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    Multiple Topic - Home Theatre

    Current Setup is very simple

    1. TV
    2. Fire TV
    3. Game Systems
    4. Harmony Hub

    Currently using Harmony Hub for basic activity switching. I want to take this further. With Harmony, yeah I have the lights lower and raise when an activity starts or ends. Great. I want full integration when a movie is paused then the lights go up 50% and then play lights go back down. I can't get that with Harmony. So I was thinking of EventGhost. The larger question is what software to then run with it?

    From the Fire TV we have the usual suspects, Amazon Video/Prime, Netflix, Hulu, DirecTV Now, and of course Plex

    I can deal out the PC specs, but I would like suggestions on the software side and good integration with HS.

    Candidates:

    1. Kodi
    2. JRiver
    3. ???? Ideas what else is out there and good for PC can interface with a remote and Looks good on a TV (customization is a plus)

    #2
    Are you exclusively running kodi?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by kideon View Post
      Are you exclusively running kodi?
      I'm asking for suggestions on building/buying a media center solution...

      As I listed I know of Kodi and JRiver... what other options are there?

      What do people use and like?

      Comment


        #4
        Ok so if this is going to be your primary entertainment location I would do a htpc running kodi and integrating plex at some point which can run within kodiz. Controlling kodi is use spuds plugin which will give you everything you want and more.

        As far as controlling the htpc outside of just kodi you can use eventghost and fettys plug-in. You can also use event ghost with kodi and use that as your main interface to whatever else you’re wanting to do on the htpc like gaming emulation music etc. You can also use jon’s Plugin to control it. You can even integrate voice control.

        I’d start with the htpc running kodi and a nice keyboard then go from there.

        Comment


          #5
          Yeah, it sounds like Kodi is your best bet.

          Here I use MPC-HC for all video and WinAmp for all audio. I use EventGhost and the HS plugin to deal with MPC and jon00s plugin to deal with WinAmp. The integration with HS is pretty tight. The main difference between our cases is that I have all of my music and video stored on a NAS with a very well organized file structure that I navigate through Windows explorer.
          Originally posted by rprade
          There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

          Comment


            #6
            Here utilize Kodi running on Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit (appliance like) on an Intel CPU (Aopen Digital Engine). You can run Kodi on Android or Windows too.

            Recently started to use Roku (Amazon and Netflix) that was integrated in a new LCD TV.

            I have decided to use it on demand shutting off the NIC port when not using it.

            This mostly because I was getting Roku pop ups on my LCD TV when watching Kodi Video streams.

            Aux HDMI inputs go through Pioneer AVR to one HDMI port on television. Aux HDMI is DTV, Blueray player (no Ethernet connection) and Kodi plus now Roku.
            - Pete

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            Comment


              #7
              Here's my problem with Kodi and the whole HTPC...

              We use a lot of the following which are not "really" available on Kodi

              Netflix
              Amazon Video
              Hulu
              DirecTV Now
              HBO Now
              Plex

              I have a Fire TV box that I use to access everything and Plex running on an rPi with a 4TB storage attached. I spent a good part of the weekend searching around for HTPC ways of doing Netflix and Amazon and other online services and I came up empty handed. Why is it so difficult to get those services within an HTPC solution? I know licensing...DRM...yada yada

              End Goal: Control environment through HS Events

              Start Movie: Lights go off
              End Movie: Lights come on
              Pause Movie: Lights brighten to dim level
              Play Movie: Lights dim off again

              Etc etc.... lots of things... pause movie increase lights, turn on the popcorn maker etc etc etc...

              It seems the generally "best" way to do this would be with an HTPC setup but now I can't use online services...

              Here's what I'm thinking, but I can't find much info even in the A/V section here on the forum which seems oddly dead.

              Using IR transmitters and receivers (have to use a Roku or connect IR Receiver to Fire TV). Lets say Roku now just for easy explanation because it already supports IR.

              Devices:
              TV
              Sound Bar
              Roku
              HS Server with IR receiver

              IR Blaster/Emitter for sending commands to devices... Which one? Global Cache or something else? There's some really cheap IR repeaters/distributers out there now, will they work with HS?

              Remote sends signal to IR receiver (lets say global cache for now). GC then repeats the signal to the devices and HS receiver.

              TV turns on, roku turns on, goes to channel etc etc... HS receives all of this through??? Could use EventGhost or LIRC whatever and depending on the event received from EventGhost it runs an HS Event... So hitting "Pause" on the remote, HS gets the signal from EventGhost and HS runs an event based on that Pause.... ok sounds plausible and not too overly complex....

              Don't really need a Harmony Hub in the mix, but I have one if someone wants to throw out ideas... maybe use that Hub as the IR blaster?

              Now for IR Receiver probably a FLIRC USB adapter. Are there other good options?

              Anything else that works well with HS than Global Cache? Maybe someone can also educate me on Global Cache. Their website is really lacking on information. GC is a IR repeater/distribution system for Transmitting IR signals. Can it RECEIVE? To also be the IR receiver used for HS?

              I'm sure this type of thing has already been worked out by someone... but there's no info that I can find on setup.

              Comment


                #8
                The harmony hub can control the htpc via Bluetooth. Some of those streaming services can integrate with the Kodi as well. There’s a roku plugin out there that supports instant status that may be your solution for an app agnostic environment. More or less you want isplaying, is paused, is stopped no matter what service it is. The harmony can control the roku and the newer roku also support hdmi-cec. If you want the most uniform route to with roku if not kodi. There’s a beta plex plugin out there as well.

                I don’t think there’s a way to poll status from the Apple TV but you can at least control it with the harmony.

                So yeah after several years on this adventure I’d recommend kodi on an htpc using your harmony remote and spuds plugin along with eventghost.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Not sure if you're talking about my Roku plugin (or is someone has one with instant status). Mine doesn't have instant status, it still requires polling with the ECP (External Control Protocol) released by Roku. The ECP doesn't give any information on the state of the player at all (if it's playing, paused, stopped).

                  @jeubanks has asked in my plugin's thread about capturing the keys presses and he has an interesting idea of IR. The issue with using the Harmony is that it wants to talk to the Roku over Wifi, but assuming you had a roku remote that was IR you could train a custom device to do it.

                  If you went that route and he had a PC on it, he could train the PC the same commands and then use that to trigger events off of. Of course the issue with the Roku is that the OK button can also Pause/Play in addition to the Play and Pause buttons which I'm pretty sure internally are just the same thing (they both pause/resume).

                  My only other idea would be to monitor the Roku's data usage, but buffering may not work for that either.


                  It's a tricky issue that could be solved if companies like Roku just exposed the internal player status, which I'm sure they have access to.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
                    Not sure if you're talking about my Roku plugin (or is someone has one with instant status). Mine doesn't have instant status, it still requires polling with the ECP (External Control Protocol) released by Roku. The ECP doesn't give any information on the state of the player at all (if it's playing, paused, stopped).

                    @jeubanks has asked in my plugin's thread about capturing the keys presses and he has an interesting idea of IR. The issue with using the Harmony is that it wants to talk to the Roku over Wifi, but assuming you had a roku remote that was IR you could train a custom device to do it.

                    If you went that route and he had a PC on it, he could train the PC the same commands and then use that to trigger events off of. Of course the issue with the Roku is that the OK button can also Pause/Play in addition to the Play and Pause buttons which I'm pretty sure internally are just the same thing (they both pause/resume).

                    My only other idea would be to monitor the Roku's data usage, but buffering may not work for that either.


                    It's a tricky issue that could be solved if companies like Roku just exposed the internal player status, which I'm sure they have access to.
                    Yeah this is something that used to be possible with Android TV as it used to work with Home Assistant. I'm reading up again on their component and looks like Google changed internals and is not presenting the internal player states any longer. For Fire TV HA is using the Fire TV server (required side loading with ADB) I may look into that but I want a solution that isn't going to be killed off or broken every other patch.

                    For Roku HA doesn't have any strange additional requirements. I'll have to look into the media_player/roku.py and see what it's doing and how to replicate to get player state information (if still possible).

                    Lots of other systems/media including Kodi supported as well.

                    There's a lot of good things I still like about HA, I may combine it for media functionality calling HS for device control....hmmm...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      MQTT?

                      Hi,

                      Kodi has an MQTT add in:

                      https://github.com/owagner/kodi2mqtt (not tested)

                      With the HS MQTT functionality you could achieve the outcome you want as far as the kodi player is concerned.

                      HTH

                      A

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by adeux View Post
                        Hi,

                        Kodi has an MQTT add in:

                        https://github.com/owagner/kodi2mqtt (not tested)

                        With the HS MQTT functionality you could achieve the outcome you want as far as the kodi player is concerned.

                        HTH

                        A
                        Still no "good" way to integrate Online Services.

                        Ok... HTPC is great for local media and pirating media. But not for accessing legit online services like Netflix/Amazon.

                        I still think the only way I'm going to get what I want is IR signal distribution of grabbing the IR and sending it to whatever media box and to HS... well I'll find out in a couple of days if the basic idea works when I get the flirc I ordered.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Relating to "remote" control here have migrated from IR (still have blasters around) to serial (and network) and presently to using HDMI-CEC.

                          Really though it is difficult to keep up with this stuff.

                          Relating to your online services I see Roku as an all in one simple solution rather than an a la cart per solution device.

                          DRM has always been around and what's around the corner will probably make your new 4K HD LCD TV obsolete. (HDCP 2.2).
                          - Pete

                          Auto mator
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                            #14
                            Originally posted by jeubanks View Post
                            Yeah this is something that used to be possible with Android TV as it used to work with Home Assistant. I'm reading up again on their component and looks like Google changed internals and is not presenting the internal player states any longer. For Fire TV HA is using the Fire TV server (required side loading with ADB) I may look into that but I want a solution that isn't going to be killed off or broken every other patch.

                            For Roku HA doesn't have any strange additional requirements. I'll have to look into the media_player/roku.py and see what it's doing and how to replicate to get player state information (if still possible).

                            Lots of other systems/media including Kodi supported as well.

                            There's a lot of good things I still like about HA, I may combine it for media functionality calling HS for device control....hmmm...
                            I looked at the roku.py. they are basically saying if the current app is not home, a screensaver or "none", the media state is playing.

                            This won't fit your needs, bit I only did a cursory glance on my phone.

                            Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Pete View Post
                              DRM has always been around and what's around the corner will probably make your new 4K HD LCD TV obsolete. (HDCP 2.2).
                              HDCP 2.2 should be on any name brand 4K displays since 2014.
                              HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

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