HTPC & STB

[DL126]

Doing anything with the factory remote on my satellite receiver is delayed by 3 seconds when running through Windows Media Center.
Over the course of an hour or so, this delay becomes more and more pronounced.
Any ideas as to why?

HTPC specs:
BadAxe2 w/C2D @ 3Ghz
4GB RAM
8800 Ultra - Video sent to Sharp 46" via Component Cables
AverMedia TV card w/dual tuner - Receiving video from STB via RG6
SATA Barracudas in RAID 0 on Intel controller
Vista 32bit SP1

[Skippman]

How are you controlling the satellite STB? RS-232 or IR repeater?

[DL126]

With the STB manufacturer supplied remote.

At this point, WMC is being used as nothing more than a DVR.
Probably will get an IR Blaster setup to control WMC later on.

[Skippman]

IR blaster would be ok, but I'd recommend a bi-directional solution like RS-232 if your HTPC has a serial port.

[DL126]

IR blaster would be ok, but I'd recommend a bi-directional solution like RS-232 if your HTPC has a serial port.

Why would you recommend this?

Do you have a link to such solution?

And do you have an idea as to why the remote has such a delay when going through WMC?
Maybe it can't be fixed .... i just like to know why "stuff" happens.

[Skippman]

I'd look on AVS Forum for an application specific RS-232 setup. RS-232 is an open source protocol used by most home theater equipment of decent quality. I uses a 9 pin serial connection to get bidirectional control over most devices. This means that the device can report back to the controller (in this case your HTPC) that it's made a change (channel, etc). That prevents the types of "out of sync" issues you get with IR based solutions.