I have a media center pc set up with NTL UK Digital Box. A Samsung SMT-2100C
Everything works fine e.g. Channel changing with the media center remote except for a strange glitch

Example Choosing channel 1 will select channel 1, Choosing channel 12 will select channel 12 etc

But choosing channel 11 will select channel 1 and not 11
And choosing channel 113 will select channel 13

All the other channel numbers change correctly. I've been through the set up a few times but if anyone has the same problem I'd appreciate some help

Thanks

Hi there, are you using the red-eye converter or is that not required for your box. Anyway, it sounds like you need to change the speed that the remote works at.

I use Telewest with the red-eye. to get it working when you do the STB configuration you need to say that channel changing failed, then it tries medium speed, say that failed too, then it defaults to slow and all works well.

Hi

Tried what you said but changing the speed to med or slow doesn't make any difference

i,m still having the same problem with this and if i,m right then we don't need a red eye for this box as it uses standard rc5 protocol for the ir and also setting the speed to slow does not help.

when i rang the wife and she told me ntl engineer had been and changed the box cause the old pace box had died the first thought i had was well if this one doesn't work with media center then its time to ditch ntl, if i carn't find a soloution then they will have to go!!

 

You're right we don't need a red eye for this box and I'm sure the solution should be simple

One thing I have noticed is that the only channels that don't change correctly are the ones with 2 consecutive identical digits e.g. 11 113 500 changing to 1 13 and 50 respectively. It is ignoring one of the consecutive numbers so the suggestion that the speed was to blame was logical

Also NTL has just upgraded the software on these boxes. Does anyone know if this problem occurred before this upgrade?

I would also like to tell NTL to go but if you've just signed up for 12 months then what else can you do

There must be quite a few people in the UK using this box and having the same problem

i did a search and found a few posts relating to the samsung set top box, all with the same problem as we have but unfortunately no one ever seems to give a answer as to weather they had solved it.

your right there must be a few people in the uk that is using this box with media center so someone must have solved the problem???

 

Microsoft has a white paper for how to fix the double digit missing a digit problem. I have only heard of hte paper and not sure where it is. Someone once posted it on the forum though.

Hope this gives you at least a direction to find your solution.

OK Here it is

Article ID : 896480

You cannot change a set-top box to channels that have equal consecutive digits in Windows Media Center Edition 2005

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;896480

Good find, I have read the white papers and am doing as it says "increase by 75" but still no good does anyone know the number that the samsung uses

This is getting on my tits now

4 hours last night f**king about. I tried every value from 100 to 1000 in increments of 75 and still no change

I did notice that on some of the changes instead of ignoring 1 of the duplicate digits ie changing 113 to 13 it changed to 3 and ignored both of the duplicate digits

Surely these samsung boxes all use the same timing so when someone finds a number that works we will all be sorted

What do think are the chances of getting some advice on the timing from Samsung?

join the club mate, i'm about to sling this out the window, out of all the codes on the setup screen in media center i have the only make of settop box that isn't supported. i also tried every number i could think of and find that if you go above 600 it takes so long to change each number that the display goes back to the original before it has chance to finish hence 113 will be come 3.

As for support from samsung i am going to mail them if i can find a support address and ask them if they could give me the ir timing codes.

not holding my breath!!!!!

Basky.

Spoke to someone from NTL today but the truth is they either don't know what you're talking about or they're just plain not interested

I was told that all new customers were going to be supplied with the Samsung box and all replacements will be these boxes also

Means there's going to be an awful lot of people in the UK with media centers that don't work

Suppose a consolation might be that this increases our chances of someone fixing the problem

The Microsoft KB will not work with the Samsung SMT-2100C, the problem is due to a toggle bit that the Samsung expects to see between keypresses.  At the moment there is no MS fix for this issue, but Microsoft is aware of the problem (I have no idea of a timeframe for a fix).  However I have written a DLL that will allow you to change channels via a Serial Redeye device, PM or email me to discuss.

Many Thanks

I just got Media Center to play around with and was most disappointed
with the MCE remote blaster problems.
I have it stuck right on the front of my Samsung SMT-2100C, it works
fine apart from on repeated numbers.

I spent many hours on this, and thought I would share the simple
solution I found, which has everything working perfectly now.

The problem is that if a number is pressed twice on the NTL remote, the
second one is sent with a different code. The STB will not accept the
same signal again.

To get round this, I made Media Center send a blank key after each
number is pressed. I used the # key.
To do this:

-Run through tv set up again.
-Fail the remote detection on purpose.
-Choose 'have media center learn my remote from scratch'
-When told to press and hold '1', tap '1' and then hold '#'. It may
take a few attempts to get this accepted.
-Repeat for all keys.
Channel changes should now work fine for any number.
It seems to work without fail every time on my STB, although I haven't
thoroughly tested it yet...

-Jeepers

Brilliant!  I'd had a similar idea but no way to implement it.

I found there was a knack to getting the MCE box to learn the codes.  There was a rythm to it.  I tapped the first key and pressed the second key before the 'Continue' message flashed.  The best news is that if you mess up any of the keys (which I suspect is inevitable) you only have to re-learn those keys.

I recorded my keys the other way around: #1, #2, #3, etc.  I hoped that would wake the STB up if I'd switched it to standby by mistake.  It does wake it up but unfortunately the second half of the key gets sent before the STB is fully awake.

Anyhow.  I can now record Film Four (channel 444) without any problem.

You are a star!

Andy