<br />On Tuesday, August 27, 2013 13:14 CEST, "Brian J. Murrell" <brian@interlinx.bc.ca> wrote:<br /> <blockquote>On 13-08-26 07:30 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:<br />><br />> Then again, there's always the "dumb remote, smart receiver" approach.<br /><br />For some values of effort to get set up, yes.<br /><br />> Use any remote you want hooked into your MythTV box(es) and set up a<br />> LIRC transmitter, too, that can send the appropriate signals to all the<br />> appropriate pieces in response to whatever button you want to press.<br /><br />For me at least, there is a bit of a physics problem with this. My<br />MythFE (the smart receiver) sits a number of feet on the x and y axes<br />(but right in line with, on the z axis) away from my tv/receiver/etc.<br />Imagine looking at the wall with my A/V equipment on it from 10 feet<br />away from it, the equipment is in a triangle where my MythFE is on the<br />bottom right of the
triangle.<br /><br />Trying to get a transmitted signal from there to the rest of the<br />triangle will be challenging. It works well with a remote from 10 feet<br />away of course, pointed towards that wall, but trying to transmit both<br />up and across and effectively from what's under/beside the other<br />equipment just won't work. I'd need to somehow place that transmitter<br />more in the area of the room where people normally sit which is 10 feet<br />out (and 5 feet up) into the centre of the room. Almost as if I had the<br />transmitter suspended in the centre of the room. Just not worth all of<br />the effort, for me at least.<br /><br />> IMHO, there's no need for a smart remote when you're using the remote to<br />> send signals to a computer--that's already a lot "smarter" (or at least<br />> much more general) than any remote.<br /><br />And then there is that part. Sure, it's doable with a bit of<br />programmi
ng and glue to effectively recreate what the Harmony does by<br />way of receiving IR signals and using those to transmit macros of other<br />signals, but again, there is the effort to write that glue and to dig up<br />and/or learn all of the transmitting codes for all of the equipment you<br />have.<br /><br />I think that huge database is a big part of the Harmony's value.<br /><br />All of that said, it might be an interesting project to create that<br />software and database as FOSS. But I also suspect that a lot of people<br />looking to use such a piece of software would bump into the physics<br />problem also. I can't imagine how many people have their MythFE (or<br />other computer) opposite their A/V equipment or can reasonably locate an<br />IR transmitter in such a position relative to where their MythFE is in<br />the room.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />b.<br /><br />_______________________________________________<br />mythtv-users mailing list<br />mythtv-us
ers@mythtv.org<br />http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users</blockquote><br />AT the risk of prolonging a thread that might already have outlived its general interest and is almost certainly off-topic:<br /><br />I can bounce my (harmony) signal from the ceiling and reach hardware in several different locations in the room. Try it and see if it works for you.<br /><br />As my two halfpennyworth to the general discussion: The strength of the harmony is in my opinion in its "activities". "Watch MythTV" for example includes:<br /><br />1. Turning on general system power.<br />2. Raising the TV<br />3. Turning on the TV<br />4. Turning on the amp<br />5. Setting the TV input<br />6. Setting the amp input<br /><br />I can adjust the order and timings of all of those and add extra steps at will. I can set general rules: globally, for any one activity, or for any one device.<br /><br />I could add powering up the computer and setting up mythtv to the
first internal activity, if I could be bothered to control that through the remote.<br /><br />All of that before setting up the buttons on the remote to control across all my devices (including MythTV) wirthout switching between them - I change channels on my stb, adjust volume on my amp while I still have access to my MythTV menus, all from the same set of buttons- or I can switch to a particular device to control only that, or I can have two completely different sets of "buttons" for the "sound" and "picture" settings for any device or activity. My personal opinion is that I am the lucky owner of a very powerful remote which I couldn't even get close to with my old, cheapo All-In-One.<br /><br />In addition I have a complete overview of all my devices and activities from the web interface and can easily change any device for a new one, replacing only the activity configurations that are directly affected.<br /><br />Opinions are pe
rsonal, but I wouldn't want to give up my harmony (and I don't work for Logitech).<br /><br /> Cheers!<br /><br />Marius<br /><br /><br />