Does there exists a HDMI CEC (Consumer electronic control) plugin for EventGhosts? It would be pretty cool to be able to control your TV/DVD player thorugh HDMI.
TIA
S├©ren
Notice: This forum has been recovered from an old backup, so some content, links, and dates may be outdated. The forum is currently read-only while we restore sign-in and registration functionality. Details
If you find this forum valuable and would like to help keep it online, donations to help cover hosting and domain costs are greatly appreciated, but never expected. You can support the forum through Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Thank you for helping preserve the EventGhost community.
If you find this forum valuable and would like to help keep it online, donations to help cover hosting and domain costs are greatly appreciated, but never expected. You can support the forum through Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi. Thank you for helping preserve the EventGhost community.
HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
As far as I know, such plugin for EG doesn't exist. Not because nobody wouldn't think of it yet, but because there is no support for HDMI CEC protocol for the graphic cards yet. I may be proved wrong, but a couple of months ago when I thought about doing what you are suggesting, I googled and googled but found no useful mechanism (software) to generate CEC commands. As the CEC commands are send through HDMI, it is basically the responsibility of graphic card drivers to offer such functionality. I found no such functionality for Nvidia and Ati cards a few months ago, and I doubt much changed since then. However, I would be interested in any such solution whenever it appears. In the meantime, I found an adequate alternative in just using an IR blaster like USB-UIRT, which works with practically all IR controlled devices, not just CEC-enabled ones.
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
@Samcek
I was guessing that was the case, but didn't research it. I was hoping someone who know more than I would reply.
Thanks,
Brett
I was guessing that was the case, but didn't research it. I was hoping someone who know more than I would reply.
Thanks,
Brett
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
The situation is even worse than I thought - it's a hardware problem as well. Judging from posts in this forum, the CEC protocol utilizes separate HDMI pins, which are usually not connected when using DVI-HDMI adapter. So unless you're using graphic card with a built-in HDMI port, there's no chance of using CEC protocol, even if the software was available. Bummer.
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
I know this is an old thread but there is a plugin and it is releasing soon...
http://shop.rcaware.com/Rainshadow-Tech ... PC-CEC.htm
http://www.rcaware.com/
http://shop.rcaware.com/Rainshadow-Tech ... PC-CEC.htm
http://www.rcaware.com/
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
the device is pretty cool but a few thoughts....
What does this provide over and above what a Logitech Harmony remote does? It seems like the Harmony can do most, if not all, of the same things? (I use a Harmony with EG and it can do everything I saw on the video)
EG is not a noobie app (ie very small community) thus a very limited few will be in the potential market for EG integration
I'm not basking the device, video, or EG integration - it is nice - just wondering how many would adopt it considering the "connected" state of most new TVs, Receivers, etc. I think those that would spend $100 on that device would be the ones spending $ on connected devices and Harmony remotes - yes?
What does this provide over and above what a Logitech Harmony remote does? It seems like the Harmony can do most, if not all, of the same things? (I use a Harmony with EG and it can do everything I saw on the video)
EG is not a noobie app (ie very small community) thus a very limited few will be in the potential market for EG integration
I'm not basking the device, video, or EG integration - it is nice - just wondering how many would adopt it considering the "connected" state of most new TVs, Receivers, etc. I think those that would spend $100 on that device would be the ones spending $ on connected devices and Harmony remotes - yes?
setup... XBMC, W7MC for DVR & Live OTA TV, JRMC for multi-zone audio, EG, MiCasaVerde Vera3, USB-UIRT IR receiver, Harmony remote, 5.2 home theater system
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
Valid points. "Consumer acceptance" of a product like EG and this device will be lower than something like the Harmony which is obviously more native to the average consumer. With it's basic control smoothed out very well with some extended and "relatively" easy to use features such as multi-function button mapping etc it is a very successful product indeed. And connected TVs may be more attractive to those with fewer technical skills or that don't desire a full PC in their living room and have the $ to spend. I also would like to see this device sell for less than $100 but it is not in high enough demand yet to drive production costs down. My hope is that enough interest will be generated once people actually use it and report how great it is that I can make a bold move and make larger purchases from the OEM to drive prices down. This would undoubtedly make the product more competitive.
What it gives you over your Harmony? You had to program the Harmony for your TV, you're receiver, setup to turn everything on/off at once, program for punch through volume control to the receiver, maybe program some multi-key macros, and then use EG anyway and configure that with the proper plugins for your MCE IR receiver so you could control the PC, right? I assume you had to create macros to use the remote as a mouse since the Harmony is not native to the PC (like an MCE remote), with as much control as I demonstrated, this takes some skill and time. Also if you're really not just doing basic control of volume of your external receiver through punch through but do in fact have it always in sync with the volume of your PC then you must have RS-232 control of the receiver which you are lucky to have not everyone does (or something with two way communications between PC and receiver) and you must have written some python code to accomplish this synchronization as well. Either that, or you meant to say you have simple control via punch through of your Harmony, and you have neglected the difference there. If you have a keyboard as a secondary control device, this feature is VERY nice. Very annoying if someone in the house uses the keyboard and turns the computer volume down or mutes it because they could not reach the TV remote at that time, and then later you have to grab the keyboard to change the computer volume so you can watch TV. This plugin has that coded right in. On that note if you have a wireless keyboard, what do you do if you want to shutdown or start up everything from the keyboard? Grab the remote? I just added the sleep key from my keyboard to the plugins standard sleep / wake macros so I can press the sleep button to do that. You would have to have a blaster on your PC's IR receiver, and program macros for that too.
If you have CEC capable components, which it seems most are these days, your experience with my plugin would have likely been as follows: plug in device, install driver, EG and the PCCEC plugin. Configure the plugin (basic drop down selections for most users). Five or ten minutes later your using it. I mean really using it BTW: remote control of computer, mouse, volume sync to receiver, everything you spent so much time setting up with the Harmony and IR receiver/blaster. Already has standard shortcut key mappings built in for Media center which also work well with most other programs like XBMC, web browsers and email programs.
Right now the only basic things you might need to worry about tweaking would be If one or more of the standard button mappings don't work (manufacturer remote key mappings for CEC do vary). In that case the plugin has a simpler to use mapping panel than the standard EG method of mapping events. I plan to collect mappings by manufacturer and in the future add them to the plugin. The manufacturer name is already returned by the TV via CEC and stored in the plugin's control panel, which I will use to automatically select the correct mappings at plugin install time. Then if as I mentioned you have an external keyboard you'd probably want to do some standard even mappings to sleep/wake, that's about it.
Other than that, sometimes equipment can present some annoying "quirks" which a simple remote can not handle, especially with these CEC devices. Maybe you are lucky enough that your equipment does not have any problems. For instance even through my TV and Home Theater are Samsung, they don't play well together sometimes on power up. When the TV starts up it is supposed to turn the receiver on and do the sound through it automatically but often times it doesn't. In fact if it fails to start properly and I try activate the amp using the TV remote it hangs for a few minutes and I have to power down the receiver (using the remote for the amp, not the TV remote, or walk over to it physcially), select the HDMI1 port that the receiver is on and power it back up as the "active device". Then I can switch back to the media center as the source and use the TV remote to turn the amp on. Horrible. This was a large part of my motivation for creating this plugin. I now have a macro that does all of this flawlessly when the PC starts up, it runs in seconds, and works perfectly every time. I can not imagine a Harmony remote accomplishing a workaround like that. For someone that already has invested a lot of money in their equipment and has problems like this that get solved, they will probably gladly pay the $100 plus donate some money to EG
What it gives you over your Harmony? You had to program the Harmony for your TV, you're receiver, setup to turn everything on/off at once, program for punch through volume control to the receiver, maybe program some multi-key macros, and then use EG anyway and configure that with the proper plugins for your MCE IR receiver so you could control the PC, right? I assume you had to create macros to use the remote as a mouse since the Harmony is not native to the PC (like an MCE remote), with as much control as I demonstrated, this takes some skill and time. Also if you're really not just doing basic control of volume of your external receiver through punch through but do in fact have it always in sync with the volume of your PC then you must have RS-232 control of the receiver which you are lucky to have not everyone does (or something with two way communications between PC and receiver) and you must have written some python code to accomplish this synchronization as well. Either that, or you meant to say you have simple control via punch through of your Harmony, and you have neglected the difference there. If you have a keyboard as a secondary control device, this feature is VERY nice. Very annoying if someone in the house uses the keyboard and turns the computer volume down or mutes it because they could not reach the TV remote at that time, and then later you have to grab the keyboard to change the computer volume so you can watch TV. This plugin has that coded right in. On that note if you have a wireless keyboard, what do you do if you want to shutdown or start up everything from the keyboard? Grab the remote? I just added the sleep key from my keyboard to the plugins standard sleep / wake macros so I can press the sleep button to do that. You would have to have a blaster on your PC's IR receiver, and program macros for that too.
If you have CEC capable components, which it seems most are these days, your experience with my plugin would have likely been as follows: plug in device, install driver, EG and the PCCEC plugin. Configure the plugin (basic drop down selections for most users). Five or ten minutes later your using it. I mean really using it BTW: remote control of computer, mouse, volume sync to receiver, everything you spent so much time setting up with the Harmony and IR receiver/blaster. Already has standard shortcut key mappings built in for Media center which also work well with most other programs like XBMC, web browsers and email programs.
Right now the only basic things you might need to worry about tweaking would be If one or more of the standard button mappings don't work (manufacturer remote key mappings for CEC do vary). In that case the plugin has a simpler to use mapping panel than the standard EG method of mapping events. I plan to collect mappings by manufacturer and in the future add them to the plugin. The manufacturer name is already returned by the TV via CEC and stored in the plugin's control panel, which I will use to automatically select the correct mappings at plugin install time. Then if as I mentioned you have an external keyboard you'd probably want to do some standard even mappings to sleep/wake, that's about it.
Other than that, sometimes equipment can present some annoying "quirks" which a simple remote can not handle, especially with these CEC devices. Maybe you are lucky enough that your equipment does not have any problems. For instance even through my TV and Home Theater are Samsung, they don't play well together sometimes on power up. When the TV starts up it is supposed to turn the receiver on and do the sound through it automatically but often times it doesn't. In fact if it fails to start properly and I try activate the amp using the TV remote it hangs for a few minutes and I have to power down the receiver (using the remote for the amp, not the TV remote, or walk over to it physcially), select the HDMI1 port that the receiver is on and power it back up as the "active device". Then I can switch back to the media center as the source and use the TV remote to turn the amp on. Horrible. This was a large part of my motivation for creating this plugin. I now have a macro that does all of this flawlessly when the PC starts up, it runs in seconds, and works perfectly every time. I can not imagine a Harmony remote accomplishing a workaround like that. For someone that already has invested a lot of money in their equipment and has problems like this that get solved, they will probably gladly pay the $100 plus donate some money to EG
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
OK cool... yes, I did read everything in your long post
I do see some advantages for those of us that have more complex setups - but mainly for those without Harmony remotes. The Harmony is pretty much stupid proof since it does all the punch through buttons and such for you (plus you can program it yourself too for more complicated stuff)
I have Mits DLP TV, Onkyo receiver (2 zones), XBMC, WMC7 and I have not needed to do anything outside the Harmony wizard. I programmed a few buttons for EG functions to reset apps (xbmc/wmc) but that is it - which CEC cannot do anyway. So, for me I could see using your device in place of a Harmony remote but not likely have a lot of use for it since all my devices are within IR shot of the Harmony.
I could see a few small possible uses in my case, as an add-on to my system - even with the Harmony... Say if I wanted to use my touchscreen Android/iTouch to turn on music from XBMC without turning on my TV. I can do this today with my Harmony, but if I was in another room I could not. Though, it takes only 2 minutes to get anywhere in my 2300sqft home so this has never been an issue.
The only real problem/quirk I have is my Mit DLP takes a while to do the HDMI handshake when the video/app changes XBMC to WMC ... all on same HTPC, even though it all goes through the receiver. The Mits blanks out and tries to resync... takes 2-3 seconds. Quite annoying since the apps look for the 2nd video output (I have dual video) and it is not there so I must delay the app launch 3 seconds. If your device stores the ID and keeps the sync this would solve that problem... does it?
I do see some advantages for those of us that have more complex setups - but mainly for those without Harmony remotes. The Harmony is pretty much stupid proof since it does all the punch through buttons and such for you (plus you can program it yourself too for more complicated stuff)
I have Mits DLP TV, Onkyo receiver (2 zones), XBMC, WMC7 and I have not needed to do anything outside the Harmony wizard. I programmed a few buttons for EG functions to reset apps (xbmc/wmc) but that is it - which CEC cannot do anyway. So, for me I could see using your device in place of a Harmony remote but not likely have a lot of use for it since all my devices are within IR shot of the Harmony.
I could see a few small possible uses in my case, as an add-on to my system - even with the Harmony... Say if I wanted to use my touchscreen Android/iTouch to turn on music from XBMC without turning on my TV. I can do this today with my Harmony, but if I was in another room I could not. Though, it takes only 2 minutes to get anywhere in my 2300sqft home so this has never been an issue.
The only real problem/quirk I have is my Mit DLP takes a while to do the HDMI handshake when the video/app changes XBMC to WMC ... all on same HTPC, even though it all goes through the receiver. The Mits blanks out and tries to resync... takes 2-3 seconds. Quite annoying since the apps look for the 2nd video output (I have dual video) and it is not there so I must delay the app launch 3 seconds. If your device stores the ID and keeps the sync this would solve that problem... does it?
setup... XBMC, W7MC for DVR & Live OTA TV, JRMC for multi-zone audio, EG, MiCasaVerde Vera3, USB-UIRT IR receiver, Harmony remote, 5.2 home theater system
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
Yes thanks for humoring me, I'm a little wordy sometimes. Not sure exactly what you mean about storing the "ID" but I think you mean the EDID. No the device can not do that, I have heard of other specialized devices that do exactly what your talking about. But I might be able to help. I had the sounds like the same problem, whenever I would switch from in and out of media center the app and screen would flash/hang for more than a few seconds and the "info" display of my TV would pop up. Very annoying. One day I stumbled on a thread which mentioned something about the ATSC/NTSC (or whatever the acronym for broadcasts was) standard refresh rate being 59 hz and that is what media center always uses even if you told it in the MC video setup to use 60 hz. And most people with a 60hz display set up windows to use 60 hz, so when you switch in and out of media center the display sends these VESA EDID signals to switch between 59 and 60 hz. My video card had the 59 setting available so I tried it and it fixed it for me. Check if yours does and try if so, let me know if it helped.
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
I loaded the latest ATI drivers and it does show both 60hz and 59hz... but when I choose 59hz and click 'Apply', it automatically moved back to 60?
Did you need to do anything to get it to stick?
Did you need to do anything to get it to stick?
setup... XBMC, W7MC for DVR & Live OTA TV, JRMC for multi-zone audio, EG, MiCasaVerde Vera3, USB-UIRT IR receiver, Harmony remote, 5.2 home theater system
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
The computer I had done the change on that worked has an NVidia card. I also have another PC with an ATI cared. I just tested on that one and I get the same results as you; select 59 -> Apply = Changes back to 60. No idea how to make that stick. Good luck.
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
The issue ended up being the Harmony sending a signal to the TV to set the input. The TV is not "smart" and resets the input - thus requiring a resync. Once I stopped the Harmony from sending the input signal to the TV - all is well... no resync.
setup... XBMC, W7MC for DVR & Live OTA TV, JRMC for multi-zone audio, EG, MiCasaVerde Vera3, USB-UIRT IR receiver, Harmony remote, 5.2 home theater system
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
I have created a new plugin for HDMI-CEC using the Rainshadow Tech USB to HDMI-CEC bridge/converter.
You can view the product page here http://shop.rcaware.com/RCAware-PC-CEC- ... C-BNDL.htm.
And see a rough demo video here http://www.rcaware.com/MediaDocs.php#demo. There is also a link on the same page to view the install and users guide which will give you a good look at the plugin's options etc.
You can view the product page here http://shop.rcaware.com/RCAware-PC-CEC- ... C-BNDL.htm.
And see a rough demo video here http://www.rcaware.com/MediaDocs.php#demo. There is also a link on the same page to view the install and users guide which will give you a good look at the plugin's options etc.
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
Update for everyone that did not like the price of the hardware before, it has been reduced by 25%.hotbuddha wrote:I have created a new plugin for HDMI-CEC using the Rainshadow Tech USB to HDMI-CEC bridge/converter.
You can view the product page here http://shop.rcaware.com/RCAware-PC-CEC- ... C-BNDL.htm.
And see a rough demo video here http://www.rcaware.com/MediaDocs.php#demo. There is also a link on the same page to view the install and users guide which will give you a good look at the plugin's options etc.
Re: HDMI CEC Plugin, does it exists?
Pleased to announce that changes have been completed to the HDMI-CEC plugin.
See here...
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3243
Post Edited/Removed by Zian
See here...
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3243
Post Edited/Removed by Zian