Webbased Sky/Sky+ remote control software
=========================================

Connecting up the hardware
==========================

Connect one of the outputs from the controller to the RF2 output on the
Sky/Sky+ box.

If you have an aerial amplifier between the usb sky controller and the
sky/sky+ box, it must be one that supports the IR backpath. (If you have a
'magic eye' that works when connected to the amplifier then the usb
controller will also work fine. http://www.tvlink.co.uk/ make excellent
amplifiers if you need to buy a new one.)


Software Installation
=====================

1. Install apache & perl

We recommend using xampp:

https://www.apachefriends.org/xampp-files/5.6.8/xampp-win32-5.6.8-0-VC11-installer.exe

Only perl & apache are required (and php which is compulsory in xampp).

Once XAMPP is installed, start the XAMPP control panel. Click the ‘X’ next to Apache to
install the service.

If a Windows Firewall alert appears, enable Apache for both private and public networks.

Press the ‘Start’ button for Apache in XAMPP control panel.
3. Install cgi scripts

Copy the cgi-bin and htdocs directories from this zip file to
C:\xampp
(there should already be copies there - windows will over to merge them, say Yes)

Configuration
=============

At the top of cgi-bin/controls.cgi, there are several configuration options.

controller: update the COM port number as applicable
skyplus: set this to zero if you're not using a sky+/sky+hd
delay: you may want to increase this if you sky box is slower and the
       screengrab is taken too early a lot

You can edit this file using notepad++:

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/

Using it
========

Firstly, make sure that your TV card is tuned to the sky/sky+ channel.

To first check it works, visit:

http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/image.cgi

You should see an image grabbed from your TV card.
If you don't, try running the steps in 'Further configuration'.

If you don’t have a TV card, you can disable image capture by editing
controls.html, delete this line:

<img src="image.cgi/UNIQ">

Once you see an image, carry on and try the full page:

http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/controls.cgi

You should see a sky remote control on the right, and an image from the TV
card on the left. Clicking on the buttons on the remote should cause the
image on the left to update.

Potential problems
==================

If you have problems getting the tv image to display, please ensure you're
running the latest version of directx, as some earlier versions have known
bugs.

The latest version can be downloaded either from windows update or from:

http://www.microsoft.com/directx/


Further configuration
=====================

The image grabbed can be configured. By default, it uses the default/current
settings for the first video capture device on your system. Normally this
works fine - if so, you do not need to follow the next steps.

You can configure the:
- device
- input
- capture size
- RF channel (if applicable).

To configure this, run the batch file grabimage-configure.bat, and answer
the onscreen prompts. The configuration is stored into 'grabimage-config.txt'
in the cgi-bin directory.

Visit:

http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/image.cgi

to check your new selections work ok.

Accessing the software from the internet
========================================

To access the software from the internet, you will need to find the public
IP of your computer. If you are using a router, you will likely also need to
configure the router to send traffic to port 80 (http) to the PC that the
software is installed on.

If the PC the software is installed on is using a firewall, this may also
need to be configured to allow port 80 (http) to be accessed.

-- 
Copyright (C) Joseph Heenan 2005-2006
joseph@heenan.me.uk
