Changing behaviour of MCE remote's hash key in MP (1 Viewer)

[hindsight]

Hi,

i want to change the behaviour of Mediaportal (in fullscreen video playback mode) when i press the hash key on my MCE remote. On my system (Win 7, MP 1.3) pressing # on the remote changes the aspect ratio of the fullscreen video. Since i created a program with autohotkey which opens the windows task switcher (executing "ctrl+win+tab") when i press "Shift+3" (which equals the # key on the MCE remote outside of MP), the windows task switcher opens as well as the aspect ratio of the fullscreen video is changed. I tried to edit "keymap.xml" as well as "Microsoft MCE.xml" (remove some actions and remove all actions inside that files), but with no luck.
I have chosen the # key of the remote because its (at least for me) the most unimportant key on the remote, so changing the button in the autohotkey program is not really an option for me.

Any ideas how i can solve this problem?

 

[emphatic]

Have you checked the MCE remote option in MediaPortal's Remote section (Configuration.exe)? It also has remapping, GUI style. No need to edit .xml files. I use a Microsoft MCE remote with MediaPortal, and I use the coloured buttons at the bottom for full scree/GUI toggle (red) and aspect ratio cycling (blue). I too use AutoHotKey with my 0 and # keys for special stuff (0 forces MediaPortal.exe to close if I get into a "(not responding)" situation and # starts a utility that forces my audio device to reset).

Emph

 

[hindsight]

Yes of course i tried that. I think the GUI actually uses "Microsoft MCE.xml" (Configuration.exe->Remote->Microsoft MCE->Mapping) and "keymap.xml" (Configuration.exe->General->Keys and Sounds). Since I am not really sure which option is responsible for the # key changing the aspect ratio I just edited the .xml files myself, because its much quicker than always do "close mp->start configuration.exe->edit key->restart MP->hoping it was the right key".
If you know the specific key/map i have to change in configuration.exe i can try that, of course.

As i mentioned I removed all "<button>some content</button"> in "Microsoft MCE.xml" and "<action>some content</action>" in "keymap.xml". The result was that i could not use most keys of the MCE remote, but the # key still changed the aspect ratio ...

 

[emphatic]

If you know the specific key i have to change in configuration.exe i can try that, of course.

Sadly, I don't know this. Also, I had no idea that the # is mapped to AR change by default. Is it really, or did you change it perchance? If you want to, I can share my remote .xmls with you, but I've remapped some of the keys (MUTE is remapped to Take snapshot and TELETEXT will turn subtitles on/off when media is playing).

Emph

 

[hindsight]

Well thats nice, but i don't think it will change that. After i removed all content in "Microsoft MCE.xml" and "keymap.xml" the Configuration GUI shows the expected behaviour (see atachement).
If i now start MP, some keys on the remote still work (including the # button), so i guess something outside MP makes these controls work (actually i think its the windows driver of the MCE remote, which is responsible for that). Since i do not want to change the driver i somehow have to disable the function in MP which is responsible for changing the aspect ratio. But i am clueless which function that might be...

But maybe if i assign the # button another action, the other action is performed before the intrinsic action (which is changing the aspect ratio), so maybe its usefull if you send me your .xml (at least if you changed the behaviour of the # button). I could then use WinMerge to see the differences of your xml file to mine and decide which line might be responsible...

 

[emphatic]

I hope these will help.

Emph

 

[hindsight]

Unfortunately it does not work, the # button still changes the AR

Edit:
I fixed the problem now. At first I tried to remap systemwide the standard behaviour of the # button to another (very exotic) key. This can be done quite easily by a program at
http://xbmccustomregis.sourceforge.net/remapping.html
In the end the # button of my remote still changed the AR. So i thought that something "non standard" inside MP must be responsible for that and therefore i tried the debug mode of MP with the result that the AR was not changed anymore. My conclusion was that some plugin must be responsible for that behaviour and therefore i investigated my plugins. I found that inside the "MP control plugin for IR server" (see http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/3_IRSS_(IR_Server_Suite)/MP1_Plugins/MP_Control_Plugin) additional buttons were defined. I remembered that I added long time ago another standard profile for a remote inside that plugin because some buttons on my remote were not working with the standard MCE plugin. Within that profile also the # button was mapped to change the AR. Now I removed that entry (and some other entries which caused that some actions were performed twice) and have an additional xml in my MP folder called "MPControlPlugin.xml" and everything works fine.

Something i do not understand right now is that some buttons are defined in "MPControlPlugin.xml" as well as in "Microsoft MCE.xml" and if i remove the entry of such a double defined button from "MPControlPlugin.xml" (but not from "Microsoft MCE.xml") the button does not work anymore. Also If i merge the entries of "Microsoft MCE.xml" and "MPControlPlugin.xml" to one xml the buttons which do not work without the "MP control plugin for IR server" still dont work.
Therefore it seems that i really need this plugin in order to use the full functionality of my MCE Remote. My guess is that some buttons of my MCE remote are simply not supported by the standard MCE plugin and therefore i need an additional IR server which catches those keys.

My MCE Remote is the following:
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/press/presspictures/Remote_MCE-black_angle.jpg
As i mentioned without the MPControlPlugin some buttons (i.e. teletext, rewind) do not work in MP. Is my remote that different from a standard MCE remote?
Might there be a way to use all buttons of my remote without using the MPControlPlugin (and the additional IR server)?