Streamzap+Harmony=BTV IR Control?

[johnnym80]

I have a Harmony 659 remote. It works everything EXCEPT BTV. I discovered that the USB-UIRT can only be used as a blaster and not as a receiver for BTV, unless I use Girder. So I guess I need to get Girder or an IR receiver.

Has anyone tried the Streamzap IR remote and receiver and then mapped the Streamzap to the Harmony? Then I’d be back to one remote which equals high WAF

[nanook105]

I did that, but with a Pronto. Don't see why it wouldn't work with a Harmony

[dougyndot]

I have a Harmony and when I set up BTV, I picked Snapstream 3.5 but told it I had a Hauppauge silver remote. Since when I set up BTV it also was told I had the Hauppauge remote, the Harmony was none the wiser and everything works great.

[johnnym80]

dougyndot,
Do you actually have the Hauppauge silver remote?
What do you use for an IR receiver?
My problem is that the UIRT will not act as a reciever. I have BTV 3.5 on my harmony, but no way to get the IR signals into my pc.
That's why i thought the streamzap would work. I'm wondering if I can use the streamzap IR receiver with the current BTV 3.5 in the Harmony?
Thanks for the info

[dougyndot]

I have a PVR 250 that came with an IR receiver that plugs into the card and the silver remote. I also have an USBUIRT to control my cable box. At some point, I'll probably rig things to use only the USBUIRT, but what I have works fine for now.

[pc4ever1]

I use a Streamzap Remote's IR device and it does work with the Harmony 659 remote. Works great! Straight out of the box , load the latest version of their Streamzaps program. Then plug in the Streamzap USB IR receiver and then program the Harmony. Don't even need to put batteries in the Streamzap Remote. The Harmony software allows you to emulate all the streamzap buttons, no teaching yada yada required.

I have 5 devices now configured through the Harmony 659.
HP z545 Media Center with MCE 2005
Sony Receiver
Motorola DCT2000 Box ( x 2 )
Panasonic Plasma TV

With the Harmony I can switch between :
MCE 2005
and
XP with BTV 3.5.2 or Musicmatch or WinDVD

Plus there is an upside to using the Streamzap IR , it's already preconfigured to use 145 other apps. Same keys are mapped with all the other programs.

I don't work at Streamzap so I'm not trying to do a sales job but I do know this product has made my life within the remote world a better place. I now use only the Harmony 659 Remote and love it.

http://www.streamzap.com/products/pcremote/index.php

As far as WAF, mine doesn't even notice what's going on behind the scene to make MCE, XP , BTV, WinDVD, Musicmatch and all my hardware work seemlessly together. On the other hand, if things weren't working as smoothly as they were I'd be hearing I want my TiVo.

[johnnym80]

Thanks PC4ever1,
I ordered the Streamzap yesterday. It looks a lot easier than working with Girder for what I want to do.
What did you use to program the Harmony? The BTV 3.5 setup at Harmony or is there something specific for the Streamzap on the Harmony site?

[pc4ever1]

I use the Steamzap setup that's within Harmony. That's because I have my Comcast Cable box configured to use my serial port with Girder to change the cable channels (Serial over IR anyday for speed purposes).

The main reason that I'm using streamzap's IR receiver is so I can use other apps within MCE2005 or XP with just one remote. As mentioned in my previous message all the main functions for MCE2005, WinDVD, Musicmatch in addition to BTV are all pre-programmed in the Harmony. No need to use Girder for these.

However if those other programs ( like WinDVD, etc) aren't needed AND if you're not able to have the cable channels change with the serial port then I'm sure that the BTV plugin for Streamzap will work fine through the Harmony remote. One point to note is that if you choose to use the BTV setup with the Harmony you'll forefit all the Streamzap preconfigured application settings.
The harmony remote setup for BTV will only repsond to the BTV functions.
This is not to say that those applications (WinDVD, etc) couldn't be configured. But this would now require you to program settings within Girder to provide the functionality.

[rdb4133]

pc4ever1 which Harmony remote are you using?

[softnerd]

I use the StreamZap receiver with my Harmony 688 and it works great. I have 1 remote for everything.

However, the remote profile the Harmony software originally used didn't work. I had to transmit some IR strings from the StreamZap remote before it found the right profile.

[shalamigri]

I just bought a harmony 688. I downloaded Girder and somwhat have it setup to work properly with BM and BTV. I use a USB-UIRT to achieve this. I had to setup Girder with 2 multigroups;one for BM and one for BTV. I also had to use window conditionals to disable a certain group when the others groups window was open;ie, BM group is only active when the BM window is in the foreground. This is OK, but I would have preferred a simpler setup.

So you guys are saying that if I purchase a Streamzap remote and set BM and BTV up to use the Streamzap remote(instead of the firefly), I could have purchased any remote that could mimic the Streamzap? Do I have to use the streamzap receiver? I have a receiver on my USB-UIRT. Could I then uninstall Firefly and Beyond Media Basic?

[btvfreak]

If you're using Girder, then you can program the Harmony to mimic the Streamzap and use the USB-UIRT to receive the IR signals. All you get with the Streamzap is another set of IR codes this way. You'll need to map the IR signals from the Streamzap to BTV/BM commands using Girder.

If you don't use Girder, then you must use the Streamzap IR receiver. Not sure if the Streamzap is configured to work with Beyond Media. If it is, then you can setup your Harmony to minic the Streamzap and use the Streamzap receiver to control both BM and BTV.

[optikhog]

Originally Posted by btvfreak

Not sure if the Streamzap is configured to work with Beyond Media. If it is, then you can setup your Harmony to minic the Streamzap and use the Streamzap receiver to control both BM and BTV.

Works like a charm with BM. I picked up a bunch of JP1-capable universal remotes for our hosue and simply dumped the Streamzap codes into one of the buttons and voila! WAF 98%!

[btvfreak]

The only shortcomings of the Streamzap is that I don't see buttons pre-programed to control "Info", "Options", "Last Channel", or "Firefly" (to launch Beyond Media). Is this true?

[bleier]

I am thinking of getting a Harmony remote, currently I use the firefly, but I really want to go down to one remote. I would like a suggestion as I already have some hardware, for instance, I already have a usb-uirt, and as well, I have the silver remotes that came with my PVR-250s. What is the simplest option to control both BM Basic, BTV, and Theatertek?

#1 Harmony to Usb-uirt to girder to apps or

#2 Harmony to Hauppauge silver receiver to apps (will this support theatertek?)

The second seems much easier because I don't have to tinker with girder, which I dread (second only to FDD show)

Any suggestions?