TV bindings

[Ben Jones]

Hey team,

I am in the market for a new TV, but as I am sure you can appreciate, I won't be buying one unless I can control it via openHAB!

I know there is a binding for Samsung TVs, which looks to be pretty thorough. I also believe there is an LG binding in development currently?

Are there any others, for Panasonic for example?

What TVs are everyone using with openHAB currently? And what features can you control?

To be honest all I really need is the ability to switch the TV on/off since all audio/visual switching/handling is done through my Yamaha receiver. 

Cheers,

Ben

[Ard van der Leeuw]

Hi Ben, 

I'm using an LG tv, but in all honesty, I'm not controlling it through OpenHAB, although I have been looking at the LG binding. Unfortunately through, my LG tv cannot be switched on over the network, so there's little use for me to add this binding. Currently, I'm using a zWave powerbar to power on/off the TV. When the TV switches on, it uses the last used input, which is fine, because I control all media (TV, radio and local music) via XBMC. I have no need to change volume, switch channels, or anything else on the TV. 

Ard

[jkar...@blue-pc.net]

Hello Ben,

i have a LG TV and the Bindung is OK but dont turn your TV off.

So i use a Arduino with Ethernet Interface and a irLED to Power on and off. There is a finished advanced  Library http://tech.cyborg5.com/irlib/

The irLED is next to the TV Reciever.

I change the Volume and Input over the denon av reciever with a http request.

Joerg

[Ben Jones]

Cheers guys, I already have an IR solution (via one of the now defunct RedEye IP-IR blasters). Works well and now my Yamaha is 'connected' the only thing RedEye has to worry about is the TV. 

Seems there isn't great support for automating TVs currently, aside from IR.

I can get a cheap Panasonic 60" LED TV here without any smarts, so that might be the best bet, and use the RedEye to switch on/off.

Thanks for your comments.

[Karel Goderis]

Ben

With respect to the Samsung sets there is little information as to the meaning of the codes you can send over. It varies by model, and implies trial and error. Given that the Ethernet module is switched off in standby mode, you have to rely on IR to switch the device on. (I also did that, via the IRTrans binding).

That being said, Samsung has an API for developping application on the set, so, in theory, one day we could have an OH client running on the tele. Also, most of them are UPNP, so in openHAB 2.0 we could envision displaying messages or other stuff on the TV set

Despite the fact that these are all smart devices, most of the time you do not tend to use all those features as one depends on  a TV provider's STB, which in turns already has the EPG and so forth. 

K

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[len...@gmail.com]

I am using a Philips TV with the jointspace binding https://github.com/openhab/openhab/wiki/jointSPACE-Binding
As with the samsung TV it is not possible to turn the device on over network, but besides that you can do anything that the remote lets you do with it.
Besides using IR it is also possible (if you have a device connected over HDMI) to send a CEC command via command line to turn on the TV.
(Actually you could also do anything that is possible with the CEC standard independent of the TV brand. But I am not very familiar with this)
This is what I am currently doing. If youre interested in how to do that just let me know.

Best
David

[Ben Jones]

Seems quite incredible that none of these TVs allow you to turn them on over the network. I know it is a fairly 'geeky' thing to want to do I guess, and not for the main stream at the moment, but surely they can see the future...

[Richard Trenchard]

I believe you can with a sony bravia ( WOL ) .. I am looking at this at the moment myself...

On 8 September 2014 11:04, Ben Jones <ben.j...@gmail.com> wrote:

Seems quite incredible that none of these TVs allow you to turn them on over the network. I know it is a fairly 'geeky' thing to want to do I guess, and not for the main stream at the moment, but surely they can see the future...

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[Jeroen Idserda]

My five year old TV only supports IR remotes, so  I use LIRC + lirc_web to control it (mainly switching on/off) from openHAB. If you have a Raspberry Pi, you can build a simple IR transmitter using this schematic: http://alexba.in/blog/2013/03/09/raspberrypi-ir-schematic-for-lirc/

Since there's no lirc binding in openHAB, you can setup lirc_web which offers a simple REST API for LIRC. It can then be used from openHAB like this:

Switch TelevisionPower                        {http=">[ON:POST:http://192.168.1.20:3000/remotes/sonytv/KEY_PWRON] >[OFF:POST:http://192.168.1.20:3000/remotes/sonytv/KEY_PWROFF]"}

[Joshua Pond]

On the Samsung binding it does mention about turning TV on but after searching everywhere it appears that when the TV is off/standby the network shuts down so won't respond to anything, hence the inability to turn on.

Everything else works though.

Josh

[dan cunningham]

So this not exactly what you asked, but I'm playing with it right now and I have to say its kinda amazing. I'm using tuck182's  logitech harmony hub binding to control everything I have, take a look at : https://github.com/tuck182/openhab-harmony-binding . I'm going to pick up 2 or 3 more of these for the house so absolutely everything is controlled.  Its great, you can program complex activities in the logitech app ( start the 10 things, set them to different inputs, etc..)  which of course work with the logitech remote and mobile apps,  but can also be started  with openHAB.  The binding reports the status of the activities so if my wife selects "watch a movie" on the remote, I can execute rules to do things like dim lights. I also have controls on my touch panels to start those activities and do basic control (play,volume,  ff, rw).  There's one or two things I might change with the binding, but after a day of playing with it, I'm hooked. 

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[Ben Jones]

That looks to be pretty cool. I kind of have the same thing with my RedEye - which has a full REST API so I can send commands via the HTTP binding and update state (by polling). That stuff looks a bit slicker tho - great work tuck182!

I prefer to do as much of the 'scene control' in openHAB however. So now I have a connected receiver + XBMC and Squeezeboxes, I can do just about everything in openHAB - aside from switch the TV on/off.

But yeah, dimming lights when a movie starts, or pausing playback when the phone rings, is pretty cool!

[Ryan Press]

I have a Samsung UN55FH6003, a 55" TV, and I control it through the
EX-LINK serial connection. It has a 3.5mm stereo jack on the back
that I connect to a RS232-USB adapter. This in turn connects to my
XBMC HTPC, where I can send a command to change the input and turn the
power off, or even on.

This TV has very few extra features, but the picture quality and power
consumption are excellent.

Ryan

[Ben Jones]

Yep, thanks Ryan, that is pretty much all I care about too - basic control (i.e. on/off), a good picture, and energy efficient. That is the main driving force for me switching to an LED/LCD panel, my plasma just sucks too much juice!

[Jason Brunk]

Jeroen,

   This is pretty much the same way I am doing it, but i don't have a raspberry pi doing it.   I salvaged the IR leds out of some remotes and basically built a tiny network attached IR blaster using an arduino and the schematics for the arduino tv-b-gone.  I use mqtt on the arduino to connect to my mqtt server and can just send on off commands from wherever (openhab, command line clients, whatever) to a node in mqtt and my little IR device reads the message and fires off IR commands.

Jason