# Implement CEC "Switch to my input!" ability on TiVos and Minis



## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

What I'm interested in is having my Roamio and my Minis send a very simple "change to my input" command to my AVR, the way my Amazon Fire does - I press the "Home" button on the Fire remote, and my Marantz AVR switches to its Fire input. To get back to the Mini, however, I have to use the Marantz's remote to change inputs.

What would be very handy is if pressing the TiVo button on the remote sent a CEC command to switch the Marantz (or any CEC capable device with multiple inputs) to that input.

Just have the thing send a "Select ME!!!" CEC trigger with a specific button push, like the Fire does.

Make it a menu item with "No" as the default for those who aren't interested.

Easy to do, just needs someone at TiVo to own the concept and code it. It would make things much easier on those people who own more than one HDMI source device (which I think is likely most people).


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Pick a different button. The TiVo button is significant since it has so many uses. How about Enter, or Clear. Maybe a letter button. They are hard to find on the VOX remote. Wait! Yes, use the blue voice button! Then you can say "Select Me" and the IFTTT stuff can do the job.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

I wish, so very much, that the Tivo could do this. It is the only device I have that doesn't grab the TV input when you press buttons on the remote.

While I don't have a problem changing inputs myself, it would really really help with the "spouse acceptance factor" if the TiVo just handled it automatically.



JoeKustra said:


> Pick a different button. The TiVo button is significant since it has so many uses. How about Enter, or Clear. Maybe a letter button. They are hard to find on the VOX remote. Wait! Yes, use the blue voice button! Then you can say "Select Me" and the IFTTT stuff can do the job.


But why would you press the Tivo button when you _didn't_ want the Tivo to be on-screen?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

My TiVo remote has an input button that works just fine for this. No issue with your suggestion, but I'm not seeing a need to change remotes.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

If you ever add CEC, for God's sake add the ability to disable it, because it *always* does the wrong thing. I'll stick with my harmony which I can tell to do exactly what I want (I may have to fight with it for hours, but so far I've always won).


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

jrtroo said:


> My TiVo remote has an input button that works just fine for this. No issue with your suggestion, but I'm not seeing a need to change remotes.


So does mine. But there are no codes for AVR receivers, only TVs, so if you use an AVR to do your input switching, as many do, the input button does nothing.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

tomhorsley said:


> If you ever add CEC, for God's sake add the ability to disable it, because it *always* does the wrong thing. I'll stick with my harmony which I can tell to do exactly what I want (I may have to fight with it for hours, but so far I've always won).


I agree, which is why I wrote "Make it a menu item with "No" as the default for those who aren't interested."


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

If you were willing to put your TiVo into Standby when not using it (I say "if" because this seems to be a hangup for some people), there are some devices (HDMI switches, possibly TVs) that will automatically select an input when it becomes active.


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

Sounds to me like it should only work with the press of the input button then. 

One of my tv's, when I press the input button, only brings up a screen overlay that gives you 5 options for your input selection. The original tv remote has a 4 position round selector switch that you need to move up/down to highlight which input you want and then you have to hit the select button to change inputs. Argh... 

I'm thinking that a CEC pulse from the TiVo via the input button would, in effect, be the same thing. Really, That's the only time you'd need the darn thing.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

dougdingle said:


> So does mine. But there are no codes for AVR receivers, only TVs, so if you use an AVR to do your input switching, as many do, the input button does nothing.


Just posted in the other Suggestion thread on this, pick up one of the TiVo learning remotes and you can use the learning capability to assign the AVR input to the TiVo Input button. As I posted there, we did this with the original Glo Remote that came with our S3 OLED in 2007 and with the Slide Pro Remote that we got free with our Roamio Pro.

Scott


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

OrangeCrush said:


> I wish, so very much, that the Tivo could do this. It is the only device I have that doesn't grab the TV input when you press buttons on the remote.
> 
> While I don't have a problem changing inputs myself, it would really really help with the "spouse acceptance factor" if the TiVo just handled it automatically.
> 
> But why would you press the Tivo button when you _didn't_ want the Tivo to be on-screen?


PIP.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

tomhorsley said:


> If you ever add CEC, for God's sake add the ability to disable it, because it *always* does the wrong thing. I'll stick with my harmony which I can tell to do exactly what I want (I may have to fight with it for hours, but so far I've always won).


This. Let me do the thinking.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

TonyD79 said:


> PIP.


PIP?


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

OrangeCrush said:


> PIP?


Yes, PIP. I use it a lot. For watching sports, for tracking other shows. For doing bookkeeping on my other devices.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

TonyD79 said:


> Yes, PIP. I use it a lot. For watching sports, for tracking other shows. For doing bookkeeping on my other devices.


Are you taking about Picture in Picture? What does that have to do with easily switching inputs?


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

rdrrepair said:


> One of my tv's, when I press the input button, only brings up a screen overlay that gives you 5 options for your input selection. The original tv remote has a 4 position round selector switch that you need to move up/down to highlight which input you want and then you have to hit the select button to change inputs. Argh...


I felt the same frustration until I discovered that some TVs, including my LG and Sony, will cycle through the available inputs with repeated presses of the Input button on the TiVo remote once the TV's input screen overlay is up, and will select the one you land on without having to do anything else. Try it, it might work on yours.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

OrangeCrush said:


> Are you taking about Picture in Picture? What does that have to do with easily switching inputs?


If I hit the TiVo button on a second TiVo I am viewing via pip, I don't want my input to change. Pretty simple, actually.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

TonyD79 said:


> If I hit the TiVo button on a second TiVo I am viewing via pip, I don't want my input to change. Pretty simple, actually.


Fair enough. Plenty of other buttons from which to choose. The Enter button or Thumbs Up would be decent choices.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

dougdingle said:


> Fair enough. Plenty of other buttons from which to choose. The Enter button or Thumbs Up would be decent choices.


Maybe but the reality is that if you have enough different inputs that you often change off the TiVo, the TiVo remote by itself is inadequate. It can't control other devices. So, it is better to get a universal and program it to do what you want it to do. The TiVo remote is really meant to be used on a tv that basically has TiVo. Period.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

The reality is that TiVo needs to come into 2018 and implement some kind of *optional *CEC control for those who want it. Optional.

Those not interested can ignore the feature and leave it off.

I don't want to implement workarounds that involve a programmable remote, or an 'automatic' HDMI switch.

Want to watch TiVo or Amazon Fire or Roku or DVDs? Pick up the remote for that device and push a button on it to have it become the current source. How simple is that? I can do that with every component I have but the TiVo.


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

dougdingle said:


> I felt the same frustration until I discovered that some TVs, including my LG and Sony, will cycle through the available inputs with repeated presses of the Input button on the TiVo remote once the TV's input screen overlay is up, and will select the one you land on without having to do anything else. Try it, it might work on yours.


 Yeah, tried that awhile ago. No dice. Next time I shop I'll be taking my TiVo remote to verify. I even tried the remote from another newer TiVo in case that mattered. No joy...


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

dougdingle said:


> The reality is that TiVo needs to come into 2018 and implement some kind of *optional *CEC control for those who want it. Optional.
> 
> Those not interested can ignore the feature and leave it off.
> 
> ...


I do too. My AVR has dedicated codes for input switching and I switch when I want to not when the remote "thinks" I want to.

I haven't seen any CEC that wasn't optional, so the request for optional is moot.

Oh, and with the "work around" of a universal remote, you don't have to pick up a different remote. How simple is that.

I'm all with you on optional CEC but don't claim your way is the best way for everyone or even that newer is better.


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## warrenn (Jun 24, 2004)

This would be a great feature to have.  My kids love that they can press a button on the Roku remote and the TV turns on and goes to that input. I always wondered how the Roku was able to do that. I'd really like to see the same for Tivo. Maybe have it tied to the Tivo button or something. It's more hassle to switch back to the Tivo. At least I'm lucky enough to have a TV where I can hit Input repeatedly on the Tivo remote to switch inputs, but I'd rather just hit the Tivo button and have it switch.



> If I hit the TiVo button on a second TiVo I am viewing via pip, I don't want my input to change. Pretty simple, actually.


While I can understand that would be a hassle, you have to realize PiP viewing like this is just applicable to a minuscule amount of Tivo users. The vast majority are just watching Tivo as a regular input, and would find this automatic switching a great convenience. In the interest of customer satisfaction, it would well serve Tivo to implement this feature since the vast majority of users would find it beneficial. It best serves Tivo business if it's trivial to switch back to the Tivo input.

I find switching back to the input a hassle, but I do it anyway. My kids are much less likely to go through the Input-Input-Input... button presses to get the Tivo back. So from the aspect of gaining future customers, making it easier for kids to get back to the Tivo will more likely lead to them being customers in the future.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

warrenn said:


> This would be a great feature to have. My kids love that they can press a button on the Roku remote and the TV turns on and goes to that input. I always wondered how the Roku was able to do that. I'd really like to see the same for Tivo. Maybe have it tied to the Tivo button or something. It's more hassle to switch back to the Tivo. At least I'm lucky enough to have a TV where I can hit Input repeatedly on the Tivo remote to switch inputs, but I'd rather just hit the Tivo button and have it switch.
> 
> _"If I hit the TiVo button on a second TiVo I am viewing via pip, I don't want my input to change. Pretty simple, actually."_
> 
> While I can understand that would be a hassle, you have to realize PiP viewing like this is just applicable to a minuscule amount of Tivo users. The vast majority are just watching Tivo as a regular input, and would find this automatic switching a great convenience. In the interest of customer satisfaction, it would well serve Tivo to implement this feature since the vast majority of users would find it beneficial. It best serves Tivo business if it's trivial to switch back to the Tivo input.


After looking at just about every screen, the green D button seems like the ideal trigger choice. As far as I can see, its only current use is to switch the remote's IR/RF mode. Perhaps offer a choice of a few buttons in the menu.

But it doesn't seem to matter.

I've made two suggestions in this section in the last few weeks, and here's what I have found:

People, trying to be helpful, will jump in with endless suggestions for workarounds, often involving convoluted solutions that sometimes (often) need more hardware (a different remote, an automatic HDMI switch, etc.) to be bought, instead of just saying "Yeah, that would be helpful!" Or just saying nothing and moving on to the next post. Even if the suggestion is made optional with the default being "Off" through a menu selection, people will post workarounds or post that it's a bad idea because of how it will affect them if implemented.

I don't want workarounds. I'm pretty sure I have already thought of all the possible workarounds and begrudgingly implemented one. And I don't want to change how anyone uses their TiVo now. Hence* "optional with a default menu choice of "Off"".
*
What I want is simply that TiVo implement very basic CEC functionality as an option for those who want to use that functionality, a ridiculously simple thing to do.

And if anyone from TiVo actually reads anything here (somehow, I'm skeptical), they look and say "Hey, there are some suggested workarounds for this, even if they are cumbersome. Moving on."

Pretty much guaranteeing that nothing gets done about most suggestions.

I would love to know how many of the suggestions posted here in the last five years made it into production. My guess is the number ranges between minuscule and none.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

The green button is the skip button also.


rdrrepair said:


> Sounds to me like it should only work with the press of the input button then.
> 
> One of my tv's, when I press the input button, only brings up a screen overlay that gives you 5 options for your input selection. The original tv remote has a 4 position round selector switch that you need to move up/down to highlight which input you want and then you have to hit the select button to change inputs. Argh...
> 
> I'm thinking that a CEC pulse from the TiVo via the input button would, in effect, be the same thing. Really, That's the only time you'd need the darn thing.


Mine does the same thing, but with both my Panasonic and my Samsung hitting the button again cycles the input. I think I had to try a couple of remote codes before finding the one that worked for the selector part though. Sometimes there is a slight delay though when it first pops up.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

TonyD79 said:


> If I hit the TiVo button on a second TiVo I am viewing via pip, I don't want my input to change. Pretty simple, actually.


Having two TiVos connected to one TV seems like the opposite of simple to me, but if that works for you, great.



TonyD79 said:


> Maybe but the reality is that if you have enough different inputs that you often change off the TiVo, the TiVo remote by itself is inadequate. It can't control other devices. So, it is better to get a universal and program it to do what you want it to do. The TiVo remote is really meant to be used on a tv that basically has TiVo. Period.


It only takes having one other input that is regularly used for this to be useful. The TiVo remote should be able to easily switch the TV it's pointed at to the TiVo input. Period.

Input selector menus are usually clunky.



dougdingle said:


> The reality is that TiVo needs to come into 2018 and implement some kind of *optional *CEC control for those who want it. Optional.
> 
> Those not interested can ignore the feature and leave it off.
> 
> I don't want to implement workarounds that involve a programmable remote, or an 'automatic' HDMI switch.


Exactly. There's a tutorial somewhere that involves a raspberry pi and infrared detector that can detect the TiVo remote press and switch the TV over to the proper input via CEC, but I'm not spending close to $100 in parts and hours of tinkering to get something to work that's already implemented just fine in everything I own _except_ the TiVo.



TonyD79 said:


> Oh, and with the "work around" of a universal remote, you don't have to pick up a different remote. How simple is that.


A universal remote won't work with most streaming sticks that don't have IR receivers, and the issue of the clunky/poorly legible input selector remain.

The ideal solution is to implement the same standard every other major TV device supports. There's a decent chance the hardware already supports CEC and it could be enabled in software.


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## dougdingle (Jul 4, 2007)

OrangeCrush said:


> The ideal solution is to implement the same standard every other major TV device supports. There's a decent chance the hardware already supports CEC and it could be enabled in software.


It's a certainty the TiVo can support it in hardware, since there isn't any required.

CEC signals originate through software that generates the command(s) and injects the required bits into the video data area, after which it goes down the HDMI cable to the destination (TV or AVR).

I can *almost* understand it not being available in the Roamio line (even though that's what I have here), but to release a new line of receivers and minis and not have it there is, frankly, a bit shocking. I would have replaced all four of my Minis had the new ones had CEC implemented, even just in its most basic "Select this input!" mode.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

So, I finally have a TV that supports this... and yeah, it makes a big difference. Here's what I do when I want to watch my Apple TV:

1. Pick up the Apple remote.
2. Click it. The TV comes on and switches to the correct input.

Here's what I do when I want to watch my TiVo Mini:

1. Pick up the TiVo remote.
2. Click TiVo to wake it from Standby.
3. Click TV power.
4. Assuming it wasn't already on the correct input, press TV Input to select the input.
4a. Sometimes, that doesn't work -- it gets to the right input on the menu, but for some reason (randomly?), it doesn't get selected. So then I cycle through again. Eventually it works, or else I have to select the input with the TV remote.
4b. Meanwhile, if the input was on the Apple TV, that got woken up by the TV coming on. So I pick up its remote to put it to sleep again, after changing input to the TiVo. Sometimes that puts the TV back to sleep, so then I have to hit TV Power again. Finally, I'm ready!

I realize I could avoid step 4b by disabling CEC, but then I'd be adding extra steps to the Apple sequence (especially since it doesn't have a TV Input button of its own).


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> Here's what I do when I want to watch my TiVo Mini:
> 
> 1. Pick up the TiVo remote.
> 2. Click TiVo to wake it from Standby.
> ...


 You can skip step 2. My mini's come out of standby with the tv power button.

I'd be happy with the input, or tv power button, being the trigger point with the ability to turn it off within the menu structure of the TiVo.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

rdrrepair said:


> You can skip step 2. My mini's come out of standby with the tv power button.


I'm not seeing that here. (It wouldn't really make sense, either, since the power button is a toggle, not a discrete on -- I hit it just after putting the TiVo into Standby, almost always.)


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

On my A93 with each push of my TiVo power button the mini comes out of automatic standby.

If I manually turn on the tv I'll see my TiVo mini in standby and then if I hit the TiVo power button, while shielding it from line of site to the tv, I'll see it come out of standby and it places me into TiVo central.

The screen I see, before hitting power, is the screen that automatically goes to standby. It has a floating text that protects from screen burn in.

If I manually force the TiVo into standby then it takes step 2 too.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Hydra has changed the action of TV Power. Couple of things - communicating with other TiVos and network remote


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## warrenn (Jun 24, 2004)

It looks like they added CEC to some models!

Bolt HDMI-CEC support?

The Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) feature is compatible with the latest version of TiVo Experience 4 (software version 21.8.3) on the following devices:

TiVo BOLT Series Unified Entertainment Systems
TiVo Roamio Series DVRs


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

warrenn said:


> It looks like they added CEC to some models!
> 
> Bolt HDMI-CEC support?
> 
> ...


Sadly, confirmed as not available for Minis ... regardless of model. (see here)


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