CEC

General topics

Remotes

CEC

CEC stands for Consumer Electronics Control. Since the Frodo release XBMC comes with the new libcec 2.02 which allows control of the XBMC interface over the standard TV remote that comes with your TV. As buttons are pressed the remote command is sent via the HDMI cable to your XBMC device. CEC allows for control of devices over the HDMI port, which allows for things like:

• Controlling XBMC from the TV's remote control
• Automatically switch to the right TV input device
• letting the HTPC control what mode your audio receiver is on when the TV switches on
• Turning all devices off with one remote
• and a lot more!

The CEC function allows you to control up to 15 CEC-enabled devices.

Settings

Settings for your CEC devices can be found in:

System -> Settings -> System -> Input Devices -> Peripherals

Devices Known to work

With different TV's and devices comes different compatibility. Here is a list of TV's which are known to be working with CEC and XBMC:

TVs

• LG 47CS570 (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, BACK, EXIT, PLAY, PAUSE, STOP ALL WORKING AS OF FRODO 12.1)
• LG LM620T
• LG 37LG6000
• LG 42LD420
• LG 42LD550
• LG 60PM6700 (Most of the expected buttons work, EXCEPT the number & channel buttons)
• Panasonic TXL-47DT50
• Panasonic Viera GT30
• Panasonic Viera S60
• Panasonic Viera ST50
• Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ85E
• Panasonic Viera TH-P42S10A
• Panasonic Viera TH-P50G10A
• Philips 37PFL6007K
• Philips 47PFL5007K
• Samsung ES6800
• Samsung LE32B650
• Samsung LE37D570
• Samsung UE40C7700
• Samsung UE50EH5300
• Sharp LC-52D83X
• Sony Bravia KDL46-HX800
• Sony Bravia KDL-40HX705
• Sony Bravia KDL-46NX715
• Sony Bravia KDL-40M4000
• Sony Bravia KDL-32W5500
• Sony Bravia KDL-46EX520
• Sony NSX-40GT1 (Google TV)
• Vizio M-Series

Home Cinema Systems

• Onkyo HT-R390 Amplifier
• Yamaha RX-V473 AV-Receiver

Projectors

• Epson EH-TW6100

XBMC Devices

Most HDMI ports on computers (onboard or via GPU) do not have the CEC feature, but can use a CEC adapter such as this one from Pulse-Eight: http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter.aspx

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi GPU has CEC support which does work with XBMC 12. XBMC see's the Pi's CEC adapter as a Pulse Eight adapter. Known working configurations are,

• Raspbmc (XBMC 12 Beta 2) on a 512mb RaspberryPi when outputting to a Panasonic Viera TH-P50G10A. The OK, UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT arrow buttons navigate fine around menus and settings. Once playing a file (e.g. H264 mp4), the UP/DOWN arrows fast forward/backward in 10 minutes steps. The OK button brings up an on screen menu that allows pause/play. The forward/backward symbols that are part of this on screen menu do not fast forward/backward. The OPTIONS and the GREEN color buttons seem to bring up System Information and overlaying menus.

• Xbian (1.0alpha5) on a 512mb Rev B Pi outputting to a Sony Bravia KDL-40M4000.

Common Issues with CEC

When "setting up" CEC make sure your configuration uses good HDMI cables. Especially cheap cables - still able to support 1080p without any problems - have been reported to cause problems with CEC (eg. devices like raspberry not showing up in the CEC menu at all, devices showing up but remote not working, etc).

Using better HDMI cables might resolve that problem.

Branding of CEC

Different brands will call CEC a different name on their products, the list below will show what the branding of CEC:

• Samsung - AnyNet+
• Sharp - Aquos Link
• Sony - BRAVIA Link and BRAVIA Sync
• Hitachi - HDMI-CEC
• AOC - E-Link
• Pioneer - Kuro Link
• Toshiba - CE-Link and Regza Link
• Onkyo - RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI)
• LG - SimpLink
• Panasonic - HDAVI Control, EZ-Sync, VIERA Link
• Philips - EasyLink