Greetings people… please excuse my ignorance, as am brand new to HA, and this is my first experience using this environment.
Just installed HA, and configuring for the first time.
I have just setup HA under TrueNAS Scale.
My question is more of a 'can I do this? type thing.
I have recently purchased an Amazon Fire TV Cube 3rd Gen.
It has an HDMI passthru feature to connect other devices. I would like to connect a Set Top Box into that HDMI port. The issue being that to switch to the HDMI passthru function of the Cube, one has to issue the Alexa voice command ‘switch to HDMI input’
There is an input select function that one can select using the firetv remote, if one is using the default launcher, but when using a custom launcher, voice is the only way to change inputs.
I have a Harmony Elite remote with Hub.
I want to be able to press a button on my Harmony remote, or include it in a Harmony activity that switches to that HDMI input automatically instead of having to actually say the switch command by voice.
I found the Android Debug Intergration, and managed to link it to the FireTV Cube. (so that was kind of cool)
I understand there is a Harmony intergration.
My question being, can I set something up to perform the above function, and utilize the Harmony Elite to get HA to switch to HDMI input?
Again, please excuse my ignorance whilst I get my head around things.
…kind regards…
The short answer is probably yes. However, normally with the Harmony it would control everything. And normally input devices (Fire TV and set top box) are connected to different HDMI ports on the TV, not daisy-chained together. So the long answer is I don’t really uunderstand why you’re doing it that way.
Regardless, HA can respond to changes of the Harmony scene, and send new scenes or commands to specific devices.
(grin) I probably don’t understand why I am doing it that way either!
Basically I just want to be able to switch on my TV, AV Receiver and FireTV Cube, and Set Top Box.
The Set Top Box would connect to the Fire TV Cube’s HDMI passthru.
Currently the above is controlled by my Harmony Elite Remote + Hub.
My issue is that I can not program my Harmony Elite to select the Fire TV Cube’s HDMI passthru, as I think it is only accessible via an Alexa voice command., so I can’t select the HDMI passthru without saying ‘Change to HDMI input’, which I find kind of annoying, seeing as I have the flash Harmony Elite remote.
The default launcher on the Fire TV Cube 3rd gen has an ‘Input menu’ where you can use the original fire TV remote to select the HDMI passthru input. But this option is not present using other launchers which I prefer to use, so can only choose the passthru function using alexa voice command. (which as stated I don’t like doing, as it is not family friendly. Although I can do it, my family can not, and the AV system just ends up in a snarled input mess)
So, I think I maybe need HA to switch everything on and select HDMI passthru on Fire TV Cube 3rd gen, and then the Harmony remote just does everything from then on.
Currently I have no working intergarations in HA, as is my first time using it, and just wanted to know before I delve into it in earnest, if it can even do what I want to do at all, or am I just wasting my time.
Again, complete newbie to HA, so think I am going to have to spend the time and just experiment to learn HA a bit better.
Appreciate your reply a lot… thanks.
Oh, forgot to mention. The reason I am using the Cube’s HDMI passthrough feature is for is upscaling abilities, and for the streaming apps already in use by my family. The passthru is really just pulling thru live TV from Set Top Box (Satellite Receiver) It is itself an Android TV Box, but the providers menu is a real chore to navigate, and the family are well familiar with using the Fire TV Cube, which is much faster than the STB as far as android TV Box is concerned.
So, essentially I just want to press a button to watch Live TV from the STB, and then press home button on Cube and ‘bam’ am instantly back in the Fire TV interface.
The other reason I prefer to use the Harmony Elite, is cause the Fire TV Remote can not properly control my equipment using CEC, so the Harmony Elite is at least a universal remote and supports a bluetooth keyboard connection.
From your reply, it appears that I can utilize the Hub with HA to augment the Harmony’s existing abilities. I might be incorrect with regards on changing the Fire TV Cube’s HDMI passthru function, but I can not work out how. (I am certain it can only be done with original Fire TV Remote via a menu, or via voice) (there is not really a lot of info about this)
I think Amazon reserve HDMI 1 as it’s own passthru input.on the 3rd gen Cube.
Ah that makes sense now. I don’t have a Fire TV, but you might be lucky enough for the Harmony to already support it (whether or not there’s a button on the remote). In the Harmony app, if you go to devices and click “edit devices” at the bottom, then click on the Fire TV and “add/fix command” you can see all of the commands supported. If it’s not there and there is a remote sequence for it, you can program it. Then you can put that command in the start up sequence to automatically do it when you press the remote activity. So no need to necessarily involve HA.