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  1. Member
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    My TV tuner/capture card didn't come with a remote. I am looking for an after-market remote kit that includes an IR blaster so I can use Windows 7's Media Center to record the output from an STB. My budget is $30.

    Most remotes don't come with an IR emitter and IR blaster. There are a couple in Noah Company's MediaGate product line, but they don't have many reviews.
    http://www.amazon.com/Noah-Company-MediaGate-GP-IR02BK-Ultimate/dp/B000W5GK5C/ref=pd_sim_e_3
    http://www.directron.com/mgir01bk.html

    Pinnacle/PCTV and Hauppauge both sell remote kits that look better. Anybody have one of these? What do you think?
    http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Remote-Kit-for-MCE/dp/B002KCOC3M
    http://store.hauppauge.com/hardware2.asp?product=mce_remote

    I also saw many supposed Dell OEM remotes on ebay from a US source that look like knockoffs of the original Microsoft Media Center remote. Has anybody tried these? Are they junk being palmed off on the unwary or are they a worthwhile product that works as well as the original Microsoft remotes?
    http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Microsoft-XP-VISTA-Media-Center-Remote-Control-Kit-/150458948...ht_2775wt_1135

    Thanks for your input.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 23rd Aug 2010 at 19:56.
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  2. Member
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    Time to give this one more try. Bump.
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  3. Member edDV's Avatar
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    For MCE, the remote, remote IR receiver and IR blaster to control the cable box all separately connect to the OS.

    Win7 has very poor documentation for hardware mix/match. This was the Vista page.
    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-vista/Browse.aspx?type=Hardware...ry=TV%20Tuners

    I'm still igoring Win7 MCE since I find the wtv file somewhat useless. I'm still using Vista version.

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    http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/115.aspx
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  4. Member
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    Thanks for the reply. I'm not a member there, but I did spend some time at thegreenbutton.com looking through threads on remotes before posting here. There is an FAQ there on the subject of remotes http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/p/86753/437008.aspx#437008 It seems like almost all Vista certified remote kits will work with windows 7. I'm not worried about compatibilty, for the most part.

    The Noah Company MediaGate MG-IR02BK kit is supposed to be cerified for Windows 7, and Hauppauge claims compatibility for its remote kit. I have found user comments from people using the Pinnacle/PCTV and Noah Company MediaGate GP-IR02BK confirming they work with windows 7 Media Center. The eBay remote kit is the only one I am not sure of, but if it is a good copy of the original Microsoft product (which is known to work with all versions of Media Center), it should be compatible.

    I'm more interested in things like the build quality of these products, or whether the remote quckly responds to a key press, or whether the receiver picks up the remote signal from a resonable distance and angle. It's looking doubtful that I'll get any feedback on that sort of thing. However, the remote is of less concern to me than the other parts of the kit. What I really need more are the IR receiver and IR blaster parts so I can record the output from my cable box. I guess any one of my non-eBay choices will do for that.

    More support for .wtv files will come. I have managed to find free software that does what I need to be done with .wtv files, and I would still have to do pretty much the same thing if I had .dvr-ms files instead.
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  5. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by usually_quiet View Post
    Thanks for the reply. I'm not a member there, but I did spend some time at thegreenbutton.com looking through threads on remotes before posting here. There is an FAQ there on the subject of remotes http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/p/86753/437008.aspx#437008 It seems like almost all Vista certified remote kits will work with windows 7. I'm not worried about compatibilty, for the most part.

    The Noah Company MediaGate MG-IR02BK kit is supposed to be cerified for Windows 7, and Hauppauge claims compatibility for its remote kit. I have found user comments from people using the Pinnacle/PCTV and Noah Company MediaGate GP-IR02BK confirming they work with windows 7 Media Center. The eBay remote kit is the only one I am not sure of, but if it is a good copy of the original Microsoft product (which is known to work with all versions of Media Center), it should be compatible.

    I'm more interested in things like the build quality of these products, or whether the remote quckly responds to a key press, or whether the receiver picks up the remote signal from a resonable distance and angle. It's looking doubtful that I'll get any feedback on that sort of thing. However, the remote is of less concern to me than the other parts of the kit. What I really need more are the IR receiver and IR blaster parts so I can record the output from my cable box. I guess any one of my non-eBay choices will do for that.

    More support for .wtv files will come. I have managed to find free software that does what I need to be done with .wtv files, and I would still have to do pretty much the same thing if I had .dvr-ms files instead.
    I'm just using the Hauppauge kit.

    When I want to export dvr-ms files, I just import them into Handbreak and output as h.264. Can't do that with .wtv.
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  6. Member
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    Is it the same Hauppauge remote I linked to in my first post? I seem to recall they used to sell something that looked a little different as an add-on, and the TV cards came with yet another remote. If it is the same one, do you like it, or are you just using the IR receiver/IR blaster with a universal remote?

    I'm converting the MPEG-2 .wtv recordings I want to save to .ts files, trimming the unwanted parts, and putting the result to a .mpg container. Converting to H.264 requires too much time for me.

    If HandBrake can accept .dvr-ms files now, maybe the development team will add support for .wtv files too, at some point. However, I get the feeling that HandBrake is more of a Linux and Mac-orented project, so adding support for a Windows-specific file format is not likely to be a priority. It would probably be easy to access the audio and video in unencrypted .wtv recordings for the Windows version using DirectShow, but adding support for it in the Linux and Mac versions could be harder.
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