[PanamaVIP]

I am a complete newby to kodi and came here while looking for ways of using the Pulse-Eight CEC Adapter which appears to be the necessary link between a pc and a tv if you want to control the tv set with the pc.

So I beg your pardon if I may be on the wrong forum and hope you can direct me to a more indicated forum or web site if this here is not the right place for my questions.
Let me describe the problem that I am facing and trying to resolve.

I am trying to help an elderly person with severe vision limitations which is living far from her relatives in an assisted living home.
She wants to communicate with her relatives via Skype, but due to her limitations and her age she is not able to do the necessary tasks (mouse clicks at the right point of her laptop screen or complicated sequences of buttons on her remote) to receive or initiate actively a Skype call and neither can she recognize details on a 14" laptop screen.

So I have provided her a laptop (Windows 7) with internet access which I can control remotely. The laptop is connected via a Pulse-Eight CEC Adapter to the HDMI 1 connector of her 55" Samsung TV UE50J5550.
Her Skype account has been set to accept an incoming call instantly, so Skype pops up and is immediately connected when I call.
So far so good.

The problem begins where the laptop screen should be replicated on the TV screen. If the TV is on standby or showing a tv program, the tv should be switched on and the source "HDMI 1" should be selected in order to connect it to the laptop.
After the call, the tv should be set to the previous status, i.e. to the previous tv channel or to standby.

The person is not able to execute this (for her) rather complicated sequence of pressing buttons on her remote. It may be simple for a younger person with good vision, but impossible for her.
At best, she could remember to press ONE previously defined button to initiate a more complex action.
Furthermore when a tv program is running, she does not even notice that there is a Skype call on the laptop screen.
But I could do this via remote control of her laptop, if I find the way how to do it.

So what I am looking for is software for Windows (or at least indications how to do it with command lines) to send CEC commands to the tv set, which ideally allows me to do the following:

1) analyse via CEC requests the status of the tv set (standby/on, which tv channel is being used?)
2) wake up the tv set if in standby
3) select HDMI 1 as the new source
4) after the call, reverse the previous actions

and, possibly, recognize the actuation of a certain button on her standard remote, in order to start a batch of commands in the laptop which start a Skype call to a fixed address.
This would also enable me to send her videos or pictures to her laptop which could than be shown on the tv-set via remote control of the pc.

You may ask, why do I post this on a kodi forum.

The reason is that all I found about using CEC are articles that mention kodi. There do not seem to be any specific publications about how to send commands (and which ones) to the Pulse-Eight CEC Adapter in order to accomplish some or all of the the above tasks under windows. I have contacted Pulse-Eight, but all I found out is that the commands should be sent via command line for the "cec-client". But then every further info refers to "building the client" and what to do in Ubuntu and so on.
There is nothing concrete how to get the client for Windows readily compiled, nothing about the syntax of the command lines.

I am not a programmer, but of course I can use the Windows/DOS command line and know how to write batch files. What I cannot (or do not want to) do is start studying programming with python or c just to resolve this limited task. I would like to avoid a huge learning effort (TIME!!) for stuff that is not strictly necessary.

And then I found some vague information that kodi would allow to do what I want to do. So I installed kodi, checked its features and settings and unfortunately I have not found anything that could help in my endeavor. I am not interested in building a complex media center. I just want to control the tv set via a laptop and replicate the laptop screen on the big screen.

So my plea is, can anybody tell me if (and how) I can accomplish these tasks with kodi or in any other way?
Again, if this is not the right place, can anybody please indicate to me where to look further?

Thank you in advance

[PatK]

You may ask, why do I post this on a kodi forum.

Thanks for that.

I would like to avoid a huge learning effort (TIME!!)

So I should do this for you?

So I installed kodi, checked its features and settings and unfortunately I have not found anything that could help in my endeavour.BUT found some vague information that kodi would allow to do what I want to do

Kodi is a media player and home theatre software extraordinaire. It really is a marvel of our time, with Kodi anything is possible and as your vague information information indicates, it could solve your issue, given TIME!! and the expertise of a knowledgeable programmer. Looking over the forum you can see the depth involved with customizations, it would require many hats and experience to accomplish what you want. I shouldn't discourage you, but It's better from the outset that you understand the depth of this rabbit hole.

Sadly as our population ages, we will see more challenges for the aged, and lets hope our technology will not become a burden to those effected. Kudo's to you for the effort you have made, but I suspect there are other more simpler work-a-rounds. Kodi has tried to keep up with some of the challenges with text 2 speech, audio enhancements, visual impairments, Kiosk modes and more. The ultimate implementation of all of this comes down to the user, and their desire to modify this open source project to fit their specific circumstances.

I would have thought that Pulse Eight might be a better source of information, but we do have this CEC (wiki) failing that the hardware forum might have some users familiar with the CEC Pulse Eight. I'd suggest for brevity to keep your request short and to the point, while linking back to this thread.

[PanamaVIP]

Thanks for your very helpful comment, especially the first few lines. I have already understood that kodi won't be helpful for my purpose.
I have not asked anybody to develope a complex program for free for me. I was looking for a source that describes the the cec-adapter commands. Someone who has experience with the device and knows where to look will certainly exist. For such a person it would be an effort of not more than 5 minutes to send me a URL or a copy of the list. This was my attempt here. I understand you are not this person.
So why do you answer if you don't know anything useful?

[PatK]

So why do you answer if you don't know anything useful?

glad you appreciate my response as much as I did when I read your initial message, google is your friend.