[mythtv] Serial Port (RS-232C) control of high end Sony units

[Kevin Elliott]

Isn't that funny, as soon as you post something, you find the answer
right away, regardless of the time you spent looking before you
posted.

I've finally found the specifications by searching the forums
on the Cinemar website (www.cinemaronline.com). If anyone else
is interested, you can find them at http://www.caseserve.com/cinemar/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1157  Enjoy...

If anyone wants to help me with the control modules (I think we could
even expand to home automation) let me know. I've seen lots
of chatter over the last year about stuff like this, but have yet
to see any substantial code for controlling receivers/changers or
x10/homeautomation.

Kevin

Kevin Elliott
kevin at phunc.com

On Mon, Mar 08, 2004 at 05:00:49PM -0600, Kevin Elliott wrote:
> I want to make use of my high-end Sony ES receiver and dvd changer
> with MythTV, so I'm beginning to create code that will utilize
> them so the receiver can be controlled from MythTV using the RS-232C
> control ports, and the 400
> disc dvd changer can be used in MythMusic and MythDVD. Ofcourse,
> I first need to figure out the protocol that Sony uses. I've been
> searching for atleast 10 months for the specifications of the
> protocol, and can't find anything. Sony keeps that private for
> commercial products that control the units.
> 
> Unfortunately, the commercial control units aren't cheap. Control-S
> and Control-AII ports are most often unidirectional and don't provide
> a bidirectional flow of information like the RS-232C ports do. So
> the only way to get cd and dvd data, or receiver status information
> is over the serial port.
> 
> Does anyone have any information on Sony's RS-232C control protocol?
> (not the rs-232 interface specification)
> 
> Once I find this out, I can finish up the code (abstracted) so that
> other devices could be controlled as well. 
> 
> The guys at www.cinemaronline.com have seemed to figure out the
> protocol for my Sony CX777ES 400 disc changer and wrote some windows
> code to interface to it and I've emailed them about it. Hopefully
> they'll be kind enough to lend me the information, otherwise,
> it's back to the drawing board.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Kevin Elliott
> kevin at phunc.com 

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