I would be interested what solutions you guys are using to switch between TV and Projector without universal remote?
Before I had a projector I only had one remote (the OSMC one) and all devices were controlled via CEC (even power the TV and AVR on/off)
Following the installation of the projector I had to bump the number of remotes from 1 to 3 which is a real pain. Now I need the projector remote to turn on/ off the projector and I need to TV remote as well to turn off the TV when I use the projector.
I have a trigger for the projector screen (so fortunately no 4th remote), and this is communicating via rf signal with the controller of the screen. I was desperately trying to find some can of trigger which can learn an IR signal (TV power on/off) and could transmit that when triggered, so the TV would turned off automatically when the projector turned on. However I didn’t find anything close to this.
So I am wondering how you guys are doing this? Again, I don’t want a universal remote, so I am interested in other, smarthome kind of solutions.
I don’t think CEC has any kind of controls for switching display. What you want could be easily done with a Logitech Harmony remote, but you said you didn’t want that.
If I understand the question correctly, we have a 4x2 matrix HDMI switch. 4 inputs, 2 outputs. It doesn’t automatically turn on anything. We have the non-CEC version. The remote is fine.
I use an AVR with two hdmi outputs (and only one inputs -the Vero 4k+ at the moment).
…and the problem is not (only) with CEC - as @darwindesign pointed out, CEC doesn’t support switching display.
Of course I am more than open to solve this with CEC if someone knows the trick.
That’s why I said I was more seeking for some kind of “trigger” solution.
The only way via CEC I know that is able to be done is with a specialized control system where all your devices are run through a box that breaks out the cec line and then just directly injects CEC commands on demand. Seems like a lot of cost and complication for a relatively simple setup. In the CEC spec there is only one logical address reserved for a TV so I don’t think this was ever intended to be supported.
Just out of curiosity what’s the problem with a universal remote? You could have every command for everything you want sent by pushing a single button, and then push one more and all the commands are sent to switch to your other setup.
Just out of curiosity what’s the problem with a universal remote? You could have every command for everything you want sent by pushing a single button, and then push one more and all the commands are sent to switch to your other setup.
First of all I had no good experience with Harmony remotes in the past (like 10 years ago) and this burned in, I hate them.
Secondly, this would be an overkill only for powering on/ off the TV and the projector and the best would be to solve this by keeping only the osmc remote.
By the way, has the osmc remote any ir capability? It seems to have an IR “window” on the top of it.
…but Flirc is a receiver and cannot be used as blaster, no?
and on the other hand I want to trigger power cycling of the tv from the other end (projector) and not by the Vero 4k. So when the projector powered on, then “something” would transmit the IR signal to the TV to power off.
I don’t own one (I build my own) but webpage says “IR Transmitter / 35 ft (line of sight)”
Well I guess that the Vero4k is still in the chain and will see the Projector coming up via HDMI, or? I assume you switch the HDMI channel on your AVR, or?
Then the Vero4k could sent the off signal to the TV via FLIRC.
Opps, I actually have one, but I wasn’t aware of the included IR transmitter. Now that I was reading through the Flirc forums you are indeed right and it also seems to have some limited fw/sw support.
Now it’s time for some experiment with this. Thanks for the hint!
Sure, the Vero 4k is in the chain, but I don’t really know how a script would capture the projector coming up? Is there such kind of facility built into osmc?
Anyhow, I am a really surprised there is no some kind of off the shelf product for this. Doesn’t seem to be very unique problem of mine. I don’t think folks either use a TV or have a dedicated theater room.
Well, maybe everyone is using a universal remote
Well so you either can reprogram one of the buttons on the OSMC remote (maybe a longpress) to switch off the TV.
Or you have a script checking logs for changes of HDMI.
Maybe @grahamh has an idea which file would best to be monitored for HDMI changes.
They still work the same now as they did 10 years ago so if there was something you hated about how they function back then, that probably hasn’t changed. If it was an ergonomics issue then it depends on the model. I’ve owned a couple I wasn’t thrilled with that aspect but I personally think the One and 650/665 are exceptional.
I have a 650 that was purchased for a bedroom TV for the sole purpose of turning a 90 minute sleep timer on with a single button instead of the thirteen it took with the TV’s remote. To each their own. The OSMC remote only acts the same as plugging in a wireless keyboard. In order to have this remote do what you want it would probably require a very creative solution.
thanks for chiming in Sam! Started to have some hopes based on your feedback and looking into this. However, very quickly turned out that this is not possible due to two hard blocks:
AVR has two hdmi outputs, but only 1 supports cec, so only one of the displays reachable via CEC
The projector cannot be turned on via CEC, because it is not visible/ reachable on the CEC bus when it is in standby (can be powered down though, but only if it is plugged into the CEC supported hdmi out on the AVR)
I must admit this is really horrible in 2020.
I know it’s RF, but i was hoping there is some kind of hidden feature the remote can learn 1 or two IR commands what can be assigned to one or two buttons (just like MS remote had back in time) - this would be badass feature for a next remote version
I am slowly stepping forward with this thanks for the tips here and the fantastic long keypress support on the OSMC remote! Many thanks for this @darwindesign
I have managed to use a flirc device as an IR blaster and I can already toggle the Projector and/ or the TV power state with this.
I have some remaining issues to resolve though:
Maybe the main issue is the placement of the flirc transmitter. The spot from which I can control both the Projector and the TV is behind the screen. So when the screen is down, then I cannot control the projector. If I move the flirc in front of the screen, then I cannot control the TV.
This could be potentially resolved, if the TV could be power cycled via CEC, and here is my question:
What is the purpose of the in-built command “CECToggleState”? Shouldn’t it power on the TV if the current state is off and power it off if the current state is on? Currently this command is only turning the TV off, but not turning it back on. So basically there is no difference between this command and “CECStandby”.
Do I misinterpret the usecase of this command or is there maybe a bug regarding this?
I believe toggle state is meant as a functional equivalent of a power button that switches power on/off as a toggle as opposed to dedicated on/off functions. With CEC you have a very messy standard and devices don’t always support every command, or deal with them how you might expect. If the CECToggleState action is not working it is your TV to blame and there is nothing you can do about that (my LG TV does not support that either) other than using a dedicated on/off with CECActivateSource and CECStandby.
