Since 2 weeks i am using kde plasma bigscreen on a nipogi mini pc and i have some troubles with cec. I already know that the nipogi mini pc doesn’t offer native cec support, unlike, for example, a raspberry pi. so i would like to know, what can i do, that i can control the mini pc using the TV remote ? are there any working cec adapters for the mini PC ? Anyone else got this maybe working ? thanks in advance
if the nipogi board has no cec on the hdmi port, plasma bigscreen cannot invent it. you need an external cec bridge.
what people usually do:
- a usb-cec adapter (pulse-eight usb-cec is the common one) then cec-client / libcec talking to it
- or an hdmi cec passthrough dongle between the mini pc and the tv, same idea
on the software side check if cec-ctl / cec-client sees anything:
ls /dev/cec*
cec-ctl -d /dev/cec0 -S
if /dev/cec* is missing, no adapter is talking yet, so bigscreen remote control will stay dead until the hardware is there. i have not found a reliable software-only workaround on cec-less intel/amd mini pcs.
thanks for your answer. it would be great if you maybe have some examples of hdmi cec passthrough dongles which are working/usable and which are listed at amazon.
i already tried to find an usb-cec adapter at amazon before, but i didnt find anything that looks like it would work - amazon dont sell pulse-eight usb-cec adapter.
why amazon ? well it is the simplest and best way to send things back, that are not working.
pulse-eight usb-cec is the usual one but yeah amazon stock of it is spotty.
hdmi cec passthrough dongles that people actually use with libcec:
- search amazon for “hdmi cec adapter” / “cec bridge” that sits between the mini pc hdmi out and the tv. brands rotate a lot, pick ones that say they pass cec / let the tv remote control the source
- if amazon is dry on pulse-eight usb-cec, buy it direct from pulse-eight.com. the usb clones on amazon are hit or miss
once you have either, install libcec + cec-utils and run:
```
cec-client -l
```
if that lists a device, plasma bigscreen can talk to it. if it stays empty, that dongle isnt exposing cec to linux and you need a different one.