[mythtv-users] Frontend USB to TV RS232 serial?

[Dave Richardson]

> mythtv at derdev.com wrote:
>> On a frontend without any available serial ports (RS232) and plenty of
>> available USB ports, is there an easy/obvious solution to connect the
>> frontend to an HDTV's RS232 serial port for power on/off control?
>>
>> I see lots of USB to Serial converters but they don't seem to terminate
>> in
>> the male serial connection needed to link up to the TV...  Barking up
>> the
>> wrong tree here?
>
> I connect to my Sharp Aquos HDTV using a USB-to-RS232 cable along with
> an RS232 null modem (aka gender-bender) connector/cable. I looked for a
> solution that did not require an RS232 null modem connector/cable, but I
> could not find one. Thankfully, the RS232 connector has screw terminals
> to solidly attach the RS232 connector. Otherwise, I would have worried
> more about the torque caused by the RS232 connector followed by the
> RS232 null modem connector.
>
> By the way, if you have a Sharp Aquose, then consider Ron Fraizer's
> Aquos perl scripts
> <http://mythtvblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/controlling-sharp-aquos-tv-via-serial.html>.
> I have integrated them into MiniMyth's suspend/resume functions (for
> power off/on) and MiniMyth's volume control functions. They were easy to
> integrate and the work well.
>
>> Also, any drivers needed to support such an animal?
>
> My USB-to-RS232 cable uses the vanilla kernel's pl2303 driver (which
> depends on the vanilla kernel's usbserial driver). Depending on your
> USB-to-RS232 cable, you may need a different driver. However, the
> vanilla kernel has numerouse USB-to-RS232 converters, so it is unlikely
> that you would need a driver that it not part of the vanilla kernel.

@Paul, thanks, I'm literally hooking up to an Aquos HDTV, so that extra
bit of detail is outstanding

@Brian, thanks for the key details about cabling selection.  Glad I can
safely USB->Serial->HDTV...  Had considered adding a serial PCI-e card,
but that seemed a bit too much.

Thanks all!