[HowTo] Use Gamepads to control MediaPortal

[broadband412]

I just discovered this feature a few days ago when poking around in the mediaportal options. I was rather surprised to find that when I enaled the option to use direct imput, it had a drop down menu and my logitech dual action was listed. At first I had problems which I thought were do to bugs relating to direct imput but then I figured it was just problems playing files that were in a folder which a lot of files of the same tiype such as music. Thankfully, the problems got ironed out. I don't know how I fixed the problems but they are fixed and have been using my gamepad to control mediaportal ever since. I mapped previous/next item/chapter to the buttons and they have been working great.

[thechad]

Just wanted to say nice work on this one, managed to get my Xbox gamepad connected and controlling MediaPortal with a hacked USB cable.

It's very easy to use an Xbox controller on Media Portal. All you need is:

Drivers:http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html
USB adapter:





Mine is a dual purpose adapter, can be used on XP or Xbox still. I use it as a secondary on my Xbox since I have a Logitec wired internally. They're the best wireless controllers IMHO.

[waeberd]

cool stuff, TrueWarlord! Too bad I'm rather on the PS2 side when talking about consoles :-)

Cheers,

Daniel

[repasi]

Originally Posted by TrueWarlord

It's very easy to use an Xbox controller on Media Portal. All you need is:

Drivers:http://www.redcl0ud.com/xbcd.html

Mine is a dual purpose adapter, can be used on XP or Xbox still. I use it as a secondary on my Xbox since I have a Logitec wired internally. They're the best wireless controllers IMHO.

Hi TrueWarlord,

I've just done my own adaptor for my Xbox controller but I can't get it work in MP. Nothing appears in the information box (in the setup menu) when I hit the buttons. Anyway, everything is just fine, I installed XBCD and I can use it in games.

[repasi]

Somebody help me,please! I can't get this Xbox stuff running.

[waeberd]

Originally Posted by repasi

Somebody help me,please! I can't get this Xbox stuff running.

repasi,

Together with Clodo (thanx!), I've rewitten parts of the directInput control, so chances are high it works now for you... can you check with a current cvs?

Regards,
Daniel

[waeberd]

Hi,

in CVS there is a modified version of the DirectInput plugin:

The plugin now uses a timer-based polling approach instead
of reacting to each and every single event.

Reasons:

* Gamepads can fire BIG bursts of events (especially the analog sticks),
MP only needs "some" of them.
* The XBox-pad simply didn't work with the old plugin. For some reason, the device didn't fire events the plugin was waiting for.


SO it would be interesting to know:

* if gamepads still work "as usual", maybe better for analog sticks (I have a much better response with my logitech pad - less nervous)
* if there are still pads that don't work (especially xbox controllers)
* if there is a cpu-load impact

So feedback is welcome! Thanks folks!

Daniel

[e268]

I am pretty new to this MP. Have been using it for a few weeks, but cannot get my mouse or my logitech gamepad, or the keyboard to control dvd playback.

I will describe my problem using gamepad. I configured button 4 to play/pause, buttons 7,8 to do fastforward and backward. These work very well.

What did not work are the POV. For a certain movie, POV left and right gives me +/-15sec or more forward or backward, and POV up/down skips a few chapters back/forward. So this works for this dvd, but:

For another movie (Flying Dagger), I cannot use POV keys at all, it will freeze the video, but the sound still goes on.

Also, I cannot control menu using either gamepad or mouse or keyboard.

I am using Dscaler audio/video codec, VMR9 renderer. Rumblepad2, ffdshow.

TIA for your suggestions.

[waeberd]

hi e268, will check those pov issues when i'm back from holidays.

Daniel