Using the Hauppauge remote with MP

[FlipGer]

Hi folks,

this is a small tutorial which describes how to use your Hauppauge Remote with Media Portal using the remote software from Hauppauge.

With the remote software from Hauppauge, you can control most of the software in windows. You just have to know what title the application you want control has and to edit the Irremote.ini file. This file can be found in your main windows directory (usually "C:\WINDOWS"). Make a copy of your current file! We don't want to damage your system . The name of your application can be seen in the titlebar of it's window or in the taskbar. For this tutorial it is "Medial Portal".


Open Irremote.ini and search for "[Applications]". In this section all the applications are listed which can be controlled. Add at the end "Media Portal=":

[Applications]
Default=
.
.
.
Windows Media Player=
ActiveMovie Window=
Media Portal=

Now we have to add a new section for our application. You can insert it where you want, for example at the end of the file. The section must begin with the title of the application in edged brackets "[Media Portal]". Beneath that you can define keys for the buttons of your remote. Normal chars can be entered directly. Function / special keys have to be set in brackets. A list of the remote control buttons can be found in section "[HCWPVR]". A small example:

BACK={esc}
MENU=y

A complete list of all function and special keys can be found here http://www.dschnabel.de/irdoku.htm (german!)

For the lazy boys and girls :

[Media Portal]
CHNLUP={UP}
CHNLDOWN={DOWN}
VOLUP={RIGHT}
VOLDOWN={LEFT}
OK={enter}
BACK={esc}
MENU=y
0=0
1=1
2=2
3=3
4=4
5=5
6=6
7=7
8=8
9=9
RED={f1}
GREEN={PGUP}
YELLOW={f3}
BLUE={PGDN}
FULLSCREEN=x
STOP=b
PAUSE={space}
PLAY=p
REWIND={f5}
FASTFWD={f6}
SKIPFWD={f8}
SKIPREV={f7}
GRNPOWER={alt}{f4}
FUNC=m
GO={home}
REC=
MUTE=

And for the really lazy boys and girls here is a download of my Irremote.ini. It is the original Irremote.ini just with my Media Portal extensions. http://www.planetgrafe.net/mp/Irremote.zip

After changing the file, you have to restart the remote software. That can be easily done under "Start->Programs->Hauppauge Win TV->Restart IR".

This example works without making any changes to the keymap.xml from Media Portal. Keys currently not supported are "r", "s" and "u". I think some things can be done better, if you also change your keymap.xml. Since there are often new Builds of Media Portal i don't want to do that.

Any comments, suggestions and critics are welcome!

Have fun, Flip.

Wonderful, thanks Flip!

I was already familiar with the irremote file, but thanks for the copy of your button/key setup. Thanks also for the tip about the keymap.xml.

Im hoping that future development of MediaPortal makes it quicker to navigate with remotes as I find it a bit painful with the Silver Hauppauge

Anyone knows how to control the volume?
MP has not implemented volume control yet...but we should be able to control windows volume. But how? What keys can we map to the remote?

[tomtom21000]

@ 3.14:

Thanks for bringing up that post again. I forgot about it. And I own a Hauppauge Win TV USB2 since 4 weeks now. Tried it with the file Flip provided and it works like charm!


@ FlipGer:

Really good description. I would suggest to copy the tutorial to a .pdf and put it together with the .ini file in a .zip file and give it to aurora13 to place it in the new documentation section of the Mediaportal Homepage. I think it will be really helpfull for a lot of people. And here it is easily overlooked.

tomtom21000

P.S.: Is it possible to start MediaPortal with the remote? My htpc is not running all the time. The hauppauge remote has a "go" button which gives a launching menue for wintv2000 and radio. I it possible to add mediaportal here?

[FlipGer]

Originally Posted by tomtom21000

Really good description. I would suggest to copy the tutorial to a .pdf and put it together with the .ini file in a .zip file and give it to aurora13 to place it in the new documentation section of the Mediaportal Homepage. I think it will be really helpfull for a lot of people. And here it is easily overlooked.

Thanx for the compliments tomtom!

That is a good suggestion. I will make a .pdf. But this will take some time, since i am away for a week, now.

Originally Posted by tomtom21000

P.S.: Is it possible to start MediaPortal with the remote? My htpc is not running all the time. The hauppauge remote has a "go" button which gives a launching menue for wintv2000 and radio. I it possible to add mediaportal here?

It is possible as far as i know. But i don't know how to change the gomenu(). I Think i read something about it in the documentation of Hauppauge. Take a look there.

It is also possible to run MP directly via the run command. Just add this line in the default section of the Irremote.ini

YELLOW={run(c:\progra~1\teamme~1\mediap~1\mediap~1 .exe)}

and the yellow button starts MP (you can choose any another button you want)

@ 3.14:
Volumecontrol would be fine. But i fear there are no more buttons left on the remote control. Especially those marked for volume control are used for left / right. Not used are currently mute and record....

[tomtom21000]

GoMenu: It seems that it is not changeable. Checked also Hauppauge infos on the net and forums.

I tried to put the run command on the "Go" Button, since I don´t need the TV and Radfio App. Have the Videotext Apllication on the green Button.

But: It is not working because of the space in Team MediaPortal folder!

I tried this:

GO={run("F:\Programme\Team  MediaPortal\MediaPortal\MediaPortal.exe")}

I put it in Quotation marks and took care of small and capital letters. But it is not working. Also not working without the Quotation marks. It would work if I installed to a folder like "TeamMediaPortal", but this makes installing new versions a bit uncomfortable.

Does anyone have the right syntax?

tomtom21000

Originally Posted by tomtom21000

I tried this:

GO={run("F:\Programme\Team  MediaPortal\MediaPortal\MediaPortal.exe")}

I put it in Quotation marks and took care of small and capital letters. But it is not working.

Have you tried with the syntax FlipGer suggests, using 8.3 names (eg : "progra~1" instead of "Program Files") ?

[tomtom21000]

Yes, indeed, I tried that, too. Only replaced c: by f:

But it did not work either.

tomtom21000

edit: not quit true: the "teamme~1" should be "team m~1" in the default installation folder as in my case. So there is the space again.

[FlipGer]

Did you really copied my 8.3 version? This is working for me. The space in "Team Mediaportal" is then not existent. The Entry in the Remote.ini file has to be in 8.3. Don't now why. Quotation marks don't work for me either.

To find out the correct path in 8.3 you can enter the console of XP. Change to f:.
Then enter dir /x and you geht the dirinfo normal and in 8.3 change to the next dirdepth e.g. cd progra~1 make your dir /x again and so on until you are in the MP dir. Note all the dirs and write them down.

Hope that helps.

[tomtom21000]

Tried your hints.

Possibly I did not copy it exactly. Your syntax in 8.3. format is working although there is no space between "Team" and "MediaPortal" but it is a space in the standard installatiion path as I use it.

I know it works, because I pasted it to the "Start" "run" window and MP starts successfully.
(I did not find the console you mentioned - Yes I have XP, but never mind, Iknow it should work).

Unfortunatly it does not work in the irremote.ini. First I assigned it to the "Go" button. After that did not work, I tried the YELLOW button as suggested. Program starts now somehow. sometimes it hangs right after the start, sometimes it flashes very short and disapears. No MP.log is created. Task Manager says MediaPortal "No Feedback". CPU usage is only 4%. Any ideas?

tomtom21000