DavidStein

[DavidStein]

I have an HDMI detective I am no longer using. I wasn’t having the same issue as you, but it did stop my 7MC switches to 1024×768 resolution when I turn my tv off issue. If you were interested, I’d give it to you for the cost of shipping.

[DavidStein]

I used a 64GB vertex 2 as my htpc OS drive for a couple years, but I just replaced it with a 120GB (samsung 840 pro, but that part doesnt really matter).

 

I found that if you want to use a 64GB you are going to have to spend a little more effort making sure you don’t install too much and are getting rid of temp files. Every so often I’d have to clear off some room because I was down to a couple GBs free.

 

its not a huge difference, but I don’t think i’ll have to bother with that now that Im at 120GB. looking at slickdeals or the deals forums at various larger messageboards (i use hardforums for this purpose) you can get a solid new 120GB for ~$90 (and there are a couple options out there at the moment). If you can swing the difference, id suggest it.

[DavidStein]

Well, I’m typing this from the IOGEAR keyboard (thanks amazon prime!). So far its exactly what I wanted in terms of registering keystrokes, and I like the slightly smaller size and shape better than my old one, so thats a bonus. about the only thing i dont like better is the mouse buttons, which feel a little janky, but with all the good reviews I expect that they will hold up well enough.

 

thanks for the help.

[DavidStein]

that IOGEAR is only ~$35 on amazon, I think thats definitely worth taking a chance on. it can’t really be any worse than my current keyboard (which to be fair, hasn’t been terrible and has lasted years under abusive conditions. also, it could very well be the wireless gas meter that is the trouble. we do have those.)

 

thanks everyone

 

and ps. i do use a usb extension cord to get the rf dongle out from behind the computer. it did make a difference, but not enough of one.

[DavidStein]

I’m about 200GB away from needing another harddrive, but I can probably also just clean my current ones up a bit and make more room. I’m hoping that prices drop a little further before I have to break down. Not that I think 165$ is particularly expensive for 3TB of storage in one drive but we have been very spoiled with the pace of hard drive capacity and ive gotten used to it

[DavidStein]

I dont want to say anything definitively because I really only have what I have googled in the past and my own experience but with that caveat:

it is my belief that it is possible that a random USB IR receiver you purchase from ebay to be programmed/designed to only receive IR codes in different frequencies than what your remote outputs. But that in practice most remotes are close enough, such that you will almost certainly be fine. I couldn’t prove the receiver i bought would work with my remote, but I bought it and it did. I think most receivers from gateway/hp/whatever have a little red LED that blinks everytime it receivers an IR signal, so you know its physically working even if you are having trouble getting your computer to recognize that its receiving a code.

 

if you were really worried and wanted to spend some money (which you dont appear to be), you can always buy a USB-UIRT which has been designed to accept IR codes from pretty much anything you could find, but its 50$:

http://www.usbuirt.com/

 

as for the software, the main ones I know of are HIP, Girder, and Intelliremote. They work by monitoring the IR receiver, when it receives an IR code, it passes it to the program. From there, the program sees what command you want executed when that IR code is received, and executes it. I dont know exactly why HIP wouldnt work for me, but I found intelliremote to ‘just work’ and its not that expensive. they are all very powerful in what you can do, they can even execute scripts.

[DavidStein]

When I came to this question, I didn’t think the microsoft media center remotes were flexible enough (in that i wanted to be ablet o power on the television and control my receiver as well) so I went with a USB IR Receiver from ebay:

something like this (5$): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gateway-Symphony-USB-IR-Remote-Receiver-grey-/160655073639?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2567c9e167#ht_2038wt_1396

and a standard universal remote (15$):

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SRP1507-27-Universal-featuring/dp/B004PYS45K/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1327502632&sr=8-6

there are free programs to let you assign actions to each button, but I never quite got them to work so i splurged for intelliremote (24$):

http://melloware.com/products/intelliremote/

 

its a nice flexible system and is close to your budget.

 

[DavidStein]

So as it turns out, it wasn’t the HDMIdetective or 7mc that was at fault. I disabled 7mc starting upon windows startup and the resolution still was forced to 1024×768 so I did some more googling and it turns out that the windows live mesh remote connection service, which I had installed before traveling for the holiday in case i needed to access my htpc, is to blame. I just didn’t think of it because that change in my system was a week or two old (it just so happened that I had never restart my computer since installing it). I set that service to a delayed start and sure enough a couple minutes after restarting my computer the resolution would get forced to 1024×768, set it to disabled and the problem is gone.

 

so thank you all for your help but it was my own damn fault.

[DavidStein]

New issue that only cropped up with the HDMIdetective installed but is the fault of windows (maybe 7mc specifically):

Not that I have to do it very often, but when the computer either restarts or cold starts, the bios, windows loading screen, and welcome/login screen all are displayed at 1080p as expected.

but as soon as it changes to the desktop (with 7mc opening automatically) the display reverts to 1024×768. Once i manually change it back its happy and I can turn off the television all I want without it changing away from 1080p, but every time the computer starts up windows briefly freaks out and goes to 1024×768

Any suggestions? I was going to change 7mc to not start automatically to see if its the windows desktop or 7mc (i suspect its the latter) but if so does that information help me?

[DavidStein]

I set it up following _all_ of the instructions this evening and so far it seems to be working properly now. I am using the short cable provided in the HDMIdetective box between the HDMIdetective and the display at the moment, so hopefully I won’t have any problems, but if I do I’ll try a longer cable.

[DavidStein]

I had thought that the dipswitchs were just another way to set the EDID info and didn’t have anything to do with the HDCP handshake, but I did go through it quickly. I just looked at the manual online and saw the part about having to set dipswitch 4 to ensure hdcp compliance.

 

thank you.

[DavidStein]

agreed, mine does the same thing. Ive always thought of it as partially a bug in WMC, and partially my budget television. If you leave the computer at the desktop it won’t do it so 7mc has to be involved but I also think its just that when the TV is turning on its not telling media center what resolution it needs fast enough. I might try an HDMI detective to see if that fixes it, but its an expensive fix (compared to my current solution: map alt-enter to a remote key)

[DavidStein]

my simple solution was just to map a remote button to alt-enter. as soon as you take media center out of full screen mode the computer will recognize that it should be at its 16:9 resolution and fix itself, then I press the button again to put it back in fullscreen. 

 

its annoying, but not annoying enough to pay 85$ for a hdmi detective (at least for me).

[DavidStein]

good to know, i was safe anyways because the reviews on tigerdirect said it only runs 1333 at 1.5V, 1600 needs 1.65V and I’ve got a sandy bridge rig.

[DavidStein]

that price is low enough to tempt me to go to 16GB, even though i have absolutely no reason for more (heck, even 8GB is overkill) 

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