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Best programming for shared device question


avintegrator

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Lets say i'm doing a 6 zone B&K system sharing a DVD player throughout the house. If i turn off zone 1 and it automatically turns off the DVD player what about zone 3 who happens to be watching it? I'm thinking of multiple ways to fix the problem like creating 6 different variables and toggling them in programming so that the devices only turn off once they are all toggled in the off position. OR is there anyway to have 2 way communication via RS232 so that i could just wait until all the zones are off and turn off the sources?

What does everyone else do in situations like this? I don't want to waste a bunch of effort going doen path A when there is another path that takes me there in half the time.:)

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Humm.......I have my DVD player ......and my 400 disc changer hooked up to a HD video switch. If I start a movie in say my " family room" and have it playing, I can turn on the bedroom and turn off the family room, the movie will NOT stop, as long as I dont turn off the " bedroom ".

I will have to look at my programing to see if my dealer did some kinda special programing.......but I thought this was kinda default programing. As long as there is another room on, when you turn off one of the other rooms..........the DVD you are watching should not turn off.

Shawn?

Scott

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My answer would depend on a few things such as whether it goes through a video switch and whether you have discrete on/off control of the DVD player.

If it goes through a video switch, such as with takitezsdc's system (and mine) I think what's happening is turning off a room will "break" the video switch connection to that room and turn off the TV in there. But if it was already connected to another room it will continue playing there.

If what you mean is that you have the same video source patched to several TVs but without a switch, then you could do a couple of things. One would be a series of variables as you describe. A simpler one might be to have only one variable, start it at zero and increment it +1 each time a room starts watching the DVD. Then decrement it each time a room which was watching it turns off.

Program it to check it's own value each time it changes, and if it's zero it can turn off the DVD player.

Finally, if you have discrete on and off, the last option would be to just leave the DVD player on all the time, and if you're concerned about the power consumption you could program something to send an OFF command every night at 3am (or whatever hour is late enough that you'd never be watch a movie at that time). Then program it to turn on whenever it's selected. Obviously this last solution would not work in a power toggle situation, only with discrete on/off.

--Jason

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With the B&K it's basically a 6 zone audio video receiver. So there are 6 seperate video outputs that i can turn on and off at will. But wht i've discovered in the first one of these i connected was that if room A and B are watching the DVD player and Room B turns off it powers down the DVD player, room A stays on just with no video until you go and select DVD again which is a PITA so i think i will have to add some variable ito that programming. Just wanted another opinion thanks

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  • 1 month later...

First let me preface this with the I am a dealer. I have done numerous systems with Video Switches and not had this problem. To my knowledge the system knows when multiple zones are using a source, and it will not thurn it off until the last zone turns off

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I'll 2nd that - C4 is very smart in tracking what's on and what's off - and why it's still on etc... It won't turn a zone off UNLESS you've told it to do so in programming (ie: when TV turns off - turn DVD player off) - then it'll ALWAYS turn that DVD player off. So it would be a programming error.

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