Video Pipe question

[gtsupport]

Hi, my USBUIRT arrived on Friday so I spent the weekend playing and setting up all the video and audio pipes for my system.  What I need to know is where can I see the commands that are sent to the USBUIRT each time I select one of the media scenarios?  The reason I ask is that it sends the command to my receiver first, then the hdmi input change to the TV, which automatically changes the receiver back, so I need to send the codes in the reverse order.  I've looked everywhere I can think of in the web-admin so I'm guessing this must be somewhere else, a config file somewhere maybe??  (or somewhere I missed)

When I click on "resend IR codes" in the orbiter I see the commands there, I just want to send them in a different order.

On a seperate note, for anybody that has a Panasonic TV, there is a complete list of discrete codes available here, which were a real find, especially for being able to select an input and not have to scroll through them.

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/Monitors/Discrete-remote-control-codesProntoCCFformat.pdf

Cheers.
Matt.

[phenigma]

Hey Matt,

If you turn off the HDMI CEC control features of the receiver and television it should prevent this extra switching from happening.

J.

[gtsupport]

Hi J,
I'm sure you're right, but I want to keep that functionality, its one of the reasons I bought all Panasonic Gear, so that 1 remote can control everything, and the inputs all switch automatically.  Because LinuxMCE doesn't do HD or Blu-ray I don't use it for watching movies and TV in the lounge, just for selecting music, pictures etc, and for my son's Disney dvds.  I'm thinking about getting one of the HDMI-CEC controllers that is talked about here: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=9664.15

which would maybe help with the IR problems, but if it still send the commands in the wrong order, then I'll still have to find a way to alter them.

Cheers.

Matt.

[merkur2k]

you do realize that lmce can do all this for you? it doesnt matter if the devices can communicate with each other or not, it manages all inputs and outputs based on scenario selected and the pipe connections.
that said, you can see everything the system is doing by watching /var/log/pluto/DCERouter.log

[gtsupport]

Yes, I know LMCE is capable of controlling it all, but for 90% of the time I just want to watch TV, and don't want to have to go get the Ipad if its in the other room, just so I can start watching a movie or something.  I prefer to just pickup the normal remote and change channels, or press play.  If we had decent HD support then I would use LMCE for everything, but its not good enough yet.  Even my HD PVR capture device doesn't last more than 5 minutes before it switches itself off for whatever reason.

Anyway, back to the video pipes, I was having another play tonight, and there is a problem with the video pipe from my core to the TV.  It's all setup so that the core is on input HDMI2, this is set in the web-admin connection wizard.  The fault lies in the fact that when I select the audio or video scenario for example, it should change to HDMI2, but it always selects HDMI1.  I know that the command for HDMI2 works because I can test it.  When I click the re-send AV codes in the orbiter it shows the TV and HDMI1, not HDMI2.  This is wrong and I need to be able to correct it, but all these av switching commands are stored away somewhere that I can't find.

Does anybody know where the instructions for these scenarios are kept?

Another scenario I'd like to get my hands on is the "Watching" and "Not watching" scenarios.  How do I change these.  For example if I stop watching sky via LMCE then I don't want it to switch the sky box off, and keep turning the lights back on.  I'd prefer it if the lights stayed as they are, and the sky box did too.

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, so any pointers greatly received.

Thanks.
Matt.

[phenigma]

As long as you leave the hdmi cec control 'on' you will have to turn off LMCE IR device switching capabilities.  The two systems will compete and will not be able to cooperate.  If you turn off the cec control then lmce will be able to do its' job.  You can learn all the other IR codes for all the functions of your other devices so lmce can control it all.

Are you using an on-screen orbiter or an external orbiter (webdt, n800, etc...)?  There is a bug that causes incorrect device switching when you access an external media provider (set-top box, DVR, BD, etc...) when selected from an external orbiter (not the on-screen orbiter).  If you always use the on-screen orbiter this will not be a problem.

Scenarios are all editable from the 'Scenarios' section of the webadmin.

J.

[gtsupport]

I mostly use the web orbiter on my Ipad, if I want to use the onscreen orbiter I have to get the TV remote, switch to HDMI2 (LMCE input), then select the scenario I want (TV, Blu-ray, or Game) in LMCE which will switch the TV back to HDMI 1 which is where the viewing signal comes in.  So if the web orbiter doesn't work then really the whole thing is just adding more steps.  All I want to achieve is that when I choose Audio or Video on the web orbiter, it will switch the TV and receiver to the correct inputs.  Surely this is not too difficult.  I know I can achieve this, I have written a new scenario which sends these commands to test it out, but I was trying to edit the automatically generated scenarios to get them how I want them.

I appreciate what you're saying about LMCE controlling it all, and I have already taught all the remote functions from my devices via the USBUIRT. (had a spare few hours!) and had a play around with it.  I think that if every AV signal was going through LMCE then the onscreen orbiter would be great, and the TV would always be switched to the LMCE input.  However because of the poor quality using LMCE all my media stays in its HD format and bypasses LMCE, straight to the TV.  What I do love is the fact that from my media director in the kitchen, I can change the channel on the satellite box in the lounge now using the IR, thats great.  If only I could find out how to get the audio back in sync with the picture

[merkur2k]

so basically, you want us to tell you how to break the system so that you only need to use it part of the time, rather than fixing the real issues and using it all the time?
you can use a remote to control it as well, not just a remote orbiter. if it is setup properly, it will always return to the orbiter screen when you exit a media scenario, so you will have an orbiter on the screen.
turning the lights back on is also part of this, although i agree it could be smarter and is something i intend to look into eventually.
your a/v desync is going to be a cabling issue. you probably have video going through a capture card and audio going directly to a sound card mixer.
in short, dont fight the system, work with it. this is a very feature rich system, but it is a little different than most people are used to in order to make all the integration work.

[phenigma]

Listen to merkur2k, let the system do everything for you, properly.

Because you use external set top devices and a non-osd orbiter (ipad) you will experience this bug: http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/554.  There is a workaround you can implement to achieve proper switching in the short term, until a permanent fix is applied.

J.

[gtsupport]

Hmm, not sure what you mean about trying to break the system, what I'm asking for is to have a say in how the automatically generated scenarios work.

I guess I need to start afresh with the audio and video pipes, and all my scenarios.  I still want to have a say in how they operate though.  I've looked for the lighting scenario that dims the lights when playback starts, and brings them up again when it stops, but thats not listed in the lighting scenarios that I can see.  It seems that its an automatic operation that I have no say over.  In my limited experience with LMCE I've found that usually there are way more configuration options than I would ever want/understand, thats why I assumed that I was just not looking in the right place to find them.  I can see the "showtime" scenario, but just not where its triggered.  Also there must be a "showtime finished" or similar scenario that I can't see anywhere.

I really like the way that you can setup scenarios to switch things on and off, change channels and all that, its great, and believe me I've invested many £1000's in the last few months to get the whole package.

I can imagine now what you mean, I guess that if set correctly, it doesn't matter that the media bypasses LMCE, because LMCE still controls the inputs, and outputs for all the AV gear, and so if I only want to watch TV, I just leave the TV scenario active, until such time as I want to stop.....Right I'm off to re-generate all my media scenarios and get it done right.

The sync problem is not a cabling issue, I've started another thread for that one to seperate it from this one.

[gtsupport]

Right, I've deleted and re-done all my audio and video pipes, I now have the system switching the right inputs on everything as I want.  However when I stop a media scenario, the inputs don't switch back to the LMCE ones.  I want to see the scenario/command, whatever it is that is executed when I stop a media scenario.  You know, the one that is switching the lights back on, and should switch the inputs back so that I have the on screen orbiter as you said merkur2k.  I think I'm back to my original question which was where are the details for these scenarios that are auto-generated??

[phenigma]

/var/log/pluto/DCERouter.log will let you see where the command is coming from/going to.

J.

[merkur2k]

actually the showtime scenario is exactly where the light levels are set.
the autogenerated scenarios are right in with the rest of them, easy to edit.

[coley]

I think I'm back to my original question which was where are the details for these scenarios that are auto-generated??

are you looking for the auto-generation? or are you looking to edit your existing ones?
Editing existing scenarios: select "my devices" at the bottom of the left nav panel, then once it reloads, you can select "my scenarios" and you get a tree of all scenarios.
You can also get to them from the "Advanced -> Configuration -> Scenarios" or if you want to edit the actual events fired and criteria for triggering same use "Advanced -> Configuration -> Events" or am I mis-understanding your question?

-Coley.

[gtsupport]

@ Coley,

I think it must be the events that I need to get at.  I'll check the logs that phenigma pointed me to when I get home and check it to be sure.  Its not the actual scenarios that I want to edit, but the events that are triggered when the scenario is started or stopped.  So for example I know that the "showtime" scenario for the lights is triggered when I press "TV".  I can edit the "showtime" scenario no problem, but where in the "TV" scenario is the link telling showtime to execute?  Also when I stop the TV scenario, another event is fired which is like the reverse of showtime, and puts the lights on again.  This I can't find.  I'll go through the logs tonight and hopefully that will shed some light on whats happening.

I'm sure its just down to me not looking in the right place.  I'll take a good look again at the Events too, I went all through this setting up my Z-wave devices, so I got the hang of that part of it previously.

Thanks for the pointers guys.