[Savage1701]

If you have more than one Hauppauge IR capable device they will fight it out. Your HD-PVR and your sanity will probably be the losers in this battle. Hauppauge can only handle one IR blaster channel.

Watch out for Hauppauge sub-models of each product. Some have IR capabilities and some don't. They make white box versions for system builders, retail versions, MCE versions of the same item. It can be VERY hard to differentiate them, and I have yet to find anything that matters for the purposes of Sage or SS controlling them other than the IR issue. Drivers are the same, etc.

Get a USB-UIRT 3-channel IR learner/blaster for $50-$60. I use SS and Sage. Now mostly Sage. USB-UIRT is the easiest, most chimp-simple way to control the STB with the HD-PVR. I have literally had one channel change failure in 3 months with my USB-UIRT.

Probably the only scenario this won't happen under is if your HD-PVR is the ONLY Hauppauge branded product, and any other tuner cards or USB sticks are other brands, such as DVICO, etc. HWCLEAR won't solve your problems most of the time. I have seen exotic registry fixes that claim success under some circumstances. I personally think if I have the coin invested in a system capable of handling H.264 video from the HD-PVR then $50 more is probably an additional 5% max of the cost of the HTPC/server I put together.

USB-UIRT is one of those precious few products that has an astronomically positive cost/benefit ratio.

By the way, it's not uncommon that as you add Hauppauge products you gain and lose control of your HD-PVR. But ultimately you will probably lose.