SR250 to HC300 to controlled component IR signal lag

I know that there have been quite a few reported glitches with the SR250 and connection to the HC300 controller. Here is one more that I don't think has been addressed.

When using the SR250 to control the Motorola HD-DVR box in my living room there are times when it delays sending IR commands to the box. It is not like the HC300 is not getting the signals as when the "freeze" stops all the commands you have pressed get sent to the IR emitter.

The IR emitters are for the HD/DVR and are connected to the HC300 in the living room. Director and zigbee server is running on the master HC300 in another room. Both HC300's are hard wired to the network.

Again it seems the connection from the SR250 to the master HC300 is okay, I don't get the connecting to director or please wait etc. messages. Just no response and then after a delay of 15 - 20 seconds all the commands flow.

This does not happen every time but frequently.

Any one else experience this or have any thoughts on a reason and or fix?

A second question is I notice that there is constant traffic chatter on the switch/port where the non-master HC300 is connected to the network. Is that normal?

Thanks in advance....

Sounds to me like the controller is getting bogged down with some process, and then when it has the ability it blasts all the commands off that have been pouring in.

Have you checked the load on the CPU?

But, I have seen instances where it is not CPU-related. I've putz-around extensively with IR signal reflectivity and discovered there is some "buffer effect" taking place with IR commands with certain mounting/covering conditions of the emitter. Also seen double-commanding take place too.

But, I have seen instances where it is not CPU-related. I've putz-around extensively with IR signal reflectivity and discovered there is some "buffer effect" taking place with IR commands with certain mounting/covering conditions of the emitter. Also seen double-commanding take place too.

Yeah, I have had several componenets where double-commanding took place and the repeat count on the IR command needed to be lowered. The "buffer effect" I don't completely understand, but that isn't surprising. There is lots of stuff I don't understand =)

IR emitter is directly on front of HD/DVR box, HD/DVR is in open shelf not inside closed door. I have already changed all repeat counts for the codes sent to the HD/DVR to 1. This was to get the double play sequence to properly trigger the 30 second skip feature of the HD/DVR.

I can't imagine in my small system that the CPU of the master HC300 would be taxed and bogging down, but definitely worth a look. I will monitor it as I use the remote. I had read on the forum elsewhere that RyanE said screen savers use a lot of CPU power so I have turned those off on both the HC300's/navigators I have. However, that did not solve the problem.

If any other suggestions, pass them along please.

IR emitter is directly on front of HD/DVR box, HD/DVR is in open shelf not inside closed door. I have already changed all repeat counts for the codes sent to the HD/DVR to 1. This was to get the double play sequence to properly trigger the 30 second skip feature of the HD/DVR.

I can't imagine in my small system that the CPU of the master HC300 would be taxed and bogging down, but definitely worth a look. I will monitor it as I use the remote. I had read on the forum elsewhere that RyanE said screen savers use a lot of CPU power so I have turned those off on both the HC300's/navigators I have. However, that did not solve the problem.

If any other suggestions, pass them along please.

Is the HC300 that is connect to the IR out the same HC300 that is running director?

I have my entire project ran on an HC300 and it works great. I use an HC300 to run director, another to run navigator (through a matrix switch to 4 tv's), and a media controller to run zigbee and serve up audio. I have a pretty big project too. I run photo screensaver on my touchpanels, and I have a TON of programming going on. The only time I notice lag is SOMETIMES when scrolling through my movies on the GUI using the page up and page down buttons. I do plan on replacing my two HC300's with an HC1000 V3 and several HC200's, but I am not going to do that until I migrate my video distribution over to HDMI.

It runs the project great, I am actually really impressed with what I am getting out of the HC300.

The HC300 with the IR going to the HD/DVR in the living room IS NOT the main controller/running director.

It is a slave and provides IR outputs to my A/V devices (5 of them) in the living room and the navigator to the TV. Only other C4 device in the living room is a 6 button desktop mounted keypad.

The HC300 master controller running director provides IR connection to 8 A/V devices in my bar area which is in the basement, one floor down from the living room. There are 3 dimmers and a 6 button keypad in the bar area as well. I have a Western Digital 320GB hard drive connected via USB to the master controller as well.

Only other device that connects to the C4 system is my iPhone.

Like I said not a big system... yet !!

I was continuing to get the lag as reported earlier. Even switched the SR250 that I was using in the room with the one in the bar. Didn't seem to make a difference.

I then disconnected and reconnected the HC300 that was running director in the IP Network Connections.

Before disconnecting and reconnecting the HC300, you can see in the director message history screen shots attached it was constantly either getting AV Devices or AV Media. After the disconnect/reconnect it is showing the director as idle and so far no lags.

Crossing my fingers and toes.

Please take a look at the history logs and let me know what you guys and or gals think

tigrzeye, I've been having a similar experience with my Comcast Motorola HD DVR (DCT-3416I) and HC300 over the last month. The DVR appeared to freeze for 10 - 20 seconds and then would suddenly execute all the commands from the SR-250. I assumed it was related to C4.

But, the last couple of times it froze, I got off the sofa and hit the buttons on the front of the DVR - same frozen/delayed response. The next time it froze, I tried the original DVR remote - same thing. That made me think it must be the DVR. I did a Comcast "live chat", went through a lengthy "resetting" of the DVR and everything seems to be functioning normally now. Comcast was really good about it, indicating if it happened again, they would replace the DVR. (If you Google "motorola DVR freezes" it looks like it's pretty common for these boxes to lock-up).

In my case, it turned out to be the DVR.

urbanmark .. I thought about that initially, but I can see that the IR's aren't emitting any signals, as they flash red when they emit a signal. They do nothing then all of a sudden blink out 4 or 5 commands at once. The DVR responds immediately when the IR's blink/transmit.

I should add... still so far so good since disconnecting the HC300 from the project and reconnecting. Director still shows idle.

One last post on this issue.

I am posting a screen shot of my history from this morning. You can see where I selected my HD Cable Box from the Watch menu on the SR250. Before that idle, after that idle.

I am not sure what caused the problem, but seems to have gone away now after disconnect/reconnect of the HC300 that is running director in my system.