Remote Control

[quarkrad]

This is isn't really a Hummy question but I'm hoping I can get some advice. I have a TV in my conservatory as well as living room where the Hummy is. Is it possible to have some sort of device in the conservatory that will allow me to control the Hummy in the living room?

 

[Black Hole]

How is the conservatory TV hooked up to the Humax? Three options as far as I can see:

1. The custom firmware provides a virtual remote, controlled via a web browser. If you have a smart phone or a tablet, or even a netbook, it is easy to control the Humax from anywhere in range of your home WiFi. This presumes your Humax is (or can be) on your home network, but note that you still need to be able to see the Humax video output in order to navigate the menus.
2. Wireless AV links (sometimes called "rabbits") take a composite video signal in one end and send it to the receiver unit for connection to a TV SCART input at the the other end. These are pretty much useless for StDef digital TV let alone HiDef (unless you are driving an old lo-res telly), but they also have an IR return channel for repeating the remote control commands (it is not necessary to have the video link running in order to use the IR channel). Example: eBay (click)
3. Wired IR extender. Example (this one has a cable length of 16 feet, easy enough to make it longer): eBay (click)

 

[HarveyB]

If i read your request correctly, you already have the Humax connected to the TV in the conservatory somehow and are able to watch recordings.
in which case you are only trying to get the remote control bit working.

You might want to look at some of the Keene ir distribution kit. It allows you to transmit your remote control (ir) signals around the house.
Look at:
http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/product.php?mycat=4516

If you have a coax between your TV and the Humax you can run ir over coax.
http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/ebode/ir-control-extender-kit-over-coax-cable/irlinkc.html

There are other suppliers of similar kit.
Note this solution will depend one whether there are splitters or amplifiers in the coax and whether these support pass through.

Another consideration is distance between humax and the room containing the TV.


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[quarkrad]

Thank you both for your replies. I am moving house and in living room I will have my TV and Hummy connected (together) in the standard way. At the rear of the house there is a conservatory where the current owner have another TV - so my issue(s) is being able to control the Hummy from the conservatory and having both TVs connected to the Hummy. Are there any issues driving two TVs from the single Hummy output? (I would have though all of the time/100% either the living TV will be on or the conservatory TV on, not both at the same time.

 

[Black Hole]

I see, this is a speculative enquiry.

HDMI can be driven up to 10m, but only with very expensive high-quality cable and I do not recommend it. of course the Humax only has the one HDMI output, so if you were going to do it that way you would be constantly swapping cables or would need a switch box - also not recommended for driving long distances. The limit for HDMI with inexpensive cables is about 10 feet.

4291 uses a 15m phono cable to send a composite analogue signal to a remote TV with acceptable results (StDef). This can be connected to the phono outputs of the Humax at the same time as the HDMI to the local TV. This kind of thing: eBay (click)

Personally I use a HD-FOX to access the HDR-FOX recordings from across the home network.

 

[sceptic]

You could use an HDMI over LAN extender with IR feedback like this one. As the Hummy only has a single HDMI you would also need an HDMI splitter as well...

 

[HarveyB]

Or you could use an RF modulator attached to the Humax Scart and run an aerial coax cable to the second TV.
This would require you to tune the Second TV to an analogue channel to receive the RF output - old style 625 line of course.
The Humax will downscale fine via the Scart.

You still need to sort out IR signal for remote control BUT you could now do it via the coax (re my earlier post).

Here is a typical RF modulator,
http://www.maplin.co.uk/programmable-universal-modulator-33050

I use one of these to pipe the Humax output around several TVs in my house. Most are in bedrooms and tend to be 22" or lower so 625 downscale is fine.


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[Black Hole]

Or you could use an RF modulator attached to the Humax Scart and run an aerial coax cable to the second TV...

You still need to sort out IR signal for remote control BUT you could now do it via the coax

If you're gonna do that you might as well use a video sender (preferably 5.8GHz) complete with IR back channel.

You could use an HDMI over LAN extender with IR feedback like this one. As the Hummy only has a single HDMI you would also need an HDMI splitter as well...

I'm impressed with that, it's a lot less expensive than other HDMI-over-Cat5 solutions I have seen, but a long HDMI lead will work out cheaper!

 

[sceptic]

I'm impressed with that, it's a lot less expensive than other HDMI-over-Cat5 solutions I have seen, but a long HDMI lead will work out cheaper!

Cheaper yes, but probably more problematic over longer distances and you still need a 2nd solution for the IR feedback...! BTW that same site also have a 60m dual cable solution of £69...