I want to be able to control a VCR from my PC over Infrared or any other wireless/wireline protocol.
My current understanding is that I need the following:
VCR
Infrared transmitter connected to my PC’s serial or USB port.
Software that works as a Remote Control on my PC and sends Infrared signals to my VCR through the Infrared dongle.
Questions:
What software and hardware will I need to achieve this ?
What methods, other than Infrared, can I use ?
I’ve been searching for Infrared software on Google, but all I find is software that can be used to control the computer over Infrared using a TV remote control and an Infrared receiver connected to the PC. I need it the other way around. I need my PC to function as a Remote Control for my VCR or TV.
Any information on this will be appreciated. Thanks.
I need it the other way around. I need the computer controlling the remote.
Thanks for the link, I’ll ask there as well.
Additionally, I need to be able to confirm that the channel switch, power on, whatever, actually did take place. Is this possible through any software or hardware device ?
Does Infrared support this kind of two-way communication or confirmation, wherein I can confirm whether a signal from my remote control to the VCR was received and successfully acted upon by the VCR ?
I can’t imagine any kind of infrared remote control device that would tell you what an otherwise unconnected VCR is doing… remotes simply don’t work like that. They send a signal, the VCR picks it up and does its thing. It has no way to send a return signal, unless your computer is picking up the video or perhaps the audio from the VCR’s outputs.
There are devices that will recreate a given infrared signal remotely, but they’re wired units with one bit at each end, and not computer related so I don’t think that’s what you want.
If all you want is to turn the power on or off, there are such devices available, but that alone is of little use with a VCR.
Dare I ask what you’re planning on doing with this technology? Perhaps there’s another way to accomplish it.
One of the cable companies in my city approached me for a system that would automate their ad switching.
Currently, the setup works thus:
2 VCRs. One with the cable feed (VCR#1), the other with the ads (VCR#2). When it comes time to play the ads, someone at the control room will manually press pause on VCR#1, then press play on VCR#2. Once the ad gets over, the guy presses pause on VCR#2 and presses play on VCR#1.
The output from these VCRs goes live across the city.
Now, they want a system that will automate the timing and the switching of VCR#1 and VCR#2. Additionally, they need confirmation that the switching did indeed occur.
I’m trying to think up various ways in which this can be done, and that’s where I could use the help of the TM**[sup]TM[/sup]**
Well, you could try to ask the VCR manufacturer for the infraed signals (frequency, encoding, etc.) used to control the VCR from a remote, then program it yourself.
Or you could get an infrared receiver, capture the signals from the existing remote, then use a program to send the captured signals to the transmitter when you hit a command button or something.
I don’t know of any preexisting software though. And infrared is undoubtedly your best bet, as that is how remote signals are transmitted to electronic devices.
Well, I’m pretty sure there’s no pre-existing device such as you’re looking for… not on the open market, at least. Perhaps, somewhere, some specialized company somewhere developed something similar for its own use, but hasn’t marketed it for sale.
However, with some considerable effort, such a thing could be made with off-the-shelf parts. It would almost certainly involve circuit-board soldering and programming chips on that board to respond to your computer… then add in an infrared LED, and you’ve got a remote-control-card for your PC. Good luck with that.
Then, the problem of verification. Well, if you’ve gone as far as making the above-described circuitboard, this should be little trouble for you. Another card, or whatever, or even the same one come to think of it, with inputs specifically designed to pick up the actions of the VCRs… maybe split the video signal? The computer picks up this info, and writes up a simple text file or whatever.
I think it would be easier to get some simple robotics and make a machine that actually presses the damn buttons, personally.
The site linked to in Baraqiyal’s response to your OP may in fact help you, xash.
The Girder site refers to a hardware product called IR Trans, which apparently has the hardware capabilities to both receive and transmit IR Signals, and communicates with the PC via USB. The cost appears to be 125 Euros, although it is cheaper in kit form. The IR Trans site specifically mentions the ability to “learn” from IR remotes, and retransmit the IR codes to a peripheral (such as a VCR) under program control. I have not used this product, so cannot say how easy it would be to do what you want, but this product is clearly capable of controlling peripherals from a PC via IR.
Now, on to the specific project as you have described it:
The first thing that strikes me is that IMHO it won’t work as described. How are the VCRs connected? When you press “Pause” on a VCR, you get a paused image, you don’t change channels. Something is lacking in the description you give. My guess is that they either have a video switch that you have not mentioned, or they have their VCRs daisy-chained and are pressing “Stop” on the second VCR, not “Pause”.
The other thing that makes me think that they aren’t doing exactly what you describe is that most VCRs will not remain in “Pause” mode for more than a couple of minutes, to prevent wear of the tape and heads. Pausing may work for the program feed, since ads may take less than 2 minutes, but you can’t just pause the “ad” VCR – it’ll revert to a “Stopped” state.
So, at the very least, you need to find out exactly what they are doing. Otherwise, you risk developing a product that performs the tasks exactly as they have specified, but doesn’t work because they asked for the wrong thing.
How is the computer system that you are providing supposed to know when to switch from program material to ads? Will you have a human operator, who previously worked the “Pause” key, click the mouse on a dialog box button? Does the program material indicate in some way when the ad is supposed to run? Or is it all organised strictly by a schedule?
The “feedback” requirement – i.e. confirmation that the switching did indeed occur – is also something that needs to be defined more fully. How do they want it confirmed? An LED lighting up somewhere? A window on the PC giving a running logfile that shows actions and confirms reactions? A logfile on the PC’s disk? In any case, it won’t be simple with existing hardware. It’s not difficult to design the necessary hardware (I personally would do it with an external video switch rather than daisychaining the VCRs), but it’s not trivial.
BTW, what kind of budget are you working with? The use of VCRs with manual “Pause” makes it sound as though this station is operating on a shoestring budget.
You mention that the “cable feed” comes through “VCR #1”, which is disabled by pressing “Pause”. I’m a little confused here – are you rebroadcasting a live cable feed, or have you pre-recorded it to video tape? If the former, why would the “Pause” button have any effect? And why are you even using two VCRs?
If I were to assume that:
a) the program content and ads are each on videotape,
b) you want to use commercially-available hardware only, and
c) they’re prepared to waive the “confirmation of action” clause,
here’s how you could do it:
Daisychain VCR #1 (program content) through VCR #2 (ads) to broadcast transmitter.
Buy two IR Trans devices (we’ll call them IRTA and IRTB) and hook them up via USB.
Program IRTA and IRTB to learn commands for the two VCRs, at least the commands “Play” and “Stop”.
Write a timed program in your favorite language (even Visual Basic would work for this) that started with both VCRs “Stopped”, then started VCR #1 so that the program content was broadcast, then at the appropriate time send a “Play” command via IRTB to VCR #2, and a “Stop” command via IRTA to VCR #1 (assuming the program content is on tape, not a live feed). After the appropriate time for the ads (2 minutes?), VCR #1 is set to “Play” and VCR #2 is set to “Stop”. Repeat processes as desired.
If they really want confirmation, find out if they can deal with the idea of having 0.5 second or so of “dead air” between programs and ads. If so, it would be fairly simple to use a chip such as the LM1881 Video Sync Separator to tell when the program content had flipped. Feed this back to the PC via the parallel port (to keep the interface simple), and monitor the relevant port bit to see if the video signal has been interrupted to confirm the source change. In this method, you would need to fine-tune the response of the VCRs to the IR commands, to make sure that the video “dead time” was reasonable.
In conclusion, I would say that it’s all possible, but that you need to get things specified better by the TV station. It’s impossible to automate something if they can’t give you enough information to develop an algorithm (timed, content-based, or operator-controlled) to determine when switching should occur. You also need to ask how they want the confirmation to appear. Before you start any development work you need to be on the “same page” conceptually, so you’ll avoid the flollowing exchange:
<engineer>: When should the first ad play? <client>: After the first program ends, of course! <engineer>: But how is the computer supposed to know when the program ends? <client>: Well, after the last of the credits have rolled, of course! The person who does it now just waits for the production logo to fade to black, then hits “Pause” and plays the ad! It’s very simple! Why are you looking at me as though I’m an idiot? You just wait until the program is over! Why is that so hard for you computer people to understand? <engineer>:: rolleyes:
Xash, it sounds to me like you’re describing an older automated radio station with VCRs replacing reel to reel tape decks. A friend of mine once was the program director and showed me the setup. The programming was on 3 reel-to-reels, and the ads were on a tape cartridge system that for all the world resembled a 20-slot 8-track tape player. The programming was on the reel-to-reels, separated by 2 seconds of blank space and an ultrasonic signal. The computer listened to the programming and waited for the signal on the reel-to-reel. When it heard the signal, it stopped the reel-to-reel, played an ad, then started the next reel-to-reel. The system could work for several hours by itself.
I would bet that a system like that not only exists, and at a fire sale price somewhere, because of the move in radio in the states toward satellite-based programming. I would think that the system could be adapted to use VCRs and the ultrasonic signal inserted into your programming.
The verification end was built into the computer, and could print out when the ads were played.
Professional VCRs used in good studios have serial ports for just the sort of control you’re looking for. Full two-way comm with high reliability.
Messing with using essentially consumer units and one-way IR remotes will be a disaster as the many previous posters suggested.
If the station is trying to automate away someone’s job, that means they have a budget of up to whatever that person earns per year. That ought to buy the proper tools to do the job right and reliably. Even if they spend 1/2 of one year’s pay buying the stuff, they’ll have made an investment that has a 200% annual rate of return.
