New HTPC setup, basic questions

[DeltaNu1142]

Yesterday I received a HP Slimline S5750Z PC that I bought on eBay. It has a Quad-core 3.1GHZ PC with 6GB memory and a 1TB drive, a Hauppauge TV card, blah, blah, blah. Essentially, I wanted an all-around home computer that would be connected to my HT full-time. It's my first home computer in a year or so, as I typically work from a laptop.

I have it connected to my AVR via HDMI, and everything's working well. I intend to control it via my Omnilink, so I have some questions:

• The PC has an "IR in" and two "IR outs". How do these work?
• Can I connect my Omnilink directly to the "IR in" on the PC via a 3.5mm mono cable and expect it to receive commands?
• What about the "IR out" ports? Do they pass through commands from the "IR in"? Only when PC/card power is on, or anytime?

What I'm thinking is, the PC will have an emitter from the "IR out" to my cable box; and I'm wondering if I need to stack emitters on the cable box (one for 'normal' control, and one for control from the PC). Also, if I can avoid having to stick an emitter on the front of the PC by just connecting it directly to the Omnilink, that would be great. It all *should* work with emitters, but cleaner is better. I would test it all out now, but I'm not yet using this Omnilink for my HT; still moving equipment to where it will ultimately be, running cables through walls, etc. The AVL-300/Omnilink in my bedroom works great!

 

[DeltaNu1142]

Follow-up to the post above... the IR in port doesn't work with my Omnilink using either a mono or a stereo cable. Could be a driver issue. I haven't been able to find anything out by contacting HP.

 

[fwd03]

Don't know HP Slimline, I have another device have IR-in and IR out port, it comes with IR emitter LED and IR receiver chip, each on its own 3.5mm jack/plug.

 

[DeltaNu1142]

Don't know HP Slimline, I have another device have IR-in and IR out port, it comes with IR emitter LED and IR receiver chip, each on its own 3.5mm jack/plug.

Right. I have the same; in fact, I think the card has and IR-in and TWO IR-outs. I'm not necessarily concerned with the IR-outs and really just wished the IR-in would function.