Infrared
Xfinity cable box
Sounds it listens for
Off, the TV chimes as someone drops in, and a line at the top says who while they are. On, nothing: no chime, no line on the screen, and no lights flash, though the webcam’s own light still comes on. Turning it on is noted in Activity, as is each drop-in, silent or not. Only the account’s owner can turn it on.
On, while the room is shown on the Raspberry Pi’s screen (a presence sensor waking its camera), a box is drawn round each person the camera sees, with how sure it is. Handy when placing the camera. Nothing leaves the Pi.
The microphone is muted on itself: calls, captions of the room and the sounds it listens for hear nothing until it’s unmuted there.
Drop-ins and calls start with this camera.
The speaker plays calls and chimes. A speakerphone or headset plugged into the Raspberry Pi is used as soon as it’s plugged in. A speakerphone’s mute button starts captions of the room, and pauses them, as a clicker’s big button does, but during a call or drop-in, when it mutes; its volume buttons turn the TV up and down too; and its call light is on during calls and drop-ins, but silent ones. The phone line is what hears the landline, so its calls are captioned here: a USB sound card a phone-line splitter is plugged into, say. A telephone recorder the Raspberry Pi knows is the phone line as soon as it’s plugged in. Its calls show on this screen, or on a Chromecast the home agent found, chosen in Calls show on: for a Raspberry Pi with no screen of its own.
For a TV on its side: say which way it was turned (right is clockwise), and the Raspberry Pi’s screen turns to suit.
When captions stop, most TVs go back by themselves to what they showed. For one that stays on the Raspberry Pi, choose where to switch it: a cable box, say. Only what answers over HDMI-CEC is listed.
An Xfinity X1 box on one of the TV’s inputs: paired with a code typed at the TV, or with the token the Xfinity Web Remote (accrem.apps.cloud.comcast.net) keeps in the browser once signed in there (arToken), its buttons join this remote. With TV listings from a Schedules Direct account (schedulesdirect.org, for personal use), the Channels tab has a guide of its channels and what’s on them for the next few days, and a tap switches the TV to the box and tunes it.
This TV has no network: an infrared blaster in front of it sends its remote’s buttons. Choose its brand for the codes most of that brand’s TVs take; for another brand, or a button that does nothing, choose it below, tap Learn, and press it once on the TV’s own remote, held close to the blaster. Infrared says nothing back, so if the TV was turned on or off by its own remote, Power may do the opposite once.
A DIRECTV box is found on the network, or connected at its address, and worked through its own API on the home network (on it, Settings → Whole-Home → External Device → External Access must be Allow); a DISH Hopper or Joey on one of the TV’s inputs is worked over HDMI-CEC (on it, Settings → HDMI-CEC on). Either way its buttons join this remote, and with TV listings for its lineup from Schedules Direct, the Channels tab lists its channels and what’s on, and a tap switches the TV to the box and tunes it.
The Raspberry Pi listens for these with its microphone, and shows them on its screen and in Activity. What it hears stays on it. Over a show on the TV, only an alarm counts, as shows ring doorbells too.