it up, I'll let you know. If I do have problems, then I will contact my reseller who has thus far given me EXCELLENT support from what appears to be an great deal of MCE experience. Hopefully it'll get sorted then and I'll let you know how to fix it if you havent already done it yourself. Good luck. :-)

[widgetuk]

I have my case set up now, but for now I've not tested recoring from standby because I'm still struggling with (a) the dual tuner Tarretec 2400i card, and (b) getting my wireless RF keyboard to work upon waking up from a standby. If I can fix these issues, i'll be looking into trying to record from standby. Have you fixed your problem yet out of interest?

[diversionware]

have you tried these drivers directly from irtrans

http://www.irtrans.de/en/download/windows.php

i know these use the same vfd/ir recievers as those in origenAE cases, and the above drivers work much better than the out of date origenAE supplied ones

[Sir Ranulph]

Hi widgetuk, thanks for the update.

No, I haven't fixed it. I emailed the author of the IRTrans software but no response. But I've decided that even if it did work it still wouldn't do exactly what I want, so I've decided to write my own . I want to automate other things based on what's happening in mce, such as controlling my amp and lighting, so it's the way to go.

I'm not interested in any of the IR capabilities anyway, because the microsoft receiver works fine. I just want to drive the display. Most importantly I want it to tell me when it's recording something so I don't have to power up my projector to see what's going on, and that's the one thing the software doesn't seem to do.

So i've been studying the IRTrans source code (not easy as it contains practically no comments!) and have tried running it with the debug options turned on to log all the data sent to the display. Anyway, i've successfully managed to send text to the display, set the clock, change the brightness, etc without the itrans server running.

I'll get there eventually...

[widgetuk]

Wow, sounds like you've delved much more into it that I have so far. I dont get a lot of spare time to mess with my new MCE, but as I do, I hope to fix the issues I've got - I'm guessing one of them will be the IRtrans problem.

By the way, when you say you're not interested in it's IR capabilities because you're happy with the microsoft receiver, does this mean you've not used the remote control that came with the Zalman case? Is there any benefit to using the microsoft one over the zalman one then?

If you do manage to break any boundries with teh IRTrans / own code, i'd be interested to hear it. And I suspect as more people purchase the new Zalman cases they would too! :-) Good luck.

[Sir Ranulph]

Well I already had the "official" microsoft remote and receiver before i got the new case. The only difference in the handsets is that the microsoft one has an additional tv power button top-left which can be taught from another remote, i.e. to switch your tv on/off.

But I discovered another difference in the way the two receivers work. The microsoft one behaves as if it were a keyboard, so a button press on the remote wake up the display the same as if you moved the mouse or pressed a key. The IRTrans receiver doesn't do this. This is a bit annoying - if the pc has been on for a while because it's recording, and I turn on the projector to watch something, the screen is blank. I have to dig out the mouse from down the back of the sofa just to wake the screen up. With the microsoft receiver, i can just use the remote.

[Sir Ranulph]

Sorry, I didn't really answer your first question! I haven't used the zalman remote at all because the microsoft one also works with the zalman receiver, so I assume the IR codes are the same.

[widgetuk]

ah ok, i see. i dont have an mce controller because i bought the case, then just the software.

[widgetuk]

Hi Sir Ranulph, I wondered how you were getting on with the VFD displays with the Zalman HD160 case? i've started to play with the MCE a little more now, and I can report that even with IRtrans running, my MCE wakes up fine out of standby to record. So, I wonder if that wasn't the actual cause of your problems, or if you had old drivers?

I would still like to enhance it a little though, because I want to somehow get a big message on my VFD which shows clearly when a program is being recorded!! This seems so vital to me because I am so used to this feature from Sky+ which shows a nice red LED when recording which is very useful!!

I might give lcdsmartie a go and see if that works? I'm happy with all the other display information though, i just want to add the ability to show a message whilst is was recording.

[Sir Ranulph]

Hi. Glad to hear yours works ok.

All I know with mine is, with IRTrans running it won't record on coming out of standby. If it's not running, it does. I've tried the version on the zalman disk, the latest one from the website, and the one for OriginAE cases, no difference.

I suspect if I completely reinstalled MCE from scratch it might work, but there's no way I'm going through that again

And as you say, it doesn't display anything when it's recording, which is the whole point.

By the way, when your pc is recording, do you get a red recording icon in the system tray? I understood that MCE was supposed to do this, but it doesn't work for me. There is an ehtray.exe process, which is running, and I don't have the "hide inactive icons" option set, but there's no icon.