Programmatically setting TV channel/station

Plugins & Plugin Development Unmaintained
#1

I’m in the process of choosing a new set-op box or cable decoder but need some information.

I want to be able to select a certain channel at a specified time.
So instead of pushing the remote button ‘4’ then ‘3’ , I want to SetChannel(‘43’)

Is there anyway to select a tv-channel like that using upnp/dlna or other means ?

Thanks in advance

#2

What are you controlling for your TV source? XBMC has some of those features baked in
Otherwise, I think, you’ll need to get an IR blaster, Global Cache has a number of devices [http://www.globalcache.com/products/gc-100/models1/]
I use this, along with XBMC and SQBlaster though I don’t think that company is around anymore

#3

I need to use a real cable decoder capable of dlna, and besides, I also want to be be able to do the same with a ‘smart tv’ in another room.

Controlling with IR transmitters isn’t an option (anymore) as I’ve used to do that for a while; you just couldn’t have fine grained control with those. An example is that you could exactly set the volume at a desired level without the need to know the previous setting, e.g.

luup.call_action(“urn:upnp-org:serviceId:RenderingControl”, “SetVolume”, {DesiredVolume=“50”}, 56)

which is not possible with IR.
Now, instead of ‘SetVolume’, something like ‘SetChannel’ or ‘SetStation’.

#4

I am not sure a standard DLNA service exists for doing that. What I am sure is that it is not availabile in my plugin.

#5

Thanks for the replies.
I’ve done some research and came to the conclusion that, and lolodomo already warned me, there’s no universal way of changing channels/station via IP.
Such a pity that upnp.org didn’t define a standard for that.
I’m sure I am not the only person who wants to be able to let the system do like “At 19:30 turn on the TV and set station to ‘4’ and at 20:00 set station to ‘1’”, via IP. (btw, which works nicely with RS232 on my old pioneer analog TV)
Continuing my research…

#6

So long as the device that you want to control has IR remote control ability you can use RexBecketts Kira plugin.

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,14618.0.html

Very reliable!