Welcome to the Sony S-Link Resource Center! This is a page devoted to understanding the Sony S-Link protocol. Here you'll find links with information on S-Link, and a bulletin board where you can talk with other S-Link adventurers.

S-Link is a protocol used by Sony A/V components to talk to each other. It encompasses Control-S, an overall control protocol based on IR codes, Control-A1, a bidirectional protocol used to get CD information from CD players, and Control-L, a time protocol used by high-end video components. Since most of the new Sony components have an S-Link connector, and since Sony sells a box (CAV-1 or CAV-2) which allows a computer to talk S-Link, it should be possible to build intelligent A/V systems based on S-Link. I have heard of several people trying to do this; unfortunately, I know of few successes, in part because it seems S-Link is poorly documented and understood.

Please note that this page is not provided or endorsed by Sony. Sony has chosen to provide very little support for S-Link users or developers. An official site devoted to S-Link/VisionTouch developers was closed in April, 1997; since then, Sony has limited support to those enrolled in its professional developer program (which costs $5000 plus royalties).

Go to the Sony S-Link Discussion Board

Links:

• Sony's S-Link Page A good overview of S-Link and its potential applications. No technical data, though. (Added 11/29/97 02:26)
• Sony's VisionTouch Page VisionTouch uses S-Link to control Sony components. Here you'll find info on the VisionTouch hardware and software that Sony sells, and the now-defunct Sony VisionTouch bulletin boards. (Added 11/29/97 02:28)
• Scott Coleman's Control-S Specification Mostly hardware-oriented info, to enable you to interface to Control-S without a CAV-1 unit. There are some control codes here, but since the document was made in 1990, it's unlikely this is anywhere near a complete set. (Added 11/29/97 09:44)
• Dan Zenchelsky's VisionTouch Primer An excellent introduction to programming the CAV units. Includes a good introduction to the S-Link protocol. (Added 11/29/97 10:22)
• Per Sorensen's CDP-CX200 IR Codes IR Codes for the CDP-CX200 CD player. (Added 11/29/97 10:31)
• Kyler Laird's S-Link Info Warehouse Lots of good stuff here, especially about Control-L / LANC. (Added 11/29/97 12:41)
• Control-S / Control-L - PC Interface Kit A shareware kit which lets you hook up your PC to Control-S and Control-L components without a CAV-1. (Added 11/29/97 12:57)
• Sony and Pioneer Jukebox Control Control your Sony and Pioneer Mega CD Changers. Jukebox Control Software and Hardware for both Pioneer PD-F and Sony CDP-CX jukebox changers. Wintek Software Company. (Updated 4/05/98 09:47)
• BigDave's Control-A1 Reference A pretty complete Control-A1 reference produced by reverse-engineering. (Added 12/07/97 23:18)
• HP 48 IR Controller The binaries are for using the HP48 as an IR controller but the text files contain the codes that can be sent to the various manufacturers' devices. (Added 12/09/97 10:46)
• Nirvis Slink-e A serial port based controller for S-Link, Control-A, Control-S, and infrared equipment. (Updated 8/31/98 2:06)
• Controller Software Software only control program to control multiple cdp-cx200 changers. (Added 1/18/98 23:51)
• Visiontouch page Hopefully a interesting site on the CAV box and how to program it. (Added 5/25/99 02:07)
• Sircs page A site about Sony's protocol's mainly control-s, but starting to contain more. Has the device ID's (Added 5/27/99 06:27)
• TitleTrack JukeBox Macintosh jukebox program that uses the slink-e hardware (http://www.nirvis.com) to control Sony changers. Great product. Nice GUI, plus supports AppleScript. (Added 8/01/99 18:43)
• Serial Interface to Sony DDD This documents how you can control a Sony DSS receiver via its serial port. It appears you can do more via the serial port than you can via IR or s-link. (Added 8/10/99 16:01)
• Sonymods A site which has details on Sony's CAV unit (vision touch), MD editor, DVD region free hacks etc (Added 11/01/99 22:08)
• Home-Automation.org The most complete guide to home automation information on the web. (Added 11/02/99 22:15)
• Nirvis Systems - makers of the CDJ jukebox software the also make an s link pc control device (Added 12/01/99 06:08)
• CAV User Manual Dan Zenechelsky's latest CAV User Manual. A goldmine of info on programming the CAV units, and a good primer and reference for control-S commands. (Added 9/05/00 22:42)
• using the pclk-md1 site with some info on using the pclk-md1 to control a cd dukebox also see http://ringo.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~yasaka/cdp/doc/ (Added 1/21/01 03:18)
• Jeff Patricks Networked Home Theater A site devoted to the development of an Internet based home theater control system. (Added 2/24/01 15:45)
• Sony CD Changer control codes (S-Link Control A1 II) Fairly comprehensive listing of know commands and responses that can be sent to the Sony CD chanegrs over s-link control A1 II. Also some unix programs which use this. (Added 3/06/01 06:10)
• Vision touch programmers forum A site aimed at those whom wish to program these damn sony units, it is not intended to be used as a replacement for this site but rather complement it (Added 3/22/101 03:54)
• discs A web-based jukebox application based on the sourceforge jukebox-control project for Sony CD Changers. (Added 5/21/101 04:35)
• DiscJockey Affordable Sony CD changer application for windows and serial port hardware. (Added 6/20/101 22:36)

Know of a link that should on the list above? Please add it!