Panasonic Viera Link - first HDMI universal remote

Sure, the remote control Panasonic showed off as part of its Viera update this week looks like any other overly complicated, SD-slot equipped, universal home theater remote. But there's more to it than that. It's actually the first product to make use of Viera Link, Panasonic's name for the HDMI control interface. Basically, the remote takes advantage of HDMI's ability to carry commands through a system, instead of just audio, video and DRM. What that means is you get universal control of your HDMI home theater equipment, without having to worry about trying to figure out which IR to aim for. Just point the remote at the one IR on your TV, and the signal will travel over the HDMI wires to the right piece of equipment. Of course, Viera Link is currently Panny-only, but should work with other HDMI devices that comply with industry specs.

[evo @ Mar 17th 2006 8:20PM]

Given all the bad consumer consequences normally tied to HDMI, this is a really cool feature.

Of course, it would be nice if the industry would just standardize on a generalized networking protocol that could be used for all of this and more without the need to upgrade hardware every couple of years just to support a new connector and some new wiring convention.

It's ridiculous to still be relying on thes low-level connectivity protocols tied to specific hardware when we have robust networking stacks and dirt-cheap chips for gigibit Ethernet, Firewire, and USB just waiting to be used.

[Brian @ Mar 17th 2006 11:08PM]

Agreed...

[Alvin Mathew @ Apr 27th 2007 1:14PM]

This is really cool...so technically this could be the oh so waited for...solution for ps3 users!!! - alvinO!

[Tarry @ Aug 11th 2008 2:21AM]

This is great news!

http://www.chasetheglow.com

[Paul V @ Jan 6th 2009 8:43AM]

I was excited about Viera Link when I recently bought a Panny Blu Ray player and plasma TV. I thought I would be able to control the Blu Ray features through the TV even with the doors shut on my audio cabinet. It doesn't work that way. It could but it doesn't. Here's what Panasonic's web site says Veira Link will do (and it's pretty limited):

VIERA® Link can do the following:
1. When you turn off your TV, the DVD Player and Receiver will also turn off automatically.
2. When you turn on your TV, the Receiver will automatically turn on and change input to TV.
3. When you operate DVD Player, your TV will automatically turn on and change to HDMI input and the Receiver will turn on and change to DVD input.
4. You can adjust the volume level of your speakers that are connected to the Receiver with the TV's remote control.

Pretty thin and pretty disappointing.

[Stuart @ Oct 30th 2007 5:25AM]

Except here in the UK - - if you have a satellite receiver hooked into the 2nd hdmi at the rear of the tv the link wont work!!

[B @ May 23rd 2008 12:30AM]

For UK users with a Sky box, just yank out the 13th pin. It shouldn't affect the operation of any of your devices and will allow the Viera signal to be transmitted.

It does, however, raise the question as to why panasonic doesn't just release a modded hdmi cable that caters for this.