CEC

For the most part, support for CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) in home theater PCs (HTPC) has been terribly lacking. What is CEC you ask? Quite simply, it is a communications channel and protocol utilized in HDMI that allows functionality such as controlling power and volume of a connected TV among other things. You may have heard of it in a manufacturer's trade name such as Anynet+, Bravia Sync, SimpLink, VIERA Link, etc.

Pulse-Eight, the company who recently brought us the Motorola Nyxboard Hybrid XBMC remote, is now unleashing a USB to CEC bridge adapter for use in HTPCs. A USB port is used to supply power as well as inject and receive CEC commands on the HDMI link passing through the device. While we have seen similar devices before, Pulse-Eight is bringing with it an attractive sub-$50 price point along with support baked into XBMC and an open-source library called libCEC which is offered to bring the CEC functionality to other software platforms such as Windows Media Center or SageTV.