![]() My camera has a decent IR blocking filter so I had to use nightshot mode to see it:įinally, I put heatshrink over the LED connections and the resistor to avoid short circuits:īack in the living room I plugged the DIY IR blaster into the jack marked ‘IR’ on the back of my TiVo. I tested the circuit by applying 3-5V to the 1/8″ plug (tip is positive) and used my digital camera to check if the LED is working. I connected the tip wire to the side of the LED with the longer lead (the side opposite the flat side of the LED). The tip of the 1/8″ mono plug is positive. I used 1k, if I see any problems with the cable box getting an intermittent signal I’ll try lowering the resistor to 330 ohms. I don’t know if the resistor is required – the TiVo may already have an internal resistor. a 1/8″ mono headphone plug with a couple feet of cable attached.a 1k resistor (not sure if this is necessary, safety first).Rather than spend $3 on eBay and wait a week to get a replacement, I decided to make one out of spare parts in my junk bin: The IR blaster that came with our TiVo was lost long ago, in a time when no unnecessary electrical-optical-electrical sillyness was required for it to function. What manager approved this?īack to the TiVo. It grates against my engineering sensibility. ![]() It’s both ingenious, and at the same horrific in so many ways. The cable box thinks that the user is punching away at the remote (with lightning speed) while in reality a microprocessor is generating the remote codes and sending them to the LED. Instead of pushing for a universal protocol to electrically connect cable boxes to things that may want to control them, some engineer came up with the incredibly stupid great idea to stick an IR LED in front of the IR receiver of the cable box and use it to simulate a handheld IR remote control. I would love to meet the engineer who came up with the IR blaster. TiVo provides a workaround for this – the infamous IR blaster. Most importantly, a cable box prevents our old Series 2 TiVo from being able to change channels directly, since it now has to negotiate with the digital cable box to receive TV signals. More than just another piece of equipment to find a place for near the television, cable boxes waste power, always seem to take forever to change channels, contribute to the ball of wires behind the entertainment center, and add another remote control to the coffee table. Because of this they are forcing encouraging customers to get new cable boxes and upgrade to digital cable. Recently I discovered that our local cable provider will soon be discontinuing analog cable service for most channels.
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