How to get HDMI-CEC support in my HTPC?

The hardware exists (http://www.chrontel.com/products/7322.htm) but I don't know of anyone implementing yet .

Maybe when we start seeing HDMI 1.3 enabled devices a solution will appear.

Wo0zy

I'm extremely anxious to find a PC solution for controlling HDMI CEC-enabled components as well. To me this is the new "holy grail" of Home Theater integration.. I'm pretty disappointed I haven't been able to find such a solution yet.

I'm also interested in this. I have discovered so far that when I turn of my plasma (Pioneer PDP-LX508D) it will stop the music I'm playing on the HTPC in Media Portal. So some information is sent/recieved between the TV and PC already. Just which I could enable the TV to wake up when I wake up the computer from sleep.

I have a home-brew solution to the HDMI-CEC connection to a PC. Via a USB connection, hex codes can be read and written to the single wire HDMI-CEC bus. Built using a Microchip PIC processor. Since I am new to this forum and can't post URLs yet, try visiting "rainshadowtech" dot com.

First I would like to apologize for my bad English.

If you connect your PC over a VGA, DVI or HDMI cabel with one or more devices (monitor, TV or videoprojector) you can use the DDC (Display Data Channel) to read the EDIT (Extended display identification data).
If the device supports DDC/CI (= command interface) you can also send instructions from the PC to the device.

Whit the freeware programms softMCCS or DisplayTuner you can read the EDIT of your devices, test if your devices supports DDC/IC and if so you can send instructions to your devices.

I don't think any information is being sent. The audio is being stopped since with the TV off there is no longer a handshake for the video over HDMI so the full HDMI output is being stopped.

It looks like it's been 7 months since the last post on this thread. I'm interested in the possibility of controlling my amps volume thru my HTPC. It's kinda annoying to have to punch the "Amp" button on my remote to change the volume when watching a movie. I know I can work my PC volume but would rather just use the receiver if possible.

I have a Nvidia 9500GT W/ HDMI

My setup / www.neilshtpc.weebly.com

HDMI/CEC has nothing to do with DDC/CI. This is completely new protocol, and it does not backward compatible with any previous interface. In fact DVI-HDMI cables have corresponding pins disconnected, so you need real HDMI-HDMI cable.
There is a line of Toshiba notebooks, that has HDMI/CEC feature enabled (they name it REGZA link, but essentially it allows to control notebook playback via TV remote). Their recommended video drivers seem to be generic ATI Mobility pack (besides that one notebook that has CEC feature based on Intel embedded graphics)
They have a piece of software called "HDMI Control Manager". The essential part of this package is HDMICtrlMan.exe, which is placed in autostart and suppose to route CEC signals to the corresponding Toshiba media software (e.g. DVD player). You can install this package from Toshiba site and check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\TOSHIBA\\HDMICtrlMan\\Setting registry key. Unfortunately the whole thing operates via TVALD driver (part of Toshiba Value Added Package) which cannot be installed so easily.
So the question is: did Toshiba perform any hardware mod (similar to RainShadow solution) or the whole thing is purely a combination of hacks in bios and custom drivers?

from my research, it appears that to send and receive CEC commands you need to have a chip capable of doing this. It does not sound like this can be done with just software on a PC. Bummer!

Toshiba Satellite A300-20P is based on generic ATI HD3650, and they explicitly mention support of CEC in specification

An option for the Pronto 9200 is a USB dongle for PC control. Exactly what you are looking for.
I purchased this set up along with the RF extender two weeks ago. I have not yet set it up as I am making changes to my theater equipment. I should have the theater in place this week and then I will tackle set-up of the remote. I will report back here as to the performance and usability of the Pronto with dongle. Have already read on the net that the dongle is very limited for distance.

Here is what I've learnt so far:
1. Portion of TVALD is a kernel-level wrapper around SCI and HCI calls (see buzzard.me.uk/toshiba for generic, but incomplete description).
2. HDMIEDID.dll is module, utilized in HDMICtrlMan.exe, that exports the following 3 functions: GetHDMIEDID(),GetMonitorDevice() and SetMonitorDevice() This is the only module, that dealt directly with display drivers (specifically via nvapi.dll, atipdlxx.dll and IgfxExt.CUIExternal COM-object for Nvidia, AMD/ATI and Intel respectively). I'm almost convinced that this module is not dealing with CEC instructions at all
3. I haven't found any other means of communication between HDMICtrlMan.exe and the rest of the world except for HCI (and some SCI) calls. This sounds like a bad news, because HCI is the interfaces to Toshiba-specific hardware on motherboard. And the fact that this can be done on Intel or AMD platform and NVidia/ATI/Intel is only supporting this

Anyone make any progress on this subject ??

nVidia will not respond to any posts on their forum in regards to CEC, so I do not expect support any time soon... Lamo

Tester

Weird - I was just researching this over the weekend. Check it out:
http://rainshadowtech.com/default_files/HDMICECUSB.htm

I think this guy actually posted above (stephanick)

nvmarino, thanks for the link, I read up on this a couple weeks back..

Its an option, but rather have the video card do it as a real HDMI capable device should...

However, I may finally give up and do something like this.

Thanks
Tester

this may be what you're looking for:

http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/pro...c-adapter.aspx

Yep - AIUI XBMC has HDMI-CEC support with the Pulse-Eight device (though not sure if this is across all platforms that XBMC runs on)

AIUI the $25 Raspberry Pi (which is running XBMC and playing 1080p H264 content) has integrated HDMI-CEC hardware support, and it is hoped that this will be supported in XBMC as well. (So you can have a $25 Raspbery Pi behind your TV, controlled by your TV remote over HDMI, removing the cost of a separate IR remote and receiver.)

AnandTech has a short review on it, and it definitely looks interesting.

I just upgraded all my home theatre gear. One of the things I also wanted to do was use HDMI-CEC, so I made sure all the gear I picked out had that option. For my HTPC I picked up an RCAware dongle thing (a variation of the rainshadow tech HDMI-CEC dongle).

It's software works great, not much messing around to get it all to work. Just follow their example for initial setup and you're pretty much golden (at least I was). So now I have my new samsung UN55D8000 remote controlling all my gear. no more crappy HTPC remotes, or dealing with IR receiver issues

(I haven't tested it out w/ my new AVR yet. I bought a marantz NR1602 refurbished, and it died the first day... so in the process of getting it replaced)

Here's a link if anyone is interested it.
http://shop.rcaware.com/RCAware-PC-C...C-CEC-BNDL.htm

I'm currently in the process of redoing my HTPC setup. Going with a DH61AG board since it supports HDMI-CEC (but lacks the hardware dongle). I'm going to see if I can take apart my RCAware and run the CEC wire to the motherboards header and do away with an extra HDMI cable connection.

edit: just found this link, so looks like I should be able to easily make it work the way I want to
http://valkyrietech.com/index.php/2010/10/hello-world/

The Anandtech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5463/p...adapter-review

Doesn't turn your tv on/off when your HTPC powers on/off though (correct me if I'm wrong):
http://forums.pulse-eight.com/defaul...?g=posts&t=299
My LCD TV automatically does this w/ out hdmi cec, but my Panasonic Plasma doesn't and needs CEC.

I added the RCAware HDMI-CEC device to my HTPC and I am very happy with the results of adding this device to my system. Here are my use-case details:
Setup:

TV: Toshiba 42XV540U (circa Sept. 2008)
HDMI-CEC Branding: Regza-Link
Receiver: Onkyo TX-SR607
Source: Windows7 WMC

This setup is a custom install in my master bedroom. The source equipment is in the closet and the TV is wall mounted with one hdmi cable routed through the wall. We had been using both the TV remote to power on/off the system and to set the volume and a second bluetooth diNovo Mini remote/keyboard which was required to navigate around WMC, specifically to change the channel.

We can now use just the TV remote to do everthing a normal viewer would want. The bluetooth device also still functions, so it can be used for advance windows maintence etc. when needed.

With the TV remote, we can control the power, volume control/sync, navigation and transport functions which all work great. However, with what appears to be a limit in Regza-Link CEC implementation built into the TV, the keypad numbers and the channel up/down control is not passed to the HDMI-CEC bus.

At first this seemed like a problem, but it quickly became a non-issue.

With WMC, channel control is agumented and easily managed by using the up/down navigation buttons, which will bring up in screen mini-guide. The Back button will allow the full guide to navigated. This is really convenient and Wife approved :-). Now there is no WMC Green-button but its not needed either, in my setup, WMC autostarts on Windows boot and as this is a dedicated HTPC, WMC is never exited.

To get the environment working perfectly I made the following changes to the RCAware plugin in Ghost.

1) Used Remote Keymap feature to reprogram "Exit" button to issue a WMC "Back" Command.
2) In the "Turned Off TV" Macro, I disabled "Stand-by" Action.

Item 2 was required because I leave my HTPC turned on 24/7.

In summary, I'm very happy. I acheived the goal of using a single remote for daily viewing.