New budget HTPC build (down under!) - Page 3

craigparris1 · 2008-07-10, 13:04

Hey Goulin,

Yeah, it's just a stand-alone executable. You run it, and it will start in the system tray (looks like a red dot). Just right-click on the system tray icon and select "Configuration". It really does work well. The only buttons that don't seem to work with it are the TV / FM / DVD buttons, because the WF_RemCtrl app doesn't actually fully support our model of remote control.

I've got no joy with the remote waking up the PC from standby. Perhaps it's something that works with your card, but not mine ..... bummer if that's the case. You mentioned something in one of your previous messages about the Windows setting "allow this device to wake up ....". Do you have this setting (under the "Power Management" tab) for your TV card - in device manager? I don't have this setting for my card, and the MCE Standby Tool doesn't list my TV card as a device that is able to wake up the PC from standby. I would really love for it to work, but it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen .....

Cheers,
Craig

p.s. where are you located, by the way? I'm in Sydney. My next challenge now is working out how to get my channel / program information populating. Do you know if MediaPortal gets the program information that's broadcast with the digital TV, or do I need to get regular EPG updates?

goulin · 2008-07-11, 03:12

Hi Craig,

Yeah, I managed to get pretty much all the buttons recognised with that app. The only ones that didn't work were the 4 bottom ones, which came up as Power. How did you map it to PowerDVD (I could only find WinAMP and some other apps listed). Can you modify the drop down lists of which applications it can launch?

I'll have to check my Power Management tab on my PC, although I blew it away last night and installed Windows Vista Ultimate to play around with Media Center properly... I really want to have my solution working soon. I don't think it is TV tuner related, because S3/S4 is supported on both our cards, I think it is more likely a motherboard thing. I am not sure if this would help, but I used this program called SensorView Pro that shows the power being supplied to the computer (I use it to show the temperature of my CPU).... maybe that might show up anything missing from your motherboard? You can give me a screenshot and I can compare to mine if that helps.

I still need to play around with my Foxtel connection, because I think I will end up needing to use Composite to my TV tuner instead of S-Video frm Foxtel. I am hoping that Vista Media Center, unlike WinPVR, will not crash my Foxtel box when I record off Fox.

I am in Sydney too... MP should pickup the EPG from the coax (you can select it when you do a channel scan).

Hope that helps.

craigparris1 · 2008-07-11, 03:27

Hi Goulin,

Yeah, I found the EPG settings last night and now it's populating all the program details - sweet! Sometimes the MP configuration interface is a bit confusing with the expandable sections - but some config has to be done at the top level, which some is done at the sub-levels. I just completely missed the EPG section ........

In terms of configuring WF_RemCtrl to work with PowerDVD, what I did was this: for each of the buttons I configured a "Virtual Key", and set it to the corresponding shortcut key within PowerDVD (eg. full-screen toggle is Z). In the Virtual Key settings, I also specified to do those keys only when the PowerDVD window is open. The only one that's a problem is play & pause - these are combined on the remote, but in PowerDVD they are two separate keys. I just picked some other key to be "pause" when using PowerDVD. The drop-down list of apps can't be modified - but the "Virtual Key" thing seems to be flexible enough that it should really work for most things (well, things that can be controlled via keystrokes, anyway).

Yes, you're right, the WF_RemCtrl doesn't recogise the four buttons on the very bottom of the remote (these are new buttons added on our model - not on previous, similar models - and, as I said previously - WF_RemCtrl wasn't built for our model of remote). I've also found that the Power, TV, FM & DVD buttons can't really be used outside of WinPVR or MediaPortal, as pressing any of these buttons seems to send a close command to whichever app has focus, then either throws up the Winfast panel, or opens the corresponding Winfast app.

I'll take a look at the power monitoring app you mentioned - I hope I can get it up and going, otherwise I'm going to have to look at getting an MCE remote.

Cheers,
Craig

craigparris1 · 2008-07-20, 13:36

A quick update, guys. I just did a rebuild last week with SVN 19603, and everything is working SWEET! I've loaded up the SimpleMP (black) skin (not fully supported for RC1, but it's working great) - a really quick skin.

After a bit of playing around, I've got the remote going as well, and it's rock solid thanks to Seba's CoolReceiver plug-in. The only thing that still won't work is the remote waking up the PC from standby, but I guess I'll just have to live without that. It means pressing the power button for the time being - but I'll get myself a decent wireless mouse (maybe bluetooth) and use that to wake up the PC.

Still something a little funny with playing some DVDs, but they at least work properly. One example - was watching a "Long Way Down" DVD and the menu navigation worked fine, but there was about a 10 second lag between every menu item click. Like I say, it all actually worked OK, so I can live with it.

In short - I'm a very happy camper. TV's working great, the remote is all hunky-dory, scheduled recordings are working fine with standby and all. The developers really have done a good job with the product!

Cheers,
Craig

p.s. I'll get around to uploading the photos soon ......

canarygsr · 2008-07-21, 00:49

I have the leadtek dtv1000s and 1000t as well, I ended up just gettign the MCE remote it almost works out of the box, just had to copy some drivers. there is no need to remap keys or anything plus it will sus/resume, turn the TV on and off and you can re-program vol button to directly control the volume on your amp. I think it cost me about $40-$60 from shopbot.com.au

craigparris1 · 2008-07-21, 01:17

Hi canary,

Yeah, I figure I'll end up doing this at some stage - however, if I'm going to get the MCE remote, I'd rather get it bundled with the MS keyboard as well. Unfortuantely, I don't have the $120-odd lying around at the moment, so it will have to wait.

Anyhow, pressing a button to resume from standby is not a big drama - at least the Leadtek remote is all working.

Cheers,
Craig

canarygsr · 2008-07-21, 01:38

what do you need the keyboard for? does it do something special as well once mediaportal is setup the only thing I need to do occasionaly is reset the computer. I woudnt mind a once a week automatic reset happening

craigparris1 · 2008-07-21, 02:00

Hi canary,

Check out the remote/keyboard bundle here. It has the mouse controls built in to the keyboard, so it would be a handy thing to have sitting on the bottom shelf of the coffee table for whenever I need to do some "tweaking" on the PC (currently, I connect via VNC from my laptop), or just need to do more than the remote can be used for.

If you want to have an automatic reboot once a week or so, you could probably just setup a scheduled task and use "shutdown -r -f", or get the MCE Standby Tool (google it) which has some automatic reboot options.

Cheers,
Craig

p.s. Goulin, how did you go with the WF_RemCtrl app - did you get it working with PowerDVD?

canarygsr · 2008-07-22, 01:40

that site has some nice OrigenAE cases

goulin · 2008-07-22, 07:42

I gave up trying to get the remote working. I haven't had too much time to look at MediaPortal at all, I have been playing around with Vista Media Center, but that's starting to sh!t me (as most Microsoft things do).

Can you explain more about how you got the remote control working? Was it just as easy as installing Seba's Plugin?

Cheers,
goulin

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2008-07-10, 13:04	#21 (permalink)
craigparris1 Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 79 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country:	Hey Goulin, Yeah, it's just a stand-alone executable. You run it, and it will start in the system tray (looks like a red dot). Just right-click on the system tray icon and select "Configuration". It really does work well. The only buttons that don't seem to work with it are the TV / FM / DVD buttons, because the WF_RemCtrl app doesn't actually fully support our model of remote control. I've got no joy with the remote waking up the PC from standby. Perhaps it's something that works with your card, but not mine ..... bummer if that's the case. You mentioned something in one of your previous messages about the Windows setting "allow this device to wake up ....". Do you have this setting (under the "Power Management" tab) for your TV card - in device manager? I don't have this setting for my card, and the MCE Standby Tool doesn't list my TV card as a device that is able to wake up the PC from standby. I would really love for it to work, but it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen ..... Cheers, Craig p.s. where are you located, by the way? I'm in Sydney. My next challenge now is working out how to get my channel / program information populating. Do you know if MediaPortal gets the program information that's broadcast with the digital TV, or do I need to get regular EPG updates?

2008-07-11, 03:12	#22 (permalink)
goulin Portal Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 10 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	Hi Craig, Yeah, I managed to get pretty much all the buttons recognised with that app. The only ones that didn't work were the 4 bottom ones, which came up as Power. How did you map it to PowerDVD (I could only find WinAMP and some other apps listed). Can you modify the drop down lists of which applications it can launch? I'll have to check my Power Management tab on my PC, although I blew it away last night and installed Windows Vista Ultimate to play around with Media Center properly... I really want to have my solution working soon. I don't think it is TV tuner related, because S3/S4 is supported on both our cards, I think it is more likely a motherboard thing. I am not sure if this would help, but I used this program called SensorView Pro that shows the power being supplied to the computer (I use it to show the temperature of my CPU).... maybe that might show up anything missing from your motherboard? You can give me a screenshot and I can compare to mine if that helps. I still need to play around with my Foxtel connection, because I think I will end up needing to use Composite to my TV tuner instead of S-Video frm Foxtel. I am hoping that Vista Media Center, unlike WinPVR, will not crash my Foxtel box when I record off Fox. I am in Sydney too... MP should pickup the EPG from the coax (you can select it when you do a channel scan). Hope that helps.

2008-07-11, 03:27	#23 (permalink)
craigparris1 Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 79 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country:	Hi Goulin, Yeah, I found the EPG settings last night and now it's populating all the program details - sweet! Sometimes the MP configuration interface is a bit confusing with the expandable sections - but some config has to be done at the top level, which some is done at the sub-levels. I just completely missed the EPG section ........ In terms of configuring WF_RemCtrl to work with PowerDVD, what I did was this: for each of the buttons I configured a "Virtual Key", and set it to the corresponding shortcut key within PowerDVD (eg. full-screen toggle is Z). In the Virtual Key settings, I also specified to do those keys only when the PowerDVD window is open. The only one that's a problem is play & pause - these are combined on the remote, but in PowerDVD they are two separate keys. I just picked some other key to be "pause" when using PowerDVD. The drop-down list of apps can't be modified - but the "Virtual Key" thing seems to be flexible enough that it should really work for most things (well, things that can be controlled via keystrokes, anyway). Yes, you're right, the WF_RemCtrl doesn't recogise the four buttons on the very bottom of the remote (these are new buttons added on our model - not on previous, similar models - and, as I said previously - WF_RemCtrl wasn't built for our model of remote). I've also found that the Power, TV, FM & DVD buttons can't really be used outside of WinPVR or MediaPortal, as pressing any of these buttons seems to send a close command to whichever app has focus, then either throws up the Winfast panel, or opens the corresponding Winfast app. I'll take a look at the power monitoring app you mentioned - I hope I can get it up and going, otherwise I'm going to have to look at getting an MCE remote. Cheers, Craig

2008-07-20, 13:36	#24 (permalink)
craigparris1 Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 79 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country:	A quick update, guys. I just did a rebuild last week with SVN 19603, and everything is working SWEET! I've loaded up the SimpleMP (black) skin (not fully supported for RC1, but it's working great) - a really quick skin. After a bit of playing around, I've got the remote going as well, and it's rock solid thanks to Seba's CoolReceiver plug-in. The only thing that still won't work is the remote waking up the PC from standby, but I guess I'll just have to live without that. It means pressing the power button for the time being - but I'll get myself a decent wireless mouse (maybe bluetooth) and use that to wake up the PC. Still something a little funny with playing some DVDs, but they at least work properly. One example - was watching a "Long Way Down" DVD and the menu navigation worked fine, but there was about a 10 second lag between every menu item click. Like I say, it all actually worked OK, so I can live with it. In short - I'm a very happy camper. TV's working great, the remote is all hunky-dory, scheduled recordings are working fine with standby and all. The developers really have done a good job with the product! Cheers, Craig p.s. I'll get around to uploading the photos soon ......

2008-07-21, 00:49	#25 (permalink)
canarygsr Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne Posts: 51 Thanks: 2 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	I have the leadtek dtv1000s and 1000t as well, I ended up just gettign the MCE remote it almost works out of the box, just had to copy some drivers. there is no need to remap keys or anything plus it will sus/resume, turn the TV on and off and you can re-program vol button to directly control the volume on your amp. I think it cost me about $40-$60 from shopbot.com.au

2008-07-21, 01:17	#26 (permalink)
craigparris1 Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 79 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country:	Hi canary, Yeah, I figure I'll end up doing this at some stage - however, if I'm going to get the MCE remote, I'd rather get it bundled with the MS keyboard as well. Unfortuantely, I don't have the $120-odd lying around at the moment, so it will have to wait. Anyhow, pressing a button to resume from standby is not a big drama - at least the Leadtek remote is all working. Cheers, Craig

2008-07-21, 01:38	#27 (permalink)
canarygsr Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne Posts: 51 Thanks: 2 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	what do you need the keyboard for? does it do something special as well once mediaportal is setup the only thing I need to do occasionaly is reset the computer. I woudnt mind a once a week automatic reset happening

2008-07-21, 02:00	#28 (permalink)
craigparris1 Portal Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 79 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country:	Hi canary, Check out the remote/keyboard bundle here. It has the mouse controls built in to the keyboard, so it would be a handy thing to have sitting on the bottom shelf of the coffee table for whenever I need to do some "tweaking" on the PC (currently, I connect via VNC from my laptop), or just need to do more than the remote can be used for. If you want to have an automatic reboot once a week or so, you could probably just setup a scheduled task and use "shutdown -r -f", or get the MCE Standby Tool (google it) which has some automatic reboot options. Cheers, Craig p.s. Goulin, how did you go with the WF_RemCtrl app - did you get it working with PowerDVD?

2008-07-22, 01:40	#29 (permalink)
canarygsr Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne Posts: 51 Thanks: 2 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	that site has some nice OrigenAE cases

2008-07-22, 07:42	#30 (permalink)
goulin Portal Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 10 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	I gave up trying to get the remote working. I haven't had too much time to look at MediaPortal at all, I have been playing around with Vista Media Center, but that's starting to sh!t me (as most Microsoft things do). Can you explain more about how you got the remote control working? Was it just as easy as installing Seba's Plugin? Cheers, goulin