HR34 IR Input

dhofferber · Feb 25, 2012

Has anyone gotten the IR input on the rear of the HR34 to work? If so, Please describe your setup and anything you had to do to get it to work. I'm using a URC MSC-400 with a OPPO cable. No response using rear port. Works fine with flasher. Supposed to work just like the HR21 Pro but I have yet to find anyone that has gotten that to work either.

Stuart Sweet · Feb 25, 2012

I've tried to get it to work with no success.

CurtP · Feb 25, 2012

Worked fine for me with both the HR21P and HR34, although I no longer use that setup. Oppo cable to a Harmony 900 blaster (requires a Radio Shack plug adapter). I've also had it working on the HR21P with a Harmony 890 blaster.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I had to specify that the output for the HR21P/HR34 had to go out a specific port on the blaster. If I didn't specify, it wouldn't work.

dhofferber · Feb 25, 2012

CurtP

It sounds like you are using a IR blaster with the front panel IR receiver and not the IR serial input on the back.

CurtP · Feb 25, 2012

Nope. I actually put a piece of black electrical tape over the IR port to keep stray signals from affecting it. The rack with the HR21P/HR34 is in a closet in the living room and feeds the master bedroom. There's another receiver in the living room. If the SWMBO happens to leave the closet door open (which happens quite often), the living room remote will control the receiver in the closet.

There are two ports on the back of my Harmony blasters that usually have additional IR transmitters plugged into them. I use one of them to control the receiver. I plug the 2-contact end of the Oppo cable into the Harmony extender, and the 3-contact end of the cable into the DirecTV receiver. I then tell the blaster to send the IR commands for that receiver out the port where the cable is connected.

dhofferber · Feb 25, 2012

That's exactly what I'm trying to do with the MSC-400. I'll look into the output of the Harmony to see what difference there may be to the URC.

Beerstalker · Feb 29, 2012

Could the Oppo cable be the issue? Why are you suing a stereo to mono cable (at least I think that is what you are using)?

Shouldn't you just be using a standard 1/8" stereo cable?

Herdfan · Mar 1, 2012

Stuart Sweet said:
I've tried to get it to work with no success.

And if you can't get answers as to how it works, the rest of us are certainly SOL.

Stuart Sweet · Mar 1, 2012

I tried three things. I took a straight-through cable and went from the IR out of a Slingbox into the HR34. Then I cut the wire and swapped them. Didn't think that would work and it didn't. I even took the IR Out from an RF remote extender and it didn't work.

It just has to use a different set of codes.

CurtP · Mar 1, 2012

Beerstalker said:
Could the Oppo cable be the issue? Why are you suing a stereo to mono cable (at least I think that is what you are using)?

Shouldn't you just be using a standard 1/8" stereo cable?

The Oppo cable is cheap and easy and is already wired the correct way. You cannot use a stereo to mono cable. On the HR21P/HR34, tip is +5v; you only use the ring (+) and sleeve (-). The Oppo cable doesn't have the tip on the three-connecter end wired at all.

A quick test of the cable is to plug in the three-connector end into the HR21P/HR34 and use a digital voltmeter on the other end. If you see 5v, it isn't wired correctly.

Stuart Sweet said:
I tried three things. I took a straight-through cable and went from the IR out of a Slingbox into the HR34. Then I cut the wire and swapped them. Didn't think that would work and it didn't. I even took the IR Out from an RF remote extender and it didn't work.

It just has to use a different set of codes.

Just a standard stereo or mono cable? That won't work. Codes are the same.

Easiest solution is to use an IR transmitter directly on the front of the receiver and use a piece of 1" wide electrical tape over it to prevent stray signals from coming in. That's what I do on equipment that doesn't have an IR input port on the back.

Herdfan · Mar 1, 2012

CurtP said:
A quick test of the cable is to plug in the three-connector end into the HR21P/HR34 and use a digital voltmeter on the other end. If you see 5v, it isn't wired correctly.

Thanks. I'll give that a try this evening.

bkpierce · Mar 7, 2012

I'm using the front mounted IR flasher on my HR34. It's signal comes from a URC MRF-260 RF base station. This configuration works OK but I would really like to be able to use the HR34 IR input port. The MRF260 base station output, and I would suspect the MSC400 also, supports a mono jack ( I guess configured as ground and a data tip). The HR34 wants and input jack to be configured ground, data and +5v at the tip. CurtP posts the tip is not used, only the mid and bottom ring. Will the Oppo cable properly communicate between the MRF260(mono) and the HR34 IR input? If so, what is the Oppo cable model number?

CurtP · Mar 8, 2012

Oppo only has one cable and it's under Accessories>IR Accessories on their website. It's only described as "IR adapter cable for BDP-83". It's $2.

And yes, only the ring and sleeve is used on the HR21P/HR34 end.

bkpierce · Mar 11, 2012

I got the Stereo/mono cable from Oppo. Tested it to verify cable; Mono tip has continuity with stereo mid ring; mono ground and stereo ground(bottom ring)have continuity;stereo tip is connected nothing. Plugged it in and NOTHING. It doesn't work. I guess that the IR port is about as useless as a set of mammary glands on a mule.:lol::lol:. I will probably have to continue using the front IR flasher and adjust the signal strength from the MRF-260.

CurtP · Mar 11, 2012

Did you assign the IR ports on your MRF-260 via the software? Are the standard flashers that plug into the port two or three contact?

bkpierce · Mar 11, 2012

I assigned ports via software. The hr34 is assigned to variable output port #1. Standard Ir flashers are mono (2 contact).

CurtP · Mar 12, 2012

I'm at a loss. Was anything in the last release of the HR34 software changed for the IR port? I had it working with my Harmony 900, but now the receiver is in the living room at my new place so I'm not using the RF extender anymore.

Chuck W · Mar 13, 2012

bkpierce said:
I got the Stereo/mono cable from Oppo. Tested it to verify cable; Mono tip has continuity with stereo mid ring; mono ground and stereo ground(bottom ring)have continuity;stereo tip is connected nothing. Plugged it in and NOTHING. It doesn't work. I guess that the IR port is about as useless as a set of mammary glands on a mule.:lol::lol:. I will probably have to continue using the front IR flasher and adjust the signal strength from the MRF-260.

Same here. I bought the same cable and have a mrf-350. I have the little IR eye for the receiver coming from port 4 on my unit. I unplugged the IR eye, plugged the cable into the HR34 and the IR port on the mrf-350 and just as you... NOTHING. I reversed the cable just to see and still nothing.

Not sure what else to try.

CurtP · Apr 12, 2012

I reconnected my Harmony IR extender since I moved equipment around again. Same cable, same adapter, same extender that I used last time no longer works. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

kash · Sep 12, 2012

Sorry to bring this thread back from the depths..
But i have a harmony 900 and was also wanting to wire this up via the ir blaster... is this the oppo cable you guys are talking bout?
oppodigital.com/proddetail.asp?prod=IRAC (not my 5th post so i cannot post urls

also is the mono end 2.5mm? and the other end the 3.5mm that goes into the HR34?

one more thing, can i get a splitter and pipe one end into the hr34 and one into my receiver (denon 3312CI) ?

i need to research what goes in there also.

TIA
Kash

HR34 IR Input

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