JP1 Remotes

Is it possible to capture an IR signal from any IR receiver that is attached to my PC (such as the one that came with my media center remote?) Or is there something special about the IR widget that let's it decode the signal?

abishur wrote:Is it possible to capture an IR signal from any IR receiver that is attached to my PC (such as the one that came with my media center remote?) Or is there something special about the IR widget that let's it decode the signal?

A media center IR receiver would not be able to capture the sort of detail that the widget can, since a media center IR receiver would only provide the envelope of the signal without any frequency info. Also, you wouldn't be able to use the software available for use with the widget. If you don't have or for some reason don't want to purchase a widget, the next best thing is a JP1 learning remote, as much of what the widget can do, a JP1 remote with cable can do, just not as conveniently.

A.A.

ah, I was afraid of that. It is a learning remote, I just didn't want to have to teach it that much!

Most of the time a remote will capture everything a widget will. However sometimes signals are not "learnable" because they are too complicated but a widget doesn't care how complicated the signal is, it captures the timing information.

A widget is a very convenient capture mechanism. I have a lot of trouble with the awkward remote-to-remote learning. I could never remember what I put where, and often had bad learns, so the process was annoying enough that I wasn't capturing all of my remotes. BAD MISTAKE.

If it were just one piece of equipment, I don't know if I could have justified the expense. However I am learning signals all the time.

Do you still have the URC-8910 that you bought a few years ago? And if so, do you also have a JP1 cable? If you have both, you have everything that you need to capture the signals from a new device and use the captured info to build an upgrade.

We're here to help if any part of the process is too challenging.