How to tell if cable box is ON

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hedgehog52
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How to tell if cable box is ON

Post by hedgehog52 »

We don't have many power outages here, but when we do, of course the cable box isn't turned on when power returns and the system powers up. So, how can I programatically sense that there is no signal from the cable box and send a "POWER" command? Would either the "Recording failing" or "Recording about to fail" event be the right way?
PhilB
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Great Britain

Re: How to tell if cable box is ON

Post by PhilB »

Could you send that POWER command on backend reboot?
Phil
hedgehog52
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Re: How to tell if cable box is ON

Post by hedgehog52 »

PhilB wrote:
Sun May 15, 2022 12:52 pm
Could you send that POWER command on backend reboot?
Phil
I don't think so. The POWER command is just a pushbutton toggle. If it's on, turn it off. If it's off, turn it on. We can see the lights on the cable box. The computer can't. I periodically reboot for other reasons than power problems and if the POWER button was automatically sent, then I'd have to check it. That's why I'm looking at the record fail events. Well, there's nothing preventing me from just doing it and seeing what happens, I guess. :)
PhilB
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Re: How to tell if cable box is ON

Post by PhilB »

Does it respond to a ping only when powered on?
Phil
hedgehog52
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Re: How to tell if cable box is ON

Post by hedgehog52 »

PhilB wrote:
Thu May 26, 2022 11:56 am
Does it respond to a ping only when powered on?
Phil
Hi PhilB,

I apologize for not updating this. It turns out that with the IPTV encoder there's no obvious way to determine that the cable box is off. With the HPDVR there was a MythTV error, and it should be possible to use the recorder failing event to turn the cable box on. But the IPTV encoder puts a test pattern on the screen. So, there's no MythTV event to trigger anything. If anything occurs to me, I'll add to this thread. Maybe there's something in the IPTV encoder interface.
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