Home Theater Receiver

[RedDirt]

What home theater receiver can be controlled by HomeSeer? I would love to have one that allowed my computer to control every aspect.

RedDirt

[Rupp]

RedDirt,
With an Ocelot nearly all of them can be controlled in every aspect.

[Blade]

RedDirt,

You could also control it with a USB UIRT, which is a lot less expensive than an Ocelot.

I should be receiving mine shortly.

[Squintz]

Blade where did you get the plug-in for the UIRT. I e-mail their support but nobody has emailed me back with the plug-in yet

[DC]

As long as the receiver has an IR remote control, it can probably be fully controlled with HS.

It's helpful to get one that has discrete ON/OFF commands. This means that one IR command turns it ON and a different IR command turns it OFF. Not all receivers have that capability. If it doesn't then the same command turns the receiver ON if it's off and OFF if it's ON. That makes automation tricky because your automation sequence has to know whether the receiver is on or off to know whether or not to send the ON/OFF command. In other words if your automation sequence sends "ON" as the first command, that will turn the receiver OFF if it's already on and then the subsequent commands will not work.

[Blade]

Squintz,

You got mail.

[Blade]

What do you know. I just received my USB UIRT at my front door 10 minutes ago.

I just installed it and will now have to play with it

[ttscoff]

Just for the record, I've been using the USB-UIRT for a month now and love it. In combination with my Pronto I can control all my lights from my TV remote and all of my home theater components from my computer (and my remote). It's a great little device and the HS plugin (with the aid of a utility called LrnHelper) was able to learn all of my discrete codes and obscure component remotes. Have fun!

-Brett

[fireball]

I've got an Onkyo TX-SR601 and just can't say enough good things about it. The one and only thing you can't really track with HS is volume (though it can be controlled). Its got a great sound and can be used for distributed audio for two zones. Not just hook two sets of speakers but actually have different things coming out of each set with independant volume control. The one downside with that (and just about any receiver that has this) is that when running zone 2 zone 1 can only play in stereo (no surround like normal).
As for controlling with Homseer, now that's where it gets fun! I've got the scripts written and plan on putting a package in the library that allows HS to monitor what's playing in each zone. Not only that but with either the touch of one button (IR, X10, motion detector, web control) what's playing in one zone can either be shared (what's playing in zone 1 or two will go into the other zone and leave both on) or "follow" (what's playing in one zone will start playing in the other and then turn off the zone you left) you around.
I've got it working now but still need to finish the documentation before putting it out there for everyone. If there's enough interest I'll put it all out there before I get that done.

[fireball]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, buy a USB-UIRT!!!

[TomGoerz]

USB-UIRT. Neat device. I could use one. The home site http://www.usbuirt.com/ was $50.00 and out of stock. Found it in stock here for $46.95. Hope it is the same thing.

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...products_id/87

Tom.

[Nitrox]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RedDirt:
What home theater receiver can be controlled by HomeSeer? I would love to have one that allowed my computer to control every aspect.

RedDirt <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have a B&K AVR 507 with is fully controlable via it's RS232 interface.

-Nitrox

[fireball]

TomG,
That's about half of a USB-UIRT. There are two versions of it; one that sends and receives IR and one that just sends it. The one-way version can be found on quite a few sites for about the same price and probably works ok for that purpose. If you spend an extra $15 or so you can receive IR commands as well which means you can trigger events with your remote control or, as in my case, somewhat monitor your AV gear.

[smee]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fireball:
TomG,
That's about half of a USB-UIRT. There are two versions of it; one that sends and receives IR and one that just sends it. The one-way version can be found on quite a few sites for about the same price and probably works ok for that purpose. If you spend an extra $15 or so you can receive IR commands as well which means you can trigger events with your remote control or, as in my case, somewhat monitor your AV gear. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Are you sure it's not the standard version? It's not the version with the 56kHz receiver, but you only need that for certain devices - it looks like it still has the standard receiver. The PCAlchemy one appears to be the same one you'd get direct from usbuirt.

I don't think there is a version that doesn't have both send and receive.

[Blade]

ttscoff ,

How can I get this LrnHelper application?