LIRC with two HTPC's
#1
Hi!

I'm thinking about getting a second HTPC; one for Kodi and the other for a MythTV Frontend. I'm running lirc on one using a mceusb. If I get a second htpc and a IR receiver, it's going to send the signal to both at the same time. So, is there a way around it? Can you tell the HTPC to use this for hte one box and that for the other? How have others accomplished it? For what it's worth, I use a harmony remote.

Thanks!
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#2
Why wouldn't you run them both on the same HTPC?

Anyway, the answer is no, you can't have two MCE remote receivers in the same room. Just get a different remote receiver for your second HTPC. I recommend a FLIRC.

https://flirc.tv/

(A brief google search said there's a way to switch remote IDs on specific MCE remotes, but very little on how to do it and you would need to learn mode your harmony. Long story short, just get a FLIRC.)
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#3
I'd rather use one box to do both, but my issue is during boot. How can you choose between the two operating systems in grub?

Looking at information on the FLIRC, it looks like it does keyboard presses instead of using lirc. This might allow me to scroll through grub and choose what I want to do.

Can you asign an 'id' to flirc so I can have one remote profile for myth and another for kodi?
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#4
You could use Kodi as your PVR frontend with your MythTV backend. Unless you specifically want to use the MythTV frontend.
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#5
I do use Kodi as the myth front end for now, but honestly, Myth's front end is a lot more user friendly and readable. It's going to be used by the whole family and guests, so I need to make it as simple as possible.

While Kodi has done a lot of work in the PVR section, I believe Confluence needs to be tweaked a bit. Other skins (like Amber) look beautiful in the PVR section but not so much in others. I'm also use to Confluence and using another skin kind of gives me a headache. I guess I'm a creature of habit. Issues with the Confluence PVR is mostly the EPG. Displaying the 4 hour block of time is way too much. I got that shrunk down to a one hour increment, which is a lot better. Displaying 8 channels on the screen is also too much; I want 4. The vertical ruler (timeline thing) going across the screen makes the shows in the guide hard to read. Finally, I want to increase the font size of the programs so that it's readable easier. Other than that, the PVR works great in Kodi. I've also tried to modify the confluence skin for just the EPG, but it's way complicated and not very well documented.

So now, I'm resorting to either buying another box or trying to get dual boot to work. I'd rather do the dual boot because it will save a lot of money, but I'm not sure how much of a challenge it will be. I'm thinking that I might have to change the default boot kernel in grub to what corresponds on the remote.

I have a Harmony 880 and on the LCD screen, I have "Watch TV" (go to Myth) and "Watch Videos" (go to Kodi). Depending on which button the user presses, I want it to boot that OS and use the remote profile for that particular program. I'm sure it will take a bit of tweaking, but I think I might try the flirc. Either way, I'm going to have to buy another IR receiver, so it's not a total waste of money. If I can get it to work, it'll save me about 250 bucks. Smile
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