I hope this question won't seem too stupid, I've briefly browsed though the documentation, looked through the forums and downloaded various existing plug-ins and the answer isn't leaping out at me....
Basically what I would like to do is write a plug-in to control AV receivers from plex without the need for expensive home automation software or universal remotes (this needs to be easy enough for my wife to use). I want Plex to send the power-on and switch input commands to my receiver when it starts and a sleep command when it quits. If I'm using the digital audio output on my mac-mini, I want plex to be able to send volume-up/down commands to the receiver so I never have to leave the Apple remote.
It seems like the Plex plug-in architecture is geared towards scraping websites for media/information but does it allow for plug-ins that can launch at startup, operate in the background, and close on exit?
I have a similar setup. When my mac mimi wakes up, a telnet command is sent to a power relais to switch on the av receiver and the LCD tv. Thereafter any command needed for the receiver is sent via applescript in RemoteBuddy (volume, sound format, other zone, etc) using a USB-RS232 coneection.
RemoteBuddy is also used to put the mac mini into sleep mode, but prior, a telnet command is sent again to the power relais to turn of my LCD tv and my AV receiver.
For applescript to control a serial connection, you need to install the applescript plugin: Serialport X
This would be a cool feature indeed. I've been wanting to do this little project for a while. Just haven't had time.
http://code.google.com/p/cec-arduino/
Basically all newer TVs and receivers all have a CEC bus on their HDMI cables that allow them to communicate with each other. With this little arduino project you could send commands via this bus using a usb connection on your computer. Would be cool once when it works better. The project is still rather new though and buggy. In the end the idea would be the same as using your RS-232. not sure how you would get plex to communicate with all of this stuff though.
