libCEC is an open-source dual licensed library designed for communicating with the Pulse-Eight USB - HDMI CEC Adaptor now available

Features

• Windows, OSX and Linux support
• Turns on/off TV (e.g. when the screensaver becomes active, to save power)
• Switch the TV to the correct HDMI port when starting your media center software
• Send and receive key presses from your TV's remote
• Control the volume of a CEC capable A/V receiver from your media center software
• Sniff active traffic on CEC bus
• Interfaces for C, C++ and .NET/CLR
• No binary-only or obfuscated code; everything is open and can be modified
• Example implementations in C++ and C#
• And much more...

Supported media center software

• XBMC 11.0 "Eden" or higher
• MythTV v0.25 or higher

Supported brands

Our USB-CEC adapter can communicate with any CEC capable device that supports CEC v1.3a or higher. We have tested the adapter with the following brands:

• LG
• Onkyo
• Panasonic
• Philips
• Pioneer
• Samsung
• Sony

If you own a device of a vendor that's not listed here and you find libCEC not working with that device, then you can request for support at our forums.

Get libCEC

libCEC is available through git via:

git clone git://github.com/Pulse-Eight/libcec.git

You can browse the source code at https://github.com/Pulse-Eight/libcec

Prebuilt binaries can be found at our packages site.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Where can I find the latest libCEC builds and XBMC builds with full CEC support?	You can find binaries here: packages.pulse-eight.net.
Where can I find the CEC adapter's settings in XBMC?	Go to System -> Input -> Peripherals -> Pulse-Eight CEC Adapter.
What's the meaning of the CEC adapter's settings in XBMC?	Enabled: use the CEC adapter within XBMC. Default: Enabled. HDMI port number: the HDMI port number that you connected the CEC adapter to on your TV or AVR. Default: 1. Connected to HDMI device: the logical address of the HDMI device that you connected the CEC adapter to. 0 for TV, 5 for an AVR. Default: 0. Use the TV's language setting: requests the GUI language of the TV and tries to set the same language in XBMC when enabled. Default: enabled. Power on the TV when starting XBMC: sends a "power on" command to the TV when starting XBMC. Default: enabled. Power off devices when stopping XBMC: sends a "standby/power off" command to all devices when stopping XBMC. When this is disabled, an "inactive source" command will be sent instead. Default: enabled. Put devices in standby mode when activating screensaver: sends a "standby/power off" command to all devices when the screensaver becomes active, and wakes up the TV when the screensaver is deactivated. Default: enabled. Put this PC in standby mode when the TV is switched off: put the PC in standby mode when the TV is put in standby mode. Default: enabled. Port: the path to the COM port that is used to communicate with the CEC adapter. Only needed on platforms on which autodetection isn't working (e.g. Ubuntu Hardy). Default: [empty]
I've got my CEC adapter connected to an AVR, but can't control it's volume in XBMC. What should I do?	Go to the adapter's settings, and set "Connected to HDMI device" to "5". Set the correct "HDMI port number" and press OK. Pull out your adapter's USB cable and plug it back in, or restart XBMC. You should now have volume control.
Which virtual COM port is my adapter using?	General: cec-client, the libCEC debug client, can autodetect the adapter and COM port setting. Open a terminal window, go to libCEC's installation folder if you're on Windows, and type "cec-client -l". This will show you a list of all adapters and their COM ports. Windows: Right click on "Computer" and click on "Properties". Click on "Device Manager" and open "Ports". Right click on the CEC adapter, and click on "Properties". You can find the COM port setting in this window, and change it if you like. Linux: Open a terminal windows, and enter "ls /dev/ttyACM*". This will show you all ACM devices on your system. Usually it's the first (and only) entry that you'll find here.
I'm seeing the following message when starting up XBMC or when plugging in the CEC adapter: "Could not detect the CEC port. Set it up manually.". What should I do?	Find out which COM port the adapter is using (see above), and enter this value for the setting "Port" in the CEC adapter's settings in XBMC.
I'm seeing the following message when starting up XBMC or when plugging in the CEC adapter: "Could not detect the CEC adapter.". What should I do?	Verify the CEC adapter's settings, and ensure that "Connected to HDMI device" is set up correctly. Set this value to "0" if you got an AVR, but you're seeing this error message when setting the setting value to "5".
I'm seeing the following message when starting up XBMC or when plugging in the CEC adapter: "Unsupported libcec interface version. X is greater than the version XBMC supports (Y)"	The version of libCEC is not compatible with the one that was used to compile XBMC. Go to packages.pulse-eight.net and update XBMC with one of the builds that you can download there.
When I plug in the adapter on Windows, I'm asked for the driver for this hardware. What should I do?	Close the dialog (press cancel, or complete the wizard), and download and execute p8-usbcec-driver-installer.exe. This will install the driver for the adapter.

Support

You can find support on our forums.

Contribute

If you wish to contribute to this project you will need to sign our contributors agreement. Please see our contributors website