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Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

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Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#111

Post by ianburrell »

recursive wrote: post #55
justinsaccount wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like AV stuff used to be so simple. > without a bulky expensive receiver box A "receiver" has been one of the standard options for making bookshelf speakers work for more than 50 years. A receiver is also not expensive. You can get a basic used one for under $100. I paid $30 for a perfectly working 5.1 Denon receiver with HDMI. Your problem is that you aren't even using "Modern" AV stuff. If you were, your…

Why are receivers so big ? It's not exactly a money issue. I just don't want the big box.

Receivers are big because of the amplifiers. AV receivers have to drive lots of channels. They are all 5.1 or 7.1. But stereo receivers are also huge.

I suspect that some of this is tradition because there are small solid state amplifiers. I'm surprised no one has made a small receiver for 2.1 system cause would be pretty common.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#112

Post by ssl-3 »

Spoom wrote: post #22
codepoet80 wrote: post #4

Yup, my AppleTV is the only device that gets CEC right. Even my LG TV and LG soundbar get confused. And don’t get me started on the PS4 Pro’s garbage implementation. I’m sad that Logitech killed Harmony because CEC was supposed to make universal remotes obsolete — they’re still the only way my full home theater can function without juggling a dozen remotes.

I dread the day that Logitech kills the servers for Harmony. If they don't release the IR code database, they're going to have a lot of people (myself included) pretty annoyed. (To be clear, they still work today if you can get a second hand remote / hub.)

I also love the Harmony remote in my living room. It's imperfect, but it's plenty good enough. It flows well and works predictably. It's easy to reconfigure.

And no matter what bizarro-world co-dependent cacophony of AV gear I manage to pile up together, any person can pick up the remote and watch TV or play a game or whatever.

I will be particularly unhappy when Logitech finally pulls the plug on Harmony servers.

At that point, I'll definitely need something different.

But IR codes are only part of the puzzle. And that is perhaps the easiest part to solve: We've already got lots of databases with IR-stuff available. There's databases focused on RC5, and the sleepy LIRC project, and some other things (all of which tend to be very Old Web in appearance).

License-permitting, it's simple enough to use this work as a foundation onto which newer codes can be placed.

That just leaves making the Harmony hardware interface work (hah, hahah -- and it's a dead-end anyway), or developing a new open-source remote to rule them all (which actually might not be too terrible of a task).

That all covers the first 90% of the problem.

The remaining 90% of the problem is just creating software that has a usable UI and actually works.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#113

Post by aidenn0 »

ryandrake wrote: post #48
jimmaswell wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That little headphone jack is seriously driving bookshelf speakers to a reasonable volume? If it works it works but that doesn't sound right, unless these are actually self-powered speakers with their own amplifiers inside. I'd really like to know the details because this sounds crazy. Also, I collect a lot of old receivers and speakers. It's really not that complicated and the basics have been the same since the 70s…

I was kind of in OP's shoes a few months ago. My 2000-2010 era stereo receiver crapped out and I was looking to see if I could simplify my system a bit. Unlike OP, I didn't need anything that could extract audio from the TV. My requirements were: 1. A decoder with at least 5.1 output since that's how many speakers I have 2. At least 3 HDMI inputs + 1 HDMI output to my TV 3. An amplifier with a volume control That's i…

Some googling found this, but it might be under-powered if you have 8 ohm speakers:

https://www.snapav.com/shop/en/snapav/episode-mini-51-avr-ea...

the only way it could have a smaller back-panel and all of your requirements would be to eliminate the ethernet connector.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#114

Post by Terretta »

davidczech wrote: post #40

A side note: I am very sad that HDMI-CEC apparently can only support like 3 "console-like" devices. I have an Apple TV, Nintendo Switch 2, Sound Bar (eARC) and PS5 hooked up, but only 3 can really interact with CEC. It took me a long time to diagnose why it seemingly wouldn't work with my Nintendo Switch 2. I ended up disabling it on my PS5 because I never use the darn thing, but it kind of stinks since most TV's hav…

AppleTV, Hisense 75" U7, Hisense sound bar, and Xbox Series X, tapping the Xbox logo on controller switches from Apple TV input to console input. Great!

But long press on Xbox logo button to e.g. accept a party invite -- switches to Apple TV. Not great.

The consoles are indeed awkward, but so are soundbars. And really, it seems like the TVs are the worst.

All can be solved with the boxes from HD Fury like VRRoom.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#115

Post by skunkworker »

robflynn wrote: post #88
codepoet80 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to go the other way. The Apple TV controls the LG. It wakes it, controls the volume and turns it off when it sleeps.

Mine will turn my LG on, control the volume, do all of that, it just won't ever turn it off. The AppleTV will turn itself off, but the TV itself will revert back to its screen saver display complaining about No Input.

I've got a Apple TV -> Denon -> LG C3. CEC on the appleTV remote will turn all 3 on, and long pressing (power button on appletv remote) will turn all 3 off, not just screen saver with input.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#116

Post by kenhwang »

ianburrell wrote: post #111
recursive wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are receivers so big ? It's not exactly a money issue. I just don't want the big box.

Receivers are big because of the amplifiers. AV receivers have to drive lots of channels. They are all 5.1 or 7.1. But stereo receivers are also huge. I suspect that some of this is tradition because there are small solid state amplifiers. I'm surprised no one has made a small receiver for 2.1 system cause would be pretty common.

If you open a standard sized receiver up, you'll probably see that 50% the space is empty for airflow, 25% of the space is for a large heatsink because they're passively cooled to minimize noise (thus the need for airflow), and 20% of the space is really big capacitors.

They do make half size receivers, but they typically only have half the power output. The space savings comes from removing space for airflow and the heatsink, and using smaller capacitors for less heat and smaller power output.

If you only need 2.1 output and a quarter of the power, there are offerings that are basically the size of the minimum amount of ports: 2 pairs of speaker terminals, a pair of RCA terminals for subwoofer out, a HDMI port, a optical port, and power. But then it's not really a receiver and more just of an amplifier+DAC because they only have one HDMI input/output, having space for multiple HDMI ports or speaker terminals basically increases the size to the offering above.

They're big mostly because consumers demand a lot of big connectors on them.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#117

Post by andersa »

db48x wrote: post #110
ryandrake wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is going to sound kind of sexist, but I have never met a woman who was OK interior design-wise with 18 inch stereo equipment in the living room. I mean look at the OP article: He's got all this stuff hidden away in a closet. This seems to be the only viable way to keep an "A/V stack" full of black boxes and a marriage. I've got a great sounding 5.1 system with a receiver and a game console and everything set up.…

You’ve either been meeting the wrong women or you need more rooms. One room where people can sit and talk to each other and a completely different room where people can sit and listen to music or watch a screen. Ideally if you want music in that first room you would put a piano in there, because playing the piano (and singing along) is a social activity that people can actually do together. Neither of these activitie…

So many problems and more money could solve every one of them!

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#118

Post by dontlaugh »

ssl-3 wrote: post #100
recursive wrote: post #17

Modern AV stuff is insane. I have no interest in taking it up as a hobby. I have an xbox, a TV, and a pair of bookshelf speakers. How am I supposed to get the audio to the speakers without a bulky expensive receiver box? Luckily, I have one of the last remaining TVs with a headphone jack. I don't use a remote for any of it. Side note: Sometimes the TV doesn't come on when you press its power button. After a tremendou…

The audio part can still be made to be simple. Others have mentioned toslink and I'd like to expand upon that. When you get a new TV and no longer have a headphone jack to plug your powered speakers into, then you can just add a DAC that converts the toslink digital audio that your new TV outputs into the bog-standard line-level analog audio that your speakers understand. DACs like this are available at all price poi…

But you’d be left without volume control, or at least from the same remote you control the TV with.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#119

Post by bsimpson »

extraduder_ire wrote: post #29
bsimpson wrote: post #19

I saw the Steam Machine bragging about CEC and being able to turn the TV on when it does, which made me wonder why my setup doesn't do that. Turns out that there's a special pin on your APU that has to be wired up, and AMD didn't bother for the Z1 Extreme chips. I wish "wake on signal" was a universal option.

For some reason, GPU makers don't usually expose the CEC interface for the HDMI ports on their cards. Even the raspberry pi's ability to support it wasn't standard/default for years. The common workaround if you had a kodi PC or something was to buy one of these things: https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter and run a HDMI cable through it. Because CEC is open drain like i2c is, connecting to it anywh…

It's cool that that exists, and also feels silly to spend $50 + need to buy/run an extra HDMI cable just to make your TV turn on when your device does.

Real shame these gaming-tailored devices don't support it natively. I wonder if the DP vs HDMI licensing battle is involved.

Re: Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable

#120

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

jimmaswell wrote: post #25
recursive wrote: post #17

Modern AV stuff is insane. I have no interest in taking it up as a hobby. I have an xbox, a TV, and a pair of bookshelf speakers. How am I supposed to get the audio to the speakers without a bulky expensive receiver box? Luckily, I have one of the last remaining TVs with a headphone jack. I don't use a remote for any of it. Side note: Sometimes the TV doesn't come on when you press its power button. After a tremendou…

That little headphone jack is seriously driving bookshelf speakers to a reasonable volume? If it works it works but that doesn't sound right, unless these are actually self-powered speakers with their own amplifiers inside. I'd really like to know the details because this sounds crazy. Also, I collect a lot of old receivers and speakers. It's really not that complicated and the basics have been the same since the 70s…

Depends on what he means by 'bookshelf'. I've still got these collecting dust in a condo in Germany, where I rarely visit anymore.

https://www.highfidelityreview.com/creative-sbs260-speakers....

Clear and distortion-free. Probably depending on how you drive your line-out, but mine just worked.

Stereo 2.0! (Giggle..)

The room isn't that large, but they really could fill it with sound, or the nearest neighborhood, if put on the balcony on summer evenings :-)

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