Serial control on the 5000 series

It doesn't. Tivo doesn't either. Why not? Because the machines only work if their inputs are always on. So it doesn't want to risk turning them off and not recording anything.

Some of the sat receivers do not have discrete on and off IR codes, but if they don't have discrete codes via the serial port, well, yikes, how could they overlook something like that? But I guess if they could botch the IR code then they could certainly botch the RS232 protocol just as easily. If all you have is a 'Toggle Power' command and no way to inquiry the unit as to whether it's on or off, then there'd be no way for the Replay (or Tivo) to know whether it should toggle the power or not, so they have to just assume the STB is on all the time.


Attach a yellow sticky note to the power button.


David

This really just depends on the model of your receiver. Like my receiver (Sony Sat-B55), it technically never turns off (unless you pull the plug). I know before I hooked up a UPS to my receiver and Replay, whenever the Replay issued a command to the receiver after a power outage the receiver would turn back on. This is a function of the receiver, not the Replay.

I can't speak for the 5000 line, but my 4504 WILL trun on my RCA DTV box (I have one of the older modesl - 2.5 years old I think). I find that anytime the show requires a channel change to something on DTV, Replay appears to turn on the unit and change the channel. If the show is OTA, the box stays off. Maybe it's something in my RCA box. But it does work for which I am very thankful! It dones't shut it off when it's done though...