UPDATED: RCAware HDMI-CEC+EventGhost = DA BOMB! (sometimes)

[wex101]

Hi,

I joined the forum after viewing this thread and have a question on configuring RCAware. First off, the controlability is amazing and the perfect solution for my HTPC setup, no more blasters needed. I would like Eventghost to be able to check and see whether or not a certain input is currently active on the display. Then use some sort of "if that input is active" statement then allow button passthrough commands. The passthrough buttons work great on my Bravia, but I do not want them to be active when I have my HTPC selected as the input. I am using a TIVO Slide remote to control the pc and don't use eventghost for application control when operating the pc. The plan is to have eventghost suspend my remote software (I use LM Remote Keymap) when it sees that the input has been changed to the Live TV input. Thanks for any help!

[barnabas1969]

First, I want to say that RCAware provides very good support. Did you contact them?

Here's a little help that I can provide:

You can use the RCAware action named "Find the Active Source" to do what you want. Create a new macro in EG, and when it displays the "Select an action to add..." dialog box, open the tree "RCAware PC-CEC" -> "Routing". Select the "Find the Active Source" action.

Then, add another action to your macro. Open the tree "EventGhost" -> "Python Command". In the command box, enter "print eg.result" (without the quotes). When you execute this macro, the log will display the name of the active source. This is just a simple example. Normally, you would use the eg.result variable in a script or command to determine what to do next, depending on the contents of the variable.

If you need help with Python or EG, you can get help at the EventGhost forums. The Green Button forum is the wrong place for Python and/or EG help.

[tad]

Can the HDMI-CEC bridge be used to replace the MCE IR receiver? I currently use an IR repeater system to control my HTPC (which is in the basement) from the family room. Will the HDMI-CEC bridge and eventghost plugin allow my HTPC to be controlled with the standard MCE remote via TV IR Detector-->HDMI-CEC-BRIDGE-->EventGhost-->Media Center?

[barnabas1969]

Can the HDMI-CEC bridge be used to replace the MCE IR receiver? I currently use an IR repeater system to control my HTPC (which is in the basement) from the family room. Will the HDMI-CEC bridge and eventghost plugin allow my HTPC to be controlled with the standard MCE remote via TV IR Detector-->HDMI-CEC-BRIDGE-->EventGhost-->Media Center?

You would not be able to use the standard MCE remote, because your TV's IR detector would not recognize any of the IR commands coming from the MCE remote.

However, assuming that your TV supports HDMI-CEC, you can use the remote that came with your TV (or a remote that has been programmed to control your TV). The only problem with this is that your TV remote does not have any of the special buttons like the green MCE logo button, "Movies", "Videos", "Live TV", "Recorded TV", etc.

You can get around a lot of those though. For example, my TV remote has the following buttons remapped via the RCAware device/software:

TV Remote Button -> Media Center Function
--------------------------------------------------------------
List -> Recorded TV
Green -> Media Center Menu (green button)
Red -> Series Recordings
Blue -> Live TV
Yellow -> Movies

There are other buttons mapped, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. As you can see, you can customize your original TV remote (or a programmable one) to control all the basic stuff in Media Center.

[barnabas1969]

I'll add that each button on your TV remote can also be setup so that a short press does something different than a long press... and you can define the length of time (in 10 millisecond increments, and each button can have a different time setting) that you must hold the button before the "long press" action happens.

Further, you can make each button on your TV remote trigger an EG event... which can start a macro of your own design, including the full range of EG plugins and built-in actions. The possibilities are endless.

If you want to fully control your HTPC using the remote that came with your TV (or with a remote that is programmed to emulate the original TV remote)... RCAware is the answer.

[barnabas1969]

I updated the first post in this thread. I thought people should know.

[makryger]

Did you try a program that resets the USB host controller every so often?

Also, did you try contacting rainshadowtech directly?

[barnabas1969]

Yes, I've tried resetting the USB host controller (manually). It doesn't help. Only unplugging the device works.

Yes, I've tried contacting Rainshadow Tech directly, but it's only been 2 days since I e-mailed them. I've corresponded with the guy at Rainshadow Tech in the past, about his Android app to control my Yamaha AVR... and he's been quick to respond. But after 7 months of non-response from RCAware, and 2 days of non-response from Rainshadow Tech, I'm ready to give up on the device.

[barnabas1969]

In case anyone cares, I've ordered the Pulse-Eight device. There is no EventGhost support for it (their development is aimed entirely at XBMC), but I have a couple of ideas. From what I've read, their libCEC tray application writes everything it receives from the CEC bus into a log file. At the very least, I could use EventGhost to trigger events from strings found in the log file.

Their software also includes a command line utility, but I don't know what functionality it includes. I doubt that it would have a way to watch the CEC bus and wait for an event in a loop. I've read that the command line utility cannot run at the same time as the tray application, unfortunately.

My other idea involves their Windows DLL and device driver. I downloaded the Windows installer package for the Pulse-Eight device, and it looks like it would be easy to extract the device driver installer (but I won't know if I can run it alone until I have the device connected) and then register their DLL, which should give me the ability to write my own program to use their DLL's methods and properties.

I e-mailed the developers (their direct e-mail addresses are included in a file within the installer package) asking for documentation on the DLL.

I'm not a programmer by trade, but I can figure out just about anything. I haven't done much with Python, but I've modified some of the Python code in a few Event Ghost plugins to add more functionality, so I could probably figure it out... as long as I have the documentation on the DLL.

This could be the start of a new EG plugin. I'll definitely be looking for help from experienced Python EG programmers. I'll start a new thread on the EventGhost.org forum when I get started.

Hopefully the Pulse-Eight device is more stable than the Rainshadow Tech device. I'm planning for my new thin-mini-ITX build to include the Pulse-Eight Internal HDMI-CEC adapter.

[barnabas1969]

After posting here and other places, I got a reply from the Rainshadow Tech guy.

Still nothing from RCAware.

Maybe they're worried that I might actually make an EG plugin for the competing device from Pulse-Eight?