MCE Replacement Driver [Obsolete]

[mcc05]

Hi I got back to using the default driver for the MCE remote.

Works fine, and blaster.exe plays back ir command but, when MCE is recording I can't get blaster.exe to play back any IR commands, I just get play failed

Am I missing something or is MC locking the blaster.exe and the IR playback?

Is there a way round this?

Mark.

[and-81]

gizzard:
Fantastic, I'm glad you got it working.

mcc05:
The thing about the MCE IR device is that it can only be accessed by one program at a time, it could be that MCE is locking down the device and preventing other software from using it.

This was the main reason I developed IR Server Suite. The idea being that it is one program to handle all interaction with the device and provide as much flexibility as it can. I do not have any plugins to make it work with Media Center itself (I developed it primarily for MediaPortal) but there are command line utilities you could probably utilise with MCE. You could also use HIP or Girder or EventGhost for the same purpose if you are familiar with one of those.

Good luck,

[MusicPC]

Could some please guide me as to which driver I should be downloading if I plan to use the MCE R2 Remote with XP Professional (SP2) to control the MS Media Player.

Don't want to walk to PC to skip a song.

thanks in advance

[and-81]

MusicPC:

It's not the driver, it's the software. The driver alone will not help you control your PC, except that the default driver will automatically handle the arrow buttons and a few others across the whole system...

I assume you are already using the default eHome driver, so I believe I can say with confidence that what you need is some software to help you control Media Player..

In that case, I would recommend either HIP, EventGhost or my own software (IR Server Suite) linked in my signature.

Any of those will let you assign buttons to perform actions when Media Player is running.

Good luck,

[poppabk]

Originally Posted by gizzard

I got it to work with HIP.

I changed the VID and PID in the .bat file and the driver installed fine.

The remote is designed for Vista and if i tried to install the driver with device manager It always used the vista inf.

Then I used HIP and it works.

Thanks for all the help.

Any chance of getting a write up for your complete installation procedure? I have a Vista only remote which is sitting unopened as I decide whether or not to return it. I don't want to open it up unless I have at least some confidence that I can get it working. I only need it to work in Mediaportal doesn't matter if it lacks functionality elsewhere.

[gizzard]

Originally Posted by poppabk

Any chance of getting a write up for your complete installation procedure? I have a Vista only remote which is sitting unopened as I decide whether or not to return it. I don't want to open it up unless I have at least some confidence that I can get it working. I only need it to work in Mediaportal doesn't matter if it lacks functionality elsewhere.

I can´t guaranty that this will work for you. Your remote can have totally different VID and PID or just not compatible with this driver.

What I did was change the VID and PID in the install_xp.bat file. You can find those values in device manager.

I would also check the mceir_xp.inf and check if your VID and PID values are in there
%USB\VID_0471&PID_0815.DeviceDesc%=MCEIR.Dev, USB\VID_0471&PID_0815

Just replace the vid&pid values with yours in the second section.

That´s it basically. Then you just have to choose witch HIP program to use for programming your remote.
But you only can use one at a time. Then I used the replacement plugin in mediaportal and it works like a charm.

But like I said this worked for my remote. But I cant be sure if it works for you.

[Maverick494]

So there is no known way to make the RRS9002-86XXF work under windows XP64?

Here is the situation I ran into: Building a HTPC for a customer, he insisted on having windows XP but also 4G of ram. As we all know 4G of ram is not usable on a 32bit system. So I checked the HVR-1600-MCE tv card out and it stated that it was compatible with windows XP64. Apparently that doesn't include the remote.

What the heck can I do at this point? the HTPC is built, and the only sticking point is the remote.

Ok well I managed a small step forward. I managed to edit the .inf file from the ehome rollups to make it Win XP64 recognizable. now for figuring out if there is a 64-bit version of the irbus.sys file out there somewhere or decompiling/recompiling or just flat out converting it to 64-bit.

Further news. I don't know if the remote is working at this point. However here is what I did and I am sure someone can tell me if they thing it would work. I took the inf from the rollups and inserted the appropriate things to make it look like a 64-bit inf. I then took the windows XP64 disk and pulled the irbus.sys file off of it and placed it with the rollup inf. The driver loaded and there is no longer a yellow ? or a yellow ! on it. I haven't been able to test the remote as of yet, but I am hoping that it will allow it to work.

[and-81]

This is very interesting stuff Maverick494,

I was under the impression that there was not a 64bit version of IrBus.sys available. But I don't have any 64-bit hardware so I've never been able to fully investigate the situation.

I did try to compile a 64bit version of the replacement driver, but again, due to a lack of test hardware I never got it working.

What you've described (matching inf and irbus.sys files) sounds promising ... I'd be very interested to hear if you have any success. If it doesn't work straight away, could you try running IR Server Suite on it and see what it comes up with?

You may have solved this 64-bit issue for a lot of people ... if not, perhaps you could try getting the replacement driver to work in 64-bit... You'll need a copy of the Windows SDK and Visual C++ to compile it.

Good luck,

[DavidBa]

I captured all the buttons I need, accept from the CH button, with the onkey down event.
Can I change the driver that I will capture this button (CH) also? or There is another way?

I have MCE v2 Remote.


Thanking you in anticipation

[Maverick494]

The first one here is the INF I modified so that windows XP64 would see it as a 64bit inf (atleast for the microsoftHW portion, you would have to modify the rest of the manufacturers like I did the microsoft ones to make them work).

irbus.inf

Here is the Irbus.sys file I pulled off of the windows XP64 CD

IRBUS.SYs

I am not a great programmer, perhaps these will help someone who is take some further steps.

Also I am starting to play around with your IR server suite. I used the detect button under input service config and it did detect the Microsoft MCE. That is as far as I have gotten though. Like I said I am new to this so I am not sure how to configure your tool yet.

I did get this error when I clicked configure on the "beta" version of the tool:

Uhandled error.txt

I've just now realized something else about this particular remote. It has the round windows logo'd button, which I am starting to suspect is made for vista only. I think that the windows XP remote had a square button. I don't know if this will matter or not, I am still hoping to get it working. So far I haven' been able to.