| Post 1 made on Tuesday January 6, 2009 at 00:03 | ...it's new! |
dynamica Junior Member |
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Hello,
I was wondering what you guys might recommend...
I am putting in a central rack with 2 HD satellite receivers, 1 Home theater PC, 1 Blueray DVD player. I have speakers throughout the home which will connect to an amp back in the rack along with the audio switcher. I will be using a 4x4 HDMI extener/switcher for the above sources.
For remote controls I plan on using a mixture of TSU9400 and TSU9600.
Here is the thing...
Originally I thought I was going to do this whole thing with Crestron. I bought the Crestron 16x60 amp, 8x8 Crestron Audio Switcher and the CP2E controller. I even wired Cresnet cable to all rooms but I think I'd rather use the Pronto because of ease to program and price. Out of the Crestron stuff I already bought I plan on using at least the 16x60 amp and 8x8 audio switcher still. Since the Pronto offers the Serial Extender I thought maybe I could use that instead of the CP2E. However, apparently the 16x60 amp and 8x8 switcher do not have any IR or RS232 controlling and must be done with a Crestron control.
Do you guys think I should control everything with the Pronto Serial Extender (Sat receivers, Blueray, 4x4 Hdmi Switcher)? And somehow find a way to control the Crestron Audio using Pronto Serial Extender to the CP2E controller possibly by RS232? Or maybe just use the CP2E to control everything?
I can provide a lot more information but I think I have already made this too long.
Thanks for reading. |
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| Post 2 made on Tuesday January 6, 2009 at 12:06 | ...it's new! |
Barry Gordon Founding Member |
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My advice is to put a PC in the loop and let it act as the "Crestron control unit". That is exactly how the theater and general audio in my home runs.
The one caveat is that you need to be a fairly competent programmer. It is easier to program a PC to do IR and RS232 than the Pronto PRO. It is fairly straight forward to have the PRO send and receive TCPIP commands and replies from a PC running a dedicated server application built to do just that.
In fact my entire house runs that way. The only user interface I use these days are the Prontos', one in each room and talking to Dedicated PC's for specific functions (Music via Squeezecenter, Home Automation via Homeseer, and The Theater and Audio system via My dedicated Home Theater Control Application).
Much much cheaper in physical device costs than a Crestron, and Prgramming is a hobby for me, so I do not count the labor cost. |
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| Post 3 made on Friday January 9, 2009 at 02:19 | ...it's new! |
dynamica Junior Member |
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Thanks for the reply Barry... I was just reading your homepage looking at your software.
I am not totally opposed to using a PC to do the controlling. However, my problem is that I already purchased the Crestron CP2E controller, Crestron CNAMPX-16X60 amp and the Crestron CNX-PAD8A audio switcher. It appears that in order to use any of that stuff I have to use them all.
If I could find something (pc or remote processor) that can send commands to the CP2E controller which could be interpreted by the CP2E, and send the appropriate command via Cresnet to the switcher (vol up/down, source select, mute, power) then that would be the ideal solution.
There must be something out there that I can plug into the Crestron controller (via TCP/IP, IR, or serial) and can send the Crestron the command. I realize I would need to program the Crestron controller to process the command received.
I have written code here and there and can figure out just about anything where there are some examples or documentation.
Thanks a lot. |
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| Post 4 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 14:59 | ...it's new! |
Chris Horn Founding Member |
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You can NOT control the amp or the matrix other than using the Crestron processor you already have.
There was a thread -quite a while back- where someone started implementing a Pronto as Crestron touchpanel. Control is via TCP/IP directly to the processor. You don't need to use the way around serial.
This might help you if you don't consider buying Crestron touchpanels.
Another option is to use an iPod Touch (or iPhone) with the third party App "CommandFusion" that controls your Crestron stuff wirelessly. iPod Touches are darn cheap for that! Crestron is supposed to have native support for those Apple devices in Q1-2009. More info to follow after ISEurope, February 2009. |
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| Post 5 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 15:12 | ...it's new! |
MrPUK Junior Member |
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I use Pronto to Crestron integration at Home and i have implemented it for a few clients. After all the initial pain at figuring out Pronto Script it was quite Straight forward.
I also use Command Fusion which again is very reliable. If you want any more advice please IM me
All the best
Iain |
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| Post 6 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 16:03 | ...it's new! |
Chris Horn Founding Member |
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| On Monday January 12, 2009 at 15:12, MrPUK said... |
| I use Pronto to Crestron integration at Home and i have implemented it for a few clients. After all the initial pain at figuring out Pronto Script it was quite Straight forward. |
Would you mind sharing what you did and how?
What symbol do you use in SimplWin for communication? TCP server or did you fiddle with intersystem communication or even a ahck as an X-panel or...
PM me if you don't want this publicly available! |
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