i was following the mythtv.org firefly wiki entry to setup my new firefly remote. i copied their lircd.conf & lircrc to their proper locations and restarted mythtv. *tada* the firefly remote is controlling the mythtv menus. i start up a video, and test to see if i can pause… yeah, nope. boo.

irw reports different values than what i have in the lircd.conf, and i can’t get irrecord to write to a file. i think it’s time to backup my mythtv install and just blow it away. it’s a perfect reason to try out mythbuntu on gutsy.

loading up the installer for the mythbuntu command center is as easy as clicking a link. for some reason my fricken controler STILL isn’t working though. there is a python script, mythbuntu-lircrc-generator , for mythbuntu that will generate an .lircrc for you though. [here] run that as the mythtv user and it will create both a ~/.lircrc and ~/.mythtv/lircrc. unfortunantly that didn’t work either.

ha! figured it out. keep reading for the config files…

1. i’ve included my ~mythtv/.lircrc file, copy it to ~/.mythtv/lircrc and symlink it to ~/.lircrc [here]
2. copy the lircd.conf.firefox to /usr/share/doc/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.firefox /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
3. copy the hardware.conf to /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
4. sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart
5. sudo killall -9 Xgl , or restart X and log in as the mythtv user
6. start mythfrontend and play around with the remote

(more…)

alright. this is entirely way to complicated. all i want is to for the cox universal remote to adjust the volume on my new samsung lcd. a quick google search for cox universal remote codes comes back with the cox manual pdf for their universal remote along with 6 different codes for samsung. seems easy enough… nope. after pressing around hundred buttons (seriously, 5 buttons to enter a code, 6 different codes, muliple entries for each code) and watching a little red light blink at me, i pretty much gave up.

back to google… yippie, more codes. of course those codes didn’t work either with the universal remote. arg. fortunantly there is a jp1.1 cable available so you can update the remote yourself. *snicker* honestly i’d rather try getting cox to update the remote with some newer tv codes so maybe i wouldn’t have to juggle remotes in order to change the channel and the volume with 2 different remotes.

but i’ve never had much luck with anything that “cox”, “customer”, & “support” in it.so instead i hop’d over to the samsung site, and it was easy to drill down through their menus to find the manual page for the lcd ( LN-S4692D ) and after hitting 10 buttons ( 2 codes, 5 buttons per code ) i could now bring up the cox digital menu, change channels, and adjust the volume from one remote.

the victory was short though, as i realized that there are no page-up/page-down buttons on the samsung remote. also, this cox cable box doesn’t autosense aspect ratios, you have to choose 4:3/16:9/zoom via their hd-zoom button, and samsung can’t change that on the cable box.Z.. only on the lcd itself. so i can have a 4:3 picture in a 16:9 picture. fun huh? but depending on the aspect ratio, i will have to pick up one of the remotes to fix it, and it’s gonna be the stupid cox remote. boo.

i’m gonna have to go see how far along mythtv w/ hd + cablecard is coming along. and also if cox is playing nice and actually allowing you to use cablecards. i’d consider buying a tivo series 3 if it wasn’t $800 for the box and entirely way too much for the service.