Remote Control of my multi-media setup

OK, so let's discuss this in a multi-step process.... because it's going to get complex.... or it may seem that way, but it isn't really that bad.

First of all, the tv, AVR (Audio Visual Receiver), Philips Hue Sync and TV.

To a certain extent, this is the easy bit.

It's all controlled by HDMI-CEC, and all I need is Power On and Volume Control outside of tv. 

Pressing the Menu button on the tv remote switches on the tv, the AVR, the Hue Sync and the LG TV.

Using Volume Control on the tv remote controls volume on the AVR. I have switched off volume on the LG TV.

Everything else is done via using the tv itself.

HDMI-CEC allows devices, connected together through HDMI ports, to communicate back and forth. The devices can have some control over each other. This means you could control your Blu-ray player through your TV remote, for example, or devices can automatically change your AVR's input when they need to do something.

However, I only have one output from my AVR, which goes to my Philips Hue Sync and then on to my LG TV, which acts like a giant, expensive but lovely, monitor.

It does require some setup to get it right and, just to make it more complicated, not every vendor calls HDMI-CEC that... they give it their own name. e.g. LG calls it SimpLink, or SIMPLINK

On the AVR, you connect the tv and, optionally, the Blu-ray player and phono if you wish.

You plug an HDMI cable in the Monitor Out port on the back of the AVR.

I've then connected mine into HDMI Port 2 on the Philips Hue Sync. In the Hue Sync app, I've called this port "AV Receiver", but it also happens to be HDMI-ARC compliant as well as also being one of the only 2 ports (2 or 4) that work with Dolby Atmos. HDMI-ARC can be used to send sound from the TV back to the AVR. My TV can do this, and I did have it attached to a digital antenna so, I had connected up all the HDMI-ARC ports.

You then put in another cable from the Output HDMI port to the input on the TV.

You can see here that HDMI 2 is defined as being ARC compliant. I selected that one and on the TV, I named it Amplifier.

Great, so now all connected up. However, obviously, not that easy! Quite often HDMI-CEC is switched off by default. You have to work for your fun!

The following instructions are for my TV, but it'll be somewhat similar no matter what TV you have.

On the TV, I took the Magic Remote, and selected the Home Button, which brings up a number of things, one set of icons appear in the top right of the screen, one of which is settings. 

Settings then give you a bunch of options, but the one you want is not shown.... click on the 3 vertical dots in the bottom right hand corner....

then you get more options, and you want to select "General" and then "SIMPLINK (HDMI-CEC)"

When you select that, you want to set both "General" and "Auto Power Sync" to be "On"

Done! For your TV.....

Now the Philips Hue Sync. At this point I am not going into the light setup. That'll be the content of another post.

Fire up the Hue Sync Application on your phone and then go into Settings:

Select Automatic Control and turn on CEC power state detection

I also selected HDMI device turns on, and I had already named HDMI 2 to be AV Receiver

That's it! Hue Sync box now done.

On to the AVR! I love Denon AVR's, but I must admit they could do something about the UI. It's functional, but it doesn't fit into the overall aesthetic of the device well. 

Update: I have, recently, set up an X4700H, and that UI is much better than than the X1500H that I have. A shame an update was not forthcoming to update the UI on mine.

Take your remote control, make sure you have the input source selected to the device you want, and press the Setup button.

Select Video

Select HDMI Setup

You can see here that the source is my AppleTV.

Make sure that the following re on:

HDMI PassThrough is for when the receiver is in standby power mode, if you want that.

-Pass Source is the source you want video signals to go through

-RC Select Power On

HDMI Control On

-ARC, if you want it should be On. It's not necessary though.

-Pow(er) Off Control All

Now on to the tv. Really simple. Go into Settings and under "Remotes and Devices", make sure that "Control TV's and Receivers" is "On"

That's it! HDMI-CEC is now set up.

The fly in the ointment <Updated 1st Jan 2021>

Sometimes I switched on the tv it also switched on the Blu-Ray player, as it was impossible to switch off HDMI-CEC on the player. This then grabbed the video out. Just a few presses of the tv Menu button got it back, but I couldn't find anyway to prevent this from happening.... and it didn't always work.

My initial solution was to plug the Blu-Ray player into an Eve Energy Smart Plug. This gave me the control over if it was switched on or not. As it mostly stays off, it means that the Blu-ray player can't take control of the HDMI, and so I get to see tv! yay!

So main problem over with, but now when I wanted to watch an Blu-ray, I had a multiple step process and, annoyingly, you can't select inputs on TV and Amplifier accessories in an Automation.... but you can in a Scene! 

You may note that I have a Scene called "Switch To Blu-ray"

All it does is switch on the power to the Blu-ray player, Switch on the Amp and select the "Blu-Ray" input and, lastly, switch on the TV and select the "Amplifier" input.

And it works!

I can select the scene again to turn it off, which is great for the end of the evening, or if I want to watch the tv, I can just use the remote on there and it switches the input. Still, I think I'll have a "Switch to Apple TV" Scene too.