I have an HTPC running Windows 7 Media Center. Due to my local cable company's evil plot to scramble all of its QAM signals, my digital tuner cards are no longer able to pull in channels other than networks. This doesn't meet my needs. I happen to have a few cable boxes around here though, so I have a simple question for you IR blaster experts out there:

My Media Center remote receiver has two jacks in the back. It shipped with a single IR emitter that fits either jack. I'm assuming that if I had another IR emitter, I could control two different devices at the same time through two IR emitters. So this is my question: If I have 2 identical cable boxes, each with its own IR emitter coming from the HTPC, can each box be controlled independently by the HTPC? In other words, if the HTPC changes the channel on one box through the IR emitter is an identical signal sent through the second IR emitter (which would then change the channel on the 2nd cable box, too).

I'm trying to figure out the best way to configure my HTPC now that the cable company has racheted up its signal protection to Defcon 1 by scrambling all non-network QAM in my area.

Thanks for your help.