Gizmodo: Crestron

TiVo Remote Control Over IP via Telnet

Jason Chen — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:44:17 EDT

When TiVo worked with Crestron (the home automation company) to provide integration between your DVR and your wall control panels, they actually opened up a door for people to control your TV with just about any computer. All you have to do is telnet into your TiVo via port 31339 and type in some commands. It's pretty basic now, but the telnet interface means you can easily rig up an iPhone remote app or do some kind of port forwarding to remotely control your TV from outside your home. Why you would want to do that is your business, since we don't want to tell you how to best spend your time. The complete command list after the jump. [TiVo Community (Instructions) via Zatz Not Funny]

Type IRCODE in caps, followed by any of these commands.

UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT SELECT TIVO LIVETV THUMBSUP THUMBSDOWN CHANNELUP CHANNELDOWN RECORD DISPLAY DIRECTV NUM0 NUM1 NUM2 NUM3 NUM4 NUM5 NUM6 NUM7 NUM8 NUM9 ENTER CLEAR PLAY PAUSE SLOW FORWARD REVERSE STANDBY NOWSHOWING REPLAY ADVANCE DELIMITER GUIDE

Crestron Home Automation Adds Windows Sideshow Support

Jason Chen — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:10:00 EDT

Crestron, the company that makes crazy high-end home automation equipment that lets you turn off your lights by just breathing loudly, just announced Windows Sideshow support. You remember Windows Sideshow, right? The Windows Vista feature that lets you feed Vista's Gadgets onto an external device. Crestron's including this on all Crestron touchpanels and 2-way devices that support dynamic text. Not only does it read data, you can even send control information back to Windows to change a song or turn off your BitTorrent downloads because you're about to play some Xbox Live.

ROCKLEIGH, NJ, April 16, 2008 — Crestron announced today its touchpanels and control systems now support Windows® SideShow™, providing access to a wide-range of PC and Web-based content such as news feeds, sports scores, stock tickers, weather alerts, media guides, email messages, and appointment notifications all through a simple network connection to a Windows Vista™ computer. SideShow content can be viewed on all Crestron touchpanels and 2-way devices that support dynamic text such as the APAD wall mount controller and MLX-2 handheld remote. Windows® SideShow™ is a new technology in Windows Vista that supports a secondary display screen to view flight reservations, news, weather, sports or read email even if the laptop is "off" or in "sleep mode." Crestron now provides support through its SIMPL Windows program to also deliver SideShow data to its touchpanels and controllers, including the APAD and MLX-2. Crestron control systems retrieve SideShow data from any mobile or desktop PC running Vista via basic Ethernet communication. SideShow sends data from the SideShow gadget displaying text information and even providing some control functionality. For example, Crestron SideShow-enabled controllers can access the Windows Media Player gadget to allow users to browse song lists and play selections directly from touchpanels. Crestron support of Windows SideShow delivers information from your computer to Crestron devices. Windows SideShow is available in Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate.

Crestron Rolls Out MLX-2 Two-Way ZigBee RF Remote

Charlie White — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:00:00 EDT

What would a CEDIA floor walk be without stopping by Crestron, that company that will let you control everything in your house with sophisticated control devices, commanding a hefty price along the way. The company's newest addition to its vast system of control processing equipment is the MLX-2, a $750 remote control that has two-way RF communication, opening up some intriguing possibilities.

Sure, this remote can control your TV, stereo, AV components and such, but it also sends back the status of those devices, showing up right there on its display. That's the joy that's ZigBee 2-way wireless RF tech. You can hook up lights, thermostat, nearly any electronic device to this thing. It feels good in the hand, but it's not nearly as ergonomic as TiVo's bone design.

For that steep $750 price, it better be able to do lots more than control everything in your house. But hey, in this custom-installed world inhabited by Crestron and others, $750 is a drop in the bucket. Couldn't you do most of this fancy controlling with a Logitech Harmony remote? You could even get a custom installer to program it for you, so then, let's see... the price would be $50 on sale for the low-end Harmony remote, and $700 for the installer. Wow, same price. Okay, now we get it.

TiVo's just announced that their TiVo Series ...

Jason Chen — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:18:12 EDT

TiVo's just announced that their TiVo Series 3 DVR is getting a Crestron touch panel, which allows it to integrate into a Crestron plug-and-play systems solution to control all your electronics from one place. [TiVo, Crestron]

CEDIA 2006: Crestron TPMC-8X, TPMC-4X Touchpanel Media Centers

Travis Hudson — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:26:49 EDT

Crestron's booth was jam-packed with enough home-automation crap to shake a stick at (whatever the hell that means), but there were a couple little gadgets that stood out. These are the Isys i/O WiFi Touchpanel (left) and the Isys i/O Handheld WiFi TouchPanel (right). You need to understand that these aren't remotes that you can just stroll into Best Buy and purchase; they have to be used alongside Crestron's home automation systems that are dealer-installed. With that in mind, check out their semi-awesome remotes, after the jump.

The TPMC-8X Isys i/O WiFi Touchpanel is the higher end of the two remotes. This large, tablet-esque touchpanel remote has an 8.4-inch display. It operates on an 802.11 a/b/g proprietary WiFi network. This giant remote also has embedded Windows XP and can do web browsing, Skype, and more. The remote itself will set you back $3.800 on top of the cost of having a Crestron home automation system.

The TPMC-4X is a handheld version of the 8X mentioned above. It isn't quite as complex and fits in the hand a little bit easier, but it is still pretty bulky. It operates on an 802.11b WiFI network and has a 3.5-inch touchscreen. It is a bit cheaper (but not much) at $2,000 and will be shipping in a couple of weeks.