Audio pass-through and Volume Control (2 Viewers)

[gpnash]

Sorry Joe. that only controls the MP PC's volume. Checking that box sets MP's volume to max allowing you to set the maximum volume on your audio equipment and then pressing the MCE remote's volume down button lowers the PC volume. Unfortunately there isn't a 1<->1 correspondence in levels and putting the PC volume down to 0 does not reduce the Audio level by 100%. I had found that check box and tried it.

What I was looking for was a "CEC volume up" and "CEC volume down" that could be set in the Sceneo Centarea remotes section of MP.

My MCE remote best matches that profile for some reason, the other HID MCE remotes aren't even close.
I'd like to be able to press the remote volume up/volume down buttons and have the PC transmit HDMI cec volume up and volume down.

 

[CyberSimian]

Having all of your audio and video devices controlled by a single remote control is truly a wonderful experience. I have never used CEC, but I do use a universal remote control that has support for "activities", namely the Logitech Harmony 650.

The Harmony allows most of the buttons to control the source device (TV, HTPC, DVD player, CD player, audio streamer, ...), while the volume up/down and mute buttons control the amplifier. I found it relatively easy to setup the Harmony using their internet application, and it supports the Ortek/Hama MCE remote control as well as the alternative Microsoft MCE RC6 remote controls.

The vital characteristic of the Harmony is that it does device state tracking, i.e. it remembers which devices are powered up, and which are powered down. When you switch from (say) listening to a CD, to watching recorded TV, the Harmony sends the necessary commands to power up the TV and HTPC, power down the CD player, leave the amplifier unchanged (since it is already powered on), and change the input on the amplifier.

A brand of remote control that is widely available is the "One-for-All" range. They also make universal multi-device remote controls, but their significant disadvantage is that they do not support device state tracking. This matters if one or more of your devices has only power-toggle instead of explicit-on and explicit-off. One-for-All will claim that they do "activities", but it is inferior to the Harmony support.

My Harmony 650 is not perfect; in particular I would make the following criticisms:

(1) The buttons are too squidgy.
(2) The response to pressing a button is slightly too slow (but you get used to this).
(3) It ignores button presses that occur just as it is switching to standby (e.g. after 10 seconds).
(4) The batteries need changing rather too frequently (I use rechargeables).

One-for-All remotes are better in these respects (I have several). There is also an excellent open-source freeware tool for customising One-for-All remotes (but you need a special cable). And One-for-All supports both the Ortek/Hama MCE remote and Microsoft MCE RC6 remotes. But the lack of true support for activities puts One-for-All in second place.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[joecrow]

Sorry Joe. that only controls the MP PC's volume.

Well for me it does control the Denon, do you have a Pulse 8 CEC adapter installed and is the Denon setup for control over the CEC?

Checking that box sets MP's volume to max

That's correct when I change the volume using my remote (VRC-1100, same as yours) the MP volume indicator appears in the top left of the screen but stays on max, the Denon volume slider also appears on screen and changes accordingly and is echoed on the Denon front panel display. The PC volume should stay on max and will only respond to the remote if MP is NOT in focus.
I also have the remote set up as a Sceneo Centarea using the excellent AutoHotkey script by @CyberSimian see here, the last post has a link to the latest version. Even if you choose not to use the script the .xml with the mappings is well worth using.

 

[gpnash]

wow... Yep, pulse 8 cec adapter is installed and I can control the demon thru cec (using my tv remote)
MP has always had focus (I run it fullscreen on my Samsung 60" tv) but the volume up/down buttons have always moved the MP PC volume slider and not been forwarded.
I've just download @CyberSimian's zip file and I'll experiment with that for a while.
Knowing that something works is half the battle.... Now I've got to figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks Joe...

 

[gpnash]

@CyberSimian I've tried the harmony remotes... used the 1000 for a while but it just couldn't compare to the vrc-1100 even if I had to pick up the receiver remote to change the volume. I guess that's the true test, which remote do you reach for when the commercial starts....

@joecrow I've installed the package and Autohotkey. First impression was uninstall autohotkey. Suddenly pressing the "mouse right button" on my remote started up the MP configuration program while I was on full screen TV.... not the menu I was expecting.

Even with the changes installed the volume up/down buttons only change the pc volume. they don't get sent via CEC.
Sure would like to know what you did. My computer has the pulse8 cec adapter -> Denon avr-s940H cablesat -> Samsung tv.
no good experiences with cec at all.

 

[joecrow]

Very late here now, I will have a think about it and post some of my settings for comparison in the morning. My setup has been running that way without issue since I got the Denon over 2 years ago, I'm on MP 1.20 now are you still on 1.15 per your system specs? Don't think that would be the issue as I think I had it working from 1.12. The right mouse button response is definitely not correct if not done make sure the settings for the mouse are all unchecked see screenshot and the "Enable HID" under the HID tab is also unchecked.

Till tomorrow

 

[gpnash]

Nothings checked under remotes except for the one needed.
I am running 1.20 now I've updated my profile.
I've tried to get this working over the last 5 years and have never had any kind of luck.
thanks for anything you have to offer.

 

[joecrow]

OK, my setup is a little different, I have only the single hdmi input to the Denon X1200W then on to a Philips TV, as TV is via a 4 tuner DVBT2 PCIecard, don't see that should make a difference to controlling via CEC and it will be direct connected anyway when you do play vids etct from the PC if you see what I mean.

Attached are screenshots showing various aspects of my setup the Pulse 8 firmware/software is from version 4.02. My original reason for installing the Pulse 8 CEC adapter was so the TV and AVR would also go into standby when I put the HTPC to sleep (the audio control was a bonus) so I have included the CEC Remote power settings, do you do the same/is it working? If yes then we know that your AVR and TV are being controlled over the CEC adapter from the PC and it is only the audio you need to troubleshoot. If no it might be worth giving it a try to prove the adapter is able to control the AVR and TV. Not sure if the The MP Config Volume setup is significant but have included it also.

I've tried to get this working over the last 5 years and have never had any kind of luck.

Hope that this is helpful and more ideas if not


EDIT:_ Note the device settings in the CEC Remote Power Options needs to be set for all 4 options.

 

[CyberSimian]

pressing the "mouse right button" on my remote started up the MP configuration program while I was on full screen TV

That is definitely not correct behaviour, but it is not obvious what might be happening. Make sure that you have followed the installation instructions in the file "Centarea HID.txt". If you have, I regret that I don't have any other suggestions.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[CyberSimian]

pressing the "mouse right button" on my remote started up the MP configuration program while I was on full screen TV

I have been thinking about this some more. I only recently moved from Windows Vista to Windows 7. I did a fresh install of MP, and downloaded and installed the latest version of AutoHotKey. It was only then that I discovered that AutoHotKey now comes in two versions -- Unicode and ANSI. Trial and error showed that the Centarea HID AHK file requires the ANSI version in order to work correctly. The Unicode version (which I tried first) works somewhat, but not completely correctly.

The install procedure for AutoHotKey installs both versions, so it is a trivial matter to switch from the Unicode version to the ANSI version -- simply run the install procedure and select the ANSI version. I have updated the TXT file with this information, but I have not issued it yet.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK