On 7/30/05, Michael T. Dean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Mercury Morris wrote: > > >On 7/30/05, Michael T. Dean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > >>The ATI Remote Wonder is just an X10 USB remote (NVIDIA also has a > >>flavor of the same remote hardware). > >> > >>With the ATI Remote Wonder, you have to choose between the kernel driver > >>... or LIRC ... and create a > >>LIRC config that's appropriate for all your applications ... > >>(You may have noticed my bias toward using LIRC.) > >> > >I have an ATI Remote Wonder, and I use it as a radio frequency > >device. Your post, as well as quite a few others I've read in the > >last month or so, seem to indicate that it can be used as an IR > >device. At least that's how I interpret the references to LIRC. > > > >Maybe I'm completely confused, but if you wouldn't mind, > >could you point me in the direction of learning how to use > >the ATI Remote Wonder as an IR (InfraRed) device ? > > > > > Actually, the RW only does RF. The "I" (for Infrared) in LIRC is an > unfortunate remnant of the projects original/main purpose--to make IR > remotes work with Linux. However, LIRC has been extended to include > modules for other types of remotes--including the X10 USB remotes which > use RF signals. (Maybe we should call it the Linux Incredible Remote > Control package, instead. ;) > > Some of the other flavors of X10 remotes (i.e. the X10 Lola Multimedia > Remote) also include an IR transmitter (in the remote, not the > receiver), which allows you to program the remote to send commands to > your TV, A/V receiver, etc. So, basically, you're transmitting RF > signals to your computer, then you press the "TV" button on the remote > to switch to IR mode with the TV commands and turn on the TV, then you > press "Computer" to switch to RF mode to tell Myth to play a recording, > then you press "Aux" (or whatever) to switch to IR mode with the A/V > receiver commands to adjust the volume, then you press "Computer" to > switch to RF mode to tell Myth to adjust timestretch... Wow. That's > way too much work!!! > > As long as you can talk to your Myth box, it's easy to set it up to pass > along commands to other devices. I'm using my ATI RW to send signals to > the Myth box and it sends signals--via a homebrew IR blaster--to my > other devices as required (i.e. for changing the volume on my A/V > receiver, powering on my TV or A/V receiver, etc.). This allows me to > move the entertainment center to another room and have the cleanest of > all possible home-theater setups--just a screen and speakers in the > viewing room while still being able to control it from any room in the > house. (Beats a "looks-good-in-an-entertainment-center" PC case any > day... IMHO, the ugliness isn't the case in the entertainment center, > it's the entertainment center itself.) (OK, as you may have guess by > the fact that my screen is in a different room from my Myth box, I > actually push the power button on the TV myself... I only have one > serial port, and am afraid of over-driving it by hooking in both an IR > blaster for the components and a simple IR transmitter for powering > on/off the TV.)
Mike, Thank you SO much for the explanation. All this time I kept thinking, "How can these idiots keep referring to the ATI Remote Wonder as an IR device?", because I have one and it emits NO IR whatsoever. Now I see that it should be possible for me to abandon the kernel module, ati_remote, in favor of LIRC support. I much prefer LIRC support, which I use in another MythTV box, because I can execute whole commands and scripts with it. With ati_remote kernel module, all I can do is send keystrokes, which makes it very hard to execute scripts. Your entertainment setup sounds extremely nice, quite clearly the "cleanest of all possible home-theater setups". Congratulations on building what sounds like an amazing system. Thanks again for clearing up my confusion. -- MM _______________________________________________ mythtv-users mailing list [email protected] http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
