Help for IR Blaster for the Media Center?

[hakhekim]

I am a proud owner of a Vaio AR-51SU laptop. One thing I cannot understand with it is the way it does not let me watch the video input through the s-video input port. My wish is to be able to watch the satellite broadcast from my STB and I know the hardware has that ability as the Windows Media Center can show me a preview of what is played ont the s-video input) but the set-up cannot be finalized as the computer says that I need to have an IR Blaster.

In a funny way, the computer wants to be able to control the STB through an IR Blaster and says "if I don't have the remote, I won't let you watch it at all!" - a classical problem, except the wife is replaced by an expensive piece of hardware!

So, as a result:
1) Is there any way to go around this problem without buying an IR Blaster which is of no use to me?
2) If not, what IR Blaster should I buy to use with my Vaio laptop?

[Blencogo]

Hi Hekimgil and welcome to Club Vaio.

Bad news!

The Vaio AR-Series is not designed to act as a monitor for external video equipment and it is not possible with the software available to stream live analogue video to the Vaio.

You cannot connect an IR Blaster to the AR-Series - this only connects to a true media centre PC like the XL-Series.

You cannot watch an analogue input full-screen in media centre.

I believe some users have had some success using a freeware analogue TV tuner software that will recognise the s-video inout and display the signal in full screen but no-one has given the exact details on how to do this.

[hakhekim]

Hi Blencogo, and thank you for your response.

This seems to be very strange, because on the settings section of the Media Center, I can actually watch the preview sized version of the SAT broadcast on the side which means that the necessary hardware exists. I was hoping that I can use an IR Blaster component with a USB connection. So I guess, like you said, I need to find the software that will do the trick without the fight for the remote controller. :smileygrin:

In fact, I already had a TV component that connects on the USB port, but I thought it would be embarassing to use that with a computer that has all the necessary hardware already. :smileyblush:

And in the meantime, if there is anyone with the knowledge of a freeware TV tuner software such as the one you mentioned, this should be a good place to make some recommendations.