Samsung TV, Motorola Cable Box, Cox

I'm evaluating the basic Roomie remote and want to try it out with a Samsung ES7500F TV and Motorola DCX3200-M cable box used to access Cox cable. I know the Samsung does not support WOL, but is there any way to control the cable box via IP (and without buying an iTach)?

I know eventually I'll have to spring for an iTach, but I want to make sure Roomie can do what I want, before I buy the iTach.

If Roomie can't control the cable box without an iTach IP2IR, how would you recommend evaluating Roomie's control over the TV?

The DCX3200 does not support IP control. Both of those devices are best controlled via Infrared.

Thanks. I have a couple of follow-up questions.

1. When you say "both," I assume you mean the TV too. This presents a problem because my cable box, AV receiver, blu-ray and other devices are in a media cabinet behind the TV, and it opens at a right angle to the left of the TV. I'm planning on buying an iTach and trying to use the IR blaster to bounce off a wall about 3.5 ft opposite the media cabinet to control all the IR devices. But I don't think the TV will "see" this signal. The Samsung 7500 series has its IR sensor at the top, near a camera lens. So I'm reluctant to put an emitter there, both for aesthetic and for practical reasons (it may interfere with the camera). So I was hoping to control the TV via IP, except for turning it on. From your answer, I get the impression this may be a bad idea. Is it?

2. I'd like to evaluate Roomie before shelling out $100 for an IP2IR iTach ( for 2 rooms) and $9 for the Infrared Pack. Is there any suggested way to evaluate it for controlling TV viewing using just the Base Roomie software?

(P.S. By the time I'll be done, I'm looking at 2 IP2IR's, the Infrared Pack, the Home Theater Pack ($19.99), two iPad minis (we intend to use them as our intelligent remotes), and possibly 2 IP2SL's plus serial cables if we decide we want to turn on the TV's using Roomie. So before I go down this path, I really want to make sure it's the right path for my household.)

We would generally advise IR for a Samsung TV. Serial is generally overkill for that as Samsung doesn't provide any useful feedback via Serial.

Yes, Roomie will control that Samsung model via IP, but not for power as you noted.

I have been evaluating the setup you describe above except my cable box is for time warner and I'm using a yamaha aventage receiver for audio. I am trying to gain confidence in the system as well before purchasing the $100 itach. Since my equipment is so similar, I thought jumping in on this thread might be the best way to ask my question.

Both TV and receiver were found by roomie. So far the receiver remote is working without problems. The samsung tv remote works for the most part, however, there seems to be a bit of a problem with the TV input select commands. The input select commands listed in this remote don't all apply to this TV. For example, there is only one component video input on the tv but there are two listed in the remote input commands. Similarly there are no SVideo inputs on the TV. Scroll seems to work, TV selects TV mode, and HDMI seems to toggle between TV mode and HDMI mode on successive applications. HDMI1, HDMI2, HDMI3, and HDMI4 input select commands don't seem to do anything which is my problem. I need the remote to simply select, for example, HDMI2 when I select HDMI2 to allow the system to be initialized for an activity using HDMI such as watching the DCX3200. Otherwise, use of the HDMI input to toggle the input mode would require knowledge of the current TV state at each application.

The remote pictured for this TV in roomie appears to be for an older model TV so I suspect that the commands simply need to be updated for the newer model TV. How do I get help with this issue?