Harmony Hub with Virgin 360 minibox

schmooschmoo

Has anyone gotten harmony hub working with the 360 minibox?

Harmony isn't showing anything under the Virgin brand in devices when attempting to add a new one. I did some research and found a suggestion that the model of the main (harddrive) box was there under its original brand and to add that instead (zigiboo or another name like that?) when you're dealing with the main box.

Has anyone found a similar situation with the minibox or know it's original brand that I could try searching for?

Currently the minibox accepts some of the previous boxes remote commands and I thought I wouldn't have to add a new device to harmony as channel changing, etc was working fine. But it won't power on or off as part of an activity. I need to go in and use the device-specific power buttons to get the box to do this and the activity falls out of sync.

On a similar note: I'm getting some frustrating chain reactions when switching activities on the harmony remote where my receiver or tv might turn off and that's not part of the activity. I've no idea what's causing it other than wondering if hdmi cec is forced with the 360 minibox? Cec conflicts with harmony activities but all my other devices allow it to be switched off. Is it enabled and hidden on the 360 minibox?

schmooschmoo

Did a bit more research into this and the Ziggo Mediabox Next looks like it's actually the minibox (from photos on ziggo's website).

So I set it up on the Harmony Hub as that. Haven't had much of a chance to test it yet so I can't confirm all buttons are how this has affected the hdmi cec issue I believe I was having. But it definitely powers on and off and changes channels, at least.

Wabbit Ears

to confirm IR commands for harmony are the old D4A/mediabox/UPC codes. If someone has an old remote from an older box (before horizon) it works as a backup remote.

schmooschmoo

Thanks Wabbit Ears. That would match my own experience.

The reason I wasn't sure and went looking to add the new remote codes was down to some inconsistent trouble I was getting trying to operate the new minibox as an activity from harmony. I thought this may be down to cec issues but wanted to rule that out.

After some testing, I think it is a CEC issue. I don't have many other devices set up on the harmony but the virgin box is the first I've seen that forces CEC. This seems odd? CEC is quite a dominating feature and can clash with the desired behaviour wanted from other devices. It seems risky to force the user to put up with it when it's not difficult to put it as an toggle in settings.

As of now, I can't use the virgin box in an activity and amn't using it with harmony, which is frustrating. The virgin box throws everything out of sync as it will turn on/off the connected receiver with its own box (and vice-versa) and not let harmony do this.

Wabbit Ears

did you try going to Settings>Audio and Video> One Power and changing that to off and rebooting?

schmooschmoo

Is there a setting titled 'One Power' in your Audio and Video options? I don't see any on mine or anything resembling that.

There is a 'Volume Keys Control' option that instructs me to press to change it but I don't see a change when I press it. It just displays my sound receiver. However, I'm looking to turn off CEC completely and this looks like it just alters the volume control aspect.

schmooschmoo

So I looked up the same problem with the Ziggo Mediabox Next I mentioned before (same box being used in the Netherlands) and there's a few mentions of it online and, as far as I can tell, there was no solution. Virgin Media 360 boxes will not work with Harmony Hubs as they take over the controls of connected devices and conflict with what the Harmony Hub tries to do.

In my case they also switch my audio receiver to the wrong input and I get no sound. I have no control over this as it's forced without an option to disable. Every other devices I have that uses CEC has the option to disable it incase of this scenario? I don't understand why this was omitted. But before this turns into a rant...

There's a roundabout solution mentioned for the Ziggo boxes where you can buy a HDMI adapter called a CEC-Killer or a CEC-Less to strip the CEC commands from a HDMI signal by leaving a pin out. I'll give that a go in the meantime.

Sappy404

schmooschmoo wrote: »

So I looked up the same problem with the Ziggo Mediabox Next I mentioned before (same box being used in the Netherlands) and there's a few mentions of it online and, as far as I can tell, there was no solution. Virgin Media 360 boxes will not work with Harmony Hubs as they take over the controls of connected devices and conflict with what the Harmony Hub tries to do.

In my case they also switch my audio receiver to the wrong input and I get no sound. I have no control over this as it's forced without an option to disable. Every other devices I have that uses CEC has the option to disable it incase of this scenario? I don't understand why this was omitted. But before this turns into a rant...

There's a roundabout solution mentioned for the Ziggo boxes where you can buy a HDMI adapter called a CEC-Killer or a CEC-Less to strip the CEC commands from a HDMI signal by leaving a pin out. I'll give that a go in the meantime.

Can you not just have your "watch TV" activity omit controls for the TV/receiver if the 360 box is controlling it? You can tell the activity that the TV is always on, I believe - would that work?

schmooschmoo

Short version: Only the audio from the Virgin 360 goes through the receiver, it has a different hdmi input into the TV than other devices. Also, the CEC is switching to the wrong audio input for the Virgin 360 on the receiver.

Sappy404

schmooschmoo wrote: »

Short version: Only the audio from the Virgin 360 goes through the receiver, it has a different hdmi input into the TV than other devices. Also, the CEC is switching to the wrong audio input for the Virgin 360 on the receiver.

I see. I am looking at getting the 360 box currently and use the Harmony hub, but I have a 5.1 system for optical audio, not an HDMI AV receiver. Do you reckon the 360 would work ok?

schmooschmoo

Without knowing your exact chain - it depends. In general, I'd suggest that the Virgin 360 box is not compatible with Harmony Hub until it allows disabling of CEC, or if you can add a CEC-less device to the hdmi input.

Another example of the problem is that the v360 box, if switched off, also attempts to switch off both my TV and my receiver as it is outputting to both. This throws my Harmony activity out of sync as Harmony thinks it has switched the TV and receiver inputs when, in fact, they're both now off. Other activities now don't work. I'm using optical audio into the receiver.

I haven't looked into the optical audio side fully. As far as I know, CEC should only transmit over HDMI but the v360 box is also controlling my receiver via optical - which I wasn't aware could happen.

Sappy404

schmooschmoo wrote: »

Without knowing your exact chain - it depends. In general, I'd suggest that the Virgin 360 box is not compatible with Harmony Hub until it allows disabling of CEC, or if you can add a CEC-less device to the hdmi input.

Another example of the problem is that the v360 box, if switched off, also attempts to switch off both my TV and my receiver as it is outputting to both. This throws my Harmony activity out of sync as Harmony thinks it has switched the TV and receiver inputs when, in fact, they're both now off. Other activities now don't work. I'm using optical audio into the receiver.

I haven't looked into the optical audio side fully. As far as I know, CEC should only transmit over HDMI but the v360 box is also controlling my receiver via optical - which I wasn't aware could happen.

Have you tried outputting optical audio from your TV? Might solve that issue, and with your CEC blocker it could fix your problem if indeed the 360 box is turning off the receiver via optical.

schmooschmoo

I can't. TV doesn't have optical ports or any outputs suitable for a receiver. Besides, the v360 would still switch off the tv when it's switching itself off.

The Harmony Hub only works on the assumption that if it told a device to do something that it's in that state when it goes to do the next thing. A device in the chain (like the v360) that independently controls other devices throws the Hub completely out of sync and Hub activities often no longer work as the Hub now incorrectly believes certain devices are on or off.

There's no fix for this other than blocking CEC. I've ordered a CEC-Less adapter so I'm hoping that'll be a roundabout solution for the time being.

Sappy404

schmooschmoo wrote: »

I can't. TV doesn't have optical ports or any outputs suitable for a receiver. Besides, the v360 would still switch off the tv when it's switching itself off.

The Harmony Hub only works on the assumption that if it told a device to do something that it's in that state when it goes to do the next thing. A device in the chain (like the v360) that independently controls other devices throws the Hub completely out of sync and Hub activities often no longer work as the Hub now incorrectly believes certain devices are on or off.

There's no fix for this other than blocking CEC. I've ordered a CEC-Less adapter so I'm hoping that'll be a roundabout solution for the time being.

I have a hub too. If the V360 was controlling my TV, my "Watch TV" activity simply wouldn't control the TV. I'd let the box do that. I have a similar problem with an android box that won't switch on from standby via infrared, so I've set my android activity to consider it 'always on'. Seems to work. Maybe I'm missing something. Hope you get it sorted anyway!