HDMI Control Between Brands

[Robin]

Has anyone got different brands of AV equipment to play nice together with HDMI control (HDMI-CEC)?

The point is to allow you to control everything connected to the TV with one remote but all brands have their own trademark names for this technology and are notorious for not playing nice with other brands (even though its meant to be a global standard).

I'm particularly wondering if LG Simplink and Samsung Anynet work together.

Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) is a HDMI feature designed to allow the user to command and control two or more CEC-enabled devices, that are connected through HDMI, by using only one of their remote controls (for example by controlling a television set, set-top box, and DVD player using only the remote control of the TV).[90] CEC also allows for individual CEC-enabled devices to command and control each other without user intervention.

Trade names for CEC are Anynet+ (Samsung); Aquos Link (Sharp); BRAVIA Link and BRAVIA Sync (Sony); HDMI-CEC (Hitachi); E-link (AOC); Kuro Link (Pioneer); CE-Link and Regza Link (Toshiba); RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI) (Onkyo); RuncoLink (Runco International); SimpLink (LG); HDAVI Control, EZ-Sync, VIERA Link (Panasonic); EasyLink (Philips); and NetCommand for HDMI (Mitsubishi).

Thanks,

Robin.

 

[Lion-Face]

From my experience, at best the basics work, turning on/off one device turns on/off the rest, and volume control may work along with fast forward/rewind etc, as most of those controls are built on the standard in place.

It's when you come to menu control that you come across issues from wrong commands being issued to not working at all. In some cases cross brands cause issues and prevent the other from working properly (for example a TV doesn't pick up the sound system properly and plays sound only through TV speakers), often easily fixed by turning one of the devices off and on again.

 

[Robin]

Thanks for the reply Lion-Face, I'm surprised no one seems to use HDMI control even though its quite a big modern AV feature, or do people still fall for buying Harmony remotes!

I'm only after volume control so I'm hoping simple commands like that follow the CEC standard like you said. The trade names are just to con people into buying same brand everything and they basically mess up interoperability on purpose. It seems the only way of knowing compatibility is to buy and try which is silly.

 

[Jondot]

I remember the Samsung Blu Ray player I had for a while did a few things with my Bravia, but I can't for the life of me remember what. Pretty sure it was just a case of turning its self off when the TV went into standby - volume control worked, but I think that was through programming the remote's infra red blahdeblah rather than anything happening in the HDMI department.