ANYNET+ HDMI-CEC control by C-Bus

I am considering putting in a Samsung LA40M*1BDX LCD TV. It has the new Anynet+ HDMI-CEC interface which is said to be a universal system to allow an interface between consumer devices, and various control systems. Has anyone had any experience with this being controlled from C-Bus, or is it easier to just use a C-Bus driven IR output device with a little emitter stuck on the front of the TV? (a bit messy though).

 

I am keen to find out more about this as well. The biggest issues is that you need an interface from serial to HDMI if you want to use a PAC. I don't think that would be difficult for an electronics wiz. You would need to find the protocol info - I believe it follows a standard. Google it and you will find some more info.

Mick

 

Hi,

Your post piqued my curiosity so I downloaded the HDMI spec to see what this CEC stuff is all about.

It looks interesting but it doesn't really support external control. It allows devices connected by HDMI to automatically configure their inputs and status based on user operations. The idea seems to be that the user can use the most logical device to initiate an action with the rest of the system automatically reconfiguring to make it work rather than the current approach where a user needs to press multiple buttons on multiple devices/remotes or use a universal remote.

For example, if the user presses "Play" on a DVD player, all of the upstream devices (such as an AV Receiver and an HDMI display) will automatically select the appropriate inputs so that the DVD appears on the screen and the audio comes out of the speakers.

It also allows functions such as one button standby - Turn the display off, everything else goes into standby & "Record this" - press the record button and whatever is currently on the screen will be recorded if possible (This involves the designated recording device receiving information on what channel was currently being displayed, re-tuning if required and then recording).

The reason that this protocol doesn't really seem suited to external control is that each device has an address that indicates its position in the HDMI input hierarchy; The display is 0.0.0.0. A receiver connected to input 1 of the display would be 1.0.0.0. A DVD connected to input 2 of the receiver would be 1.2.0.0 and so on. An external control system could "lie" and send messages that claimed to be from one of the other devices but you would have to configure this addressing somewhere and the addressing can change every time an HDMI device is plugged in or unplugged.

HDMI-CEC could help in conjunction with an IR emitter on the display as you described - You could turn off the display via a C-Bus initiated "off" IR and know that the rest of the system would shut down automatically.

One other part of HDMI-CEC that might be interesting is the "Display OSD" command. This enables a device to send a message that will then be displayed on screen - A nice way of indicated "Doorbell" or "Phone" in a soundproofed home theatre.

Paul

 

Thank you guys for your helpful comments. Sounds like the IR may be the way to go still.

 

Anyone doing this or similar currently, using any other tools?