Media Control

Sorry for posting here. I tried to post in the AV forum but it wouldn't allow me to make a topic.

I was wondering if I could get some thoughts on controlling my AV. Originally I wanted it to be all indigo integrated. I bought a Sony TV and AV Receiver. Sadly my TV did not work with the Sony Plugin. Since then I went to Wireless Itach. My problem with this is as seen in my photo the TV is on the opposite wall as the AV. Because of this I was using the blaster to send the signals to the TV across the room. Today the blaster died. This got me thinking about killing the idea of the Itach all together and move to something more like a logitech. Mainly I watch the state of my Plex Server to control the lights which can be done regardless of the control. Am I missing an option is there a better way to do what I want to do? What are other people using to control Media?

There's another thread on here about the Logitech hub where someone has managed to get access to the API for it to integrate it into indigo, but it's not happened yet.

Out of interest do you use the to for anything other than viewing video? As in does all the AV components go via the AV receiver first? If so then perhaps you could ditch control of the tv and just have it turn on/off using HDMI-CEC from controls from the AV receiver?


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I currently Have HDMI Sync setup but it is oppisite of that. Turning on the TV turns on the Receiver and adjusts the audio video setting...so I still need to blast the TV. I did find something else out in the past 12 hours of messing with the Itach. The config file got messed up. After 100000000 resets and reboots i got it to stick and the blaster is fine, it was the Itach that was messed up. I still need to look for a better way to do this because this is the second time in a year this happened and its never easy to fix.

Ah I see. AV control is a toughie at times. It's taken me years of tweaking to get it to work exactly as I'd like! And it only really did after I got a pioneer AV receiver compatible with the plugin for indigo!

I've been just about to buy an iTach for about 3 weeks now, so I'm very interested in your experiences with it.

I'm pretty new to Indigo and really loving it, but there's almost no documentation I've found that really lays out what is required for setting up the iTach, or even things like the differences between IR Blasters and IR emitters. And I sure don't want to have to set it up over and over again as you describe!

I'm not in love with my Harmony Hub, but I have it already and it has never lost settings. In fact the reverse is sort of true, because the interface and instructions are poor when it comes to trying to fix a setting that needs to be changed.

[jay (support)]

[MODERATOR NOTE] moved to a more appropriate forum.

Hello DC,

Well my experience with the Itach isn't all bad. It is pretty much this is a nutshell. When you buy it you get 2 emitters and one blaster. The emitters are small devices you stick over the IR receiver of your device like an Apple TV or you AV Receiver/ They emit an IR signal with about a 1 inch range. This is why they need to be placed over top to the IR receiver. The IR blaster can be placed across the room and has a longer range. It send a large blast of IR signal out. On the back of the Itach Wireless there are three ports labeled 1 2 3. Ports 1 and 2 are for emitters. When you configure the Itach it gives the option to setup port three for the Blaster.

Setting up the Itach on your Network is pretty straight forward and you do it with ADHOC. You connect your laptop directly to the Itach wirelessly and setup the network IP and Gateway.. Once it reboots it will join the network and you can connect to it through the IP you gave it.

From there you have to you use a Ilearn program or seek out all the codes for every single button you want to program in Indigo.

The upside to it is even if the Itach has a problem you don't lose the programming work you have done with the IR codes. The downside is I have found that is in the past year or so my ITach has become corrupted twice. Meaning the config file gets an error and you have to restore it and restore it and restore it and restore it until it finally works. Also when you restore corrupted firmware you use a program called IHelp which is only available in windows. Another drawback as many indigo people are also diehard Apple. Luckily I had an old Laptop I keep around for this.


When it works its solid because its just an IR signal being sent. But it can be flaky and drop off the network or become corrupted. Because what I do is mainly have indigo watching the state of my Plex clients to control the lighting I was looking for what other people were doing in way of remotes. I guess in my mind if I hit play on my iPad or on a Logitech remote and the Plex server goes from paused to play and my lights dim the end result is the same. Having it on a control page in Indigo really is irrelevant.

Hope this helped you out.

This is very helpful, thanks. You casually mentioned at least 2 things I didn't know and that make using an iTach much less optimal than I had expected!

Also the hardware (or software that runs on it) sounds much less stable than I expected. This also gives me pause.

For all its faults, the Logitech hub is pretty stable. Never lost my programming once.

.... Also when you restore corrupted firmware you use a program called IHelp which is only available in windows. ...

Actually iHelp, iLearn and iTest (by Martin Rijnbeek) are all available from the Mac App Store (I have them all installed on my Mac), so you don't have to have a Windows PC to update the firmware.

I Use a WF2IR for IR control along with a IP2SL for RS223 control using Perry's Fantastic Cynical plugins for about 5 years now and have never had corruption as I use the Plugin to send the IR / RS232 commands to the units.

Rock Solid. Never required a reboot or have had any issues at all.

Highly recommended!

Rock Solid. Never required a reboot or have had any issues at all.

I wonder what's causing this difference in experience. Glad to hear it works for you, as that makes it more likely I'll move to it. I need something to bridge my AV to Indigo!

I also use an iTach. Have had it for over 3 years now and it has never caused me any trouble.

I have to say that I only use it as a "dumb" IR interface. All my AV control is done with roomie remote (they changed it's name recently to simplecontrol). So all my IR commands sit inside the roomie app. I have never used the iTach to learn anything. Maybe that is what makes the device behave badly ? Maybe the learning database can become corrupted somehow ?

I'm one of the early adopters of roomie remote so I don't need to pay the subscription fees. If they ever change that, I think I might try the same setup as Sharek and put everything inside Indigo.

I have a similar setup where I used several iTach devices in order to bring everything into Indigo. I also use Roomie but find that the subscription fees are fairly ridiculous given what you get out of it, so I used the iTach to learn the commands from my remotes into Indigo using the Cynical Cache plugin and everything works quite well. It is a little obnoxious to have a couple hundred action groups in Indigo (one for each command) but they all work pretty much every time. I know there are some alternatives to doing all the action groups but I just found it easier to work into my control pages than anything else.

The only issue I have ever had is with Cynical Cache not being able to talk to the iTach now and then so I restart the plugin and everything is dandy again.

Since moving to an AppleTV 4 for my Plex server (99% of what I use) I don't use this setup as much any longer but still do when I need to switch TV inputs or manually power cycle the TV for something. I do still use it extensively in my theater though.