Can't get IR Blaster to be recognized

[vanbrackin]

I'm trying to get an HVR1600 to work and it's driving me crazy.
Problem 1: When I load the IR blaster config tools, it says it cannot find the IR blaster hardware. The MCE remote works fine, even with Sage TV, but I can't get anything to see the IR Blaster.
Problem 2: Analog video quality - looks fuzzy, like it's being compressed too much via MPEG. So, I went and bought a TVWonder HD650 (hardware MPEG encoder vs the software encoder on the 1600) and still looks like it's compressing the snot out of it before displaying. I had an OLD All-In-Wonder card (pre-600 series) and it looked great. Why can't I get that good of video quality with a new board?
Problem 3: Now I've got two tuners in my machine and while running SageTV, I can't find out to switch between sources during live TV. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Van

[usually_quiet]

Apparently the IR blaster sold with that card only works with MCE, not SageTV or similar software. See page 2 of the following thread which suggests additional hardware that will allow it to work

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic347569-30.html