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    HS Moving away from A/V?

    I don't see a whole lot of activity in this part of the forums and makes me question if HS is moving away from A/V automation?

    Global Cache products are no longer in the shop. HomeSeer isn't listed as an app on the GC website

    Square connect is gone.

    Very little activity in forums.

    I'm wondering this because I'm looking to build out my A/V at home and I posted in the main forum section and got no replies either.

    #2
    I can only speak for myself... I don't envision HS as a control option for my AV. I use Harmony remotes for control, then use the HS plug-in and events to act on other devices in the house. I do not use HomeSeer to interface directly with A/V, but I do use Echo voice commands to launch Harmony activities.

    If we watch DirecTV, watch movies off of our server, listen to music, etc. we launch the activity from the Harmony remote. Echo works directly with Son os as do the Harmony remotes. Launching any Harmony activity can also trigger an HS event to control lighting, thermostats, shades or anything else we desire.

    If I wanted to have a single point of communication, a tablet with a custom HSTouch project might be something we would use, but a Harmony remote and a remotec remote in each room does everything we need and has a smaller footprint. Additionally, other members of the household are happy with (read DO NOT CHANGE) the Harmony remotes.

    The HomeSeer GC plug-ins are in the Beta section.
    HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

    Comment


      #3
      I'd argue if HS was really ever into AV to start with, HS3 even removed the IR management facility that was in HS2. The offering has been a bit limited for a while. IR blasting from the likes of Square Connect, Global Cache (what was the blue box thing called again) can sometimes have limited mileage, need for discrete IR codes, issues re cabling the emitters, differing frequencies etc. Now the fact that you can have an ESP8266 with an IR led for virtually nothing (I have three on my TV's and they offer more than the UIRT ever did) means the market is probably less.

      Even with control of your AV stuff I'd argue that the ability to select media and the like from HS has always been lacking, no great media integration with things like good quality movie browsers in HSTouch does not make for a seamless AV solution and as such less desire perhaps. I do think one thing that is missing is a seamless whole house video solution that can do media browsing /selection straight from HS.

      Comment


        #4
        I have a whole rant going in another post in the main section.

        But the basics are I want to figure out basic control functions to take actions on.

        Basic Example:
        Press PAUSE on the remote and HS turns on the lights
        Press PLAY on the remote and HS turns off the lights

        I'm using a Harmony Hub for activities which is ok... start/end of activity what about all the stuff in between that happens?

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by rprade View Post
          I can only speak for myself... I don't envision HS as a control option for my AV. I use Harmony remotes for control, then use the HS plug-in and events to act on other devices in the house. I do not use HomeSeer to interface directly with A/V, but I do use Echo voice commands to launch Harmony activities.

          If we watch DirecTV, watch movies off of our server, listen to music, etc. we launch the activity from the Harmony remote. Echo works directly with Son os as do the Harmony remotes. Launching any Harmony activity can also trigger an HS event to control lighting, thermostats, shades or anything else we desire.

          If I wanted to have a single point of communication, a tablet with a custom HSTouch project might be something we would use, but a Harmony remote and a remotec remote in each room does everything we need and has a smaller footprint. Additionally, other members of the household are happy with (read DO NOT CHANGE) the Harmony remotes.

          The HomeSeer GC plug-ins are in the Beta section.
          I agree with this, but the one thing I really miss from the days when I was only using XBMC was that I could trigger lights when I paused/unpased.

          So when watching a movie, as soon as it started playing, I could dim the lights, but bring them back up when the movie was over or was paused. Right now I can't do this. I'm not saying it's HSTs cross to bear either. The biggest issue is unless you only have 1 point of contact (PLEX or Kodi), you are limited by the service providers (HULU, Netflix, or Roku, Apple TV, etc) to offer you that access/control and they aren't likely to do it.

          I don't think it's a widely wanted thing in the HA space, but for those that want it, it's almost up there with really good Occupancy detection.

          For me, I could depend on PLEX integration, but when I watch a movie, I actually watch the BluRay and not the rip. The rips via PLEX are the for times when I want to watch it, but not really WATCH it in all it's glory.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
            I agree with this, but the one thing I really miss from the days when I was only using XBMC was that I could trigger lights when I paused/unpased.

            So when watching a movie, as soon as it started playing, I could dim the lights, but bring them back up when the movie was over or was paused. Right now I can't do this. I'm not saying it's HSTs cross to bear either. The biggest issue is unless you only have 1 point of contact (PLEX or Kodi), you are limited by the service providers (HULU, Netflix, or Roku, Apple TV, etc) to offer you that access/control and they aren't likely to do it.

            I don't think it's a widely wanted thing in the HA space, but for those that want it, it's almost up there with really good Occupancy detection.

            For me, I could depend on PLEX integration, but when I watch a movie, I actually watch the BluRay and not the rip. The rips via PLEX are the for times when I want to watch it, but not really WATCH it in all it's glory.
            I'm not done trying yet....

            Comment


              #7
              I have all of the HS stuff in tune with the states of WinAmp and MPC (pause, play, stop, etc.) so I know that's all easily doable. The real catch is that there are no media players for HS. They declined to port their media player plugin and I've never been able to get Blade's to work at all. They said they were going to make Pandora and Spotify plugins but that was years ago and it's been silent ever since. If you think about it, all of the really big names in home automation offer little outside of media. Crestron, C4, etc. all all about blue ray players, HDMI switching and the like. I don't get it at all. I wish someone would make a frig'n media plugin that worked. I want to control music through HSTouch!
              Originally posted by rprade
              There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by S-F View Post
                I have all of the HS stuff in tune with the states of WinAmp and MPC (pause, play, stop, etc.) so I know that's all easily doable. The real catch is that there are no media players for HS. They declined to port their media player plugin and I've never been able to get Blade's to work at all. They said they were going to make Pandora and Spotify plugins but that was years ago and it's been silent ever since. If you think about it, all of the really big names in home automation offer little outside of media. Crestron, C4, etc. all all about blue ray players, HDMI switching and the like. I don't get it at all. I wish someone would make a frig'n media plugin that worked. I want to control music through HSTouch!
                The media player part is what I'm toying with currently. There's nothing on the HTPC side to play things like Netflix or Amazon (except Allonis apparently has something with their myServer).

                I initially thought of doing this with Harmony, but the harmony hub can interact with a PC but not at the same time with a Fire TV because of the Bluetooth remote. Or I can hobble together an IR receiver for the Fire TV. Maybe on the next go around with this

                However... the Roku does have an IR receiver. If using the Roku remote to control the Roku if those signals can also be picked up by a receiver that feeds into HS. Then basic play/pause/skip/etc can be mapped to events. In theory atleast.

                So I've dug out an old Roku and it still works... and I just ordered a Flirc to provide an IR receiver to my PC with HS. Lets see if I can capture the IR from the roku remote and make something happen.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
                  I agree with this, but the one thing I really miss from the days when I was only using XBMC was that I could trigger lights when I paused/unpased.

                  So when watching a movie, as soon as it started playing, I could dim the lights, but bring them back up when the movie was over or was paused. Right now I can't do this. I'm not saying it's HSTs cross to bear either. The biggest issue is unless you only have 1 point of contact (PLEX or Kodi), you are limited by the service providers (HULU, Netflix, or Roku, Apple TV, etc) to offer you that access/control and they aren't likely to do it.

                  I don't think it's a widely wanted thing in the HA space, but for those that want it, it's almost up there with really good Occupancy detection.

                  For me, I could depend on PLEX integration, but when I watch a movie, I actually watch the BluRay and not the rip. The rips via PLEX are the for times when I want to watch it, but not really WATCH it in all it's glory.

                  Am damn wright you can do all you said /want until the sun comes out.
                  Just ask how?

                  All the things you mentioned above are doable =====> To be continued................


                  Eman.
                  TinkerLand : Life's Choices,"No One Size Fits All"

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Eman View Post
                    Am damn wright you can do all you said /want until the sun comes out.
                    Just ask how?

                    All the things you mentioned above are doable =====> To be continued................


                    Eman.
                    Hrmm... amusing

                    ok.. How?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Next question in this thread...

                      Is there support for any IR extenders other than Global Cache?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by jeubanks View Post
                        Hrmm... amusing

                        ok.. How?

                        Ok,

                        If you are really serious about your project and willing to spend some money on say, equipment you do not already have. ====> We come back on this later......
                        1. Can you break down your project in sections ===> Hulu, Netfrix......and the online content at the bottom of the list. Sorry this may be your first choice but lets move on for the sake of the topic ===>

                        2. I point it out to you that I don't develop software but utilise it maybe not to the max but am one those who love the connected world! ====> HomeSeer helps me a lot to do that ===> In systems it's the Master controller.
                        Then cometh the plugins of which I know do the greatest magic ===> Tasker plugin, MQTT plugin, Jeedom plugin ......etc.
                        Then there are software servers ====> Node-RED,MQTT.......you get the point?

                        3. As a teaser ====> I utilise the above say if I pick up my phone to call or receive a call, The Amp volume, wall tablet volume automatically (use it to play music and announcements) dialled down until on call end! ====>
                        That's just one example

                        4. You mentioned that you want viewing your movies on Blu-Ray player ====> Now here goes ===> Buy a network attached Blu-Ray player ===> Just searched that but there are other types.

                        Did I mention Node-RED and HomeSeer MQTT plugins? ====> Now check this node out : https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-r...rib-avr-yamaha ====> I don't know if you are starting to get the picture?

                        IR to me is a no more! I have my Global Cache GC-100-18 confined to storage!

                        The future is IoT (Tesla.........need we say more?) and is here to stay.

                        5. A friend of mine so may years ago taught me a trick on how to find what I wanted to do even if I thought it was difficult or near impossible ====>
                        Was not to ask him all the time about things but in GOOGLE ====>
                        Type in all sorts of questions about any topic of interest.

                        What does this mean? ====> Just because you have not seen it does not mean it can't be done.
                        Most of my time on the HomeSeer forums is / was about reading other people's work. In other words self taught. If I use a plugin and things get complicated I contact the author to direct me in the wright direction.

                        6. The way I came on this way was to highlight the point that your needs were not near impossible without doing good research.
                        HomeSeer data base is so huge that most of the questions people ask have been answered before and may still apply! ====> Type a topic of concern in Google and add in the word HomeSeer and see what you get.

                        Note : That's why the heavy weights here rarely answer questions!

                        7. I can go on and on until the sun come out..... but for a person who has used MQTT, Node-RED and HomeSeer as the Master controller can explain the images below..... Anything is possible!

                        TIP : Create a chart or a project book ===> lay out the things you want do in the order you want because no two homes / systems are alike.



                        Eman.
                        Attached Files
                        Last edited by Eman; April 24, 2018, 06:37 PM.
                        TinkerLand : Life's Choices,"No One Size Fits All"

                        Comment


                          #13
                          are you integrating plex?

                          You should take the time and write up a case study on your setup and all of your specific integrations. It may offer inspiration. That esp32 ble scanner supports mqtt figure that one out and be a hero

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Doing a project book with write ups helped me out tremendously that is great advice - focus on the user experience first then develop

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Well that's a rather LONG post to follow with a reply. Yet even after reading it many times I'm left with either making my own snarky response or just leaving it be. So I'm just going to leave it.

                              Comment

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