Completely Lost Here - Basic Setup Guide?? (1 Viewer)

DGalt

Portal Pro
November 23, 2010
62
2
I've read through the wiki, I've read a bunch of the posts here, but I just can't figure out how to set this up.

I have a Samsung LCD tv (and it's associated remote) as well as an HP IR receiver (shows up as eHome IR receiver in my devices). I assume that there is just some simple configuration boxes I need to check or something, but I have no idea what those might be. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
 

arsenal333

Portal Pro
December 26, 2006
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Melbourne
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Hello DGalt, I believe your starting from a point we are all familiar with in dealing with IRSS. I can tell you that it takes a bit of reading and background work to get this working the way you want it. However in saying that, if your willing to work this through, the product will probably do all you want it to. However as you've guessed this is not a 'start a wizard, click a few boxes, and there we go' application.

Your post was very short on details, so I'm guessing that you want to be able to control your TV through IRSS.
There are two ways to achieve this
* using IR Blasting - for this your 'HP IR receiver' will need to be capable of IR blasting as well.
* using a RS-232 (serial interface). - again specialised cable required.

I'll assume your using the IR blasting method.
- First you'll need have IRSS learn the particular IR commands you wish to blast to your TV (IRSS can do this)
- You'll then need to place the IR Blasting 'thingy' where your TV can read it when a blast is sent from IRSS.
- You'll need to assign the blast command to a remote button or an event.
(Place the blast command inside a Macro, then assign the macro to the Button)

I would suggest you have a bit of a play around, with creating Macro's and assigning it to a remote button, to familiarise yourself with the way the plugin works, then move onto learning IR commands from your Sammy Remote, then blasting.

Hope this helps.
 

DGalt

Portal Pro
November 23, 2010
62
2
So I guess I was a bit sparse on the info there. I'm using media portal via an htpc, which I assumed was assumed. What I'm not clear on is how to get IRSS to learn the key commands from my remote. When configuring the Input Service, right now the only thing checked is MCE (as both receiving and transmitting). There's a ton of other things under there...I'm not clear which of these I'm supposed to be using either.

Not sure if more info is required. Again, not even sure where to start here :confused:
 

arsenal333

Portal Pro
December 26, 2006
67
9
48
Melbourne
Home Country
The part you are referring to handles the background windows service for IRSS, and this is only at a Macro Level.

the micro configuration options are in the MP Control Plugin this is accessed in the MP configuration / plugins section.

you can also configure this outside of MP using the Translator application

They both do essentially the types of things - ones for use inside of MP, though a plugin, the Translator can be set to start on windows startup and so buttons will work across application that are running.

Again go through these and familiarise yourself with them.

More Info - Well what do want to do with your TV? Start/Stop, change HDMI, do you want this to be event driven (suspend or resume of HTPC), or/and mapped to a button on your remote? Volume on your TV do you want to change that? Do you have a IR blasting dongle, are you familiar with IR blasting? do you even want to use the IR method, or would you rather the serial RS-232 approach?
 

DGalt

Portal Pro
November 23, 2010
62
2
My basic goal is to be able to control media portal (primarily MP-TV Series, Movies Pictures, Pandora plugin, Netflix plugin) with my tv remote. I keep media portal's volume maxed and then just use my tv's volume, so I don't want to mess with that. So really the buttons that i need to work are the Play / Pause / Stop buttons, the "Select" button, and arrow (navigation) buttons.

Beyond that I don't really need it to do anything else.

I don't know the answers to your other questions. The only thing I have is the HP IR receiver (and the remote obviously). I don't know which method I want to use b/c I don't know what the difference is :oops:
 

arsenal333

Portal Pro
December 26, 2006
67
9
48
Melbourne
Home Country
Hmm - interesting approach - you may want to check that your TV does not throw an error response when you point and click the buttons you plan on using for MP use. As I know that my Sammy will sometimes display an error like 'function not available' on screen when my 18 month old son grabs the remote and starts pressing buttons.

Is your remote a learning remote?

Other than that what your suggesting should work, you should look to the MP Control Plugin. Although I'd have to say that I'm not sure how you'd convert your learned TV button press into a arrow movement or stop, play, pause.

Good Luck !
 

DGalt

Portal Pro
November 23, 2010
62
2
I don't think so, no...it's just the standard remote that came with the tv. I get the same error when I press things like play, not sure if there's a way around that.

I'll play around with it some more and see if I can get something working.

Thanks
 

ryan20021982

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • June 27, 2008
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    I use 1 remote in my bedroom and do what you want but I use a real Microsoft MCE remote and they are somewhat learning remotes, you can program it to change the volume on you tv with your tv remote so really its the same thing you want but using the MCE remote to control the tv volume instead of the tv remote controlling everything else.
     

    DGalt

    Portal Pro
    November 23, 2010
    62
    2
    so if I can't get the remote that came with the tv to work with this setup (due to the tv not recognizing certain buttons and therefore giving me error messages), any suggestions about what remote would be best to control both tv and pc via the ir receiver I already spoke about
     

    Jay_UK

    Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • October 6, 2009
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    Derby
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    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Hi there,

    I think the issue with the TV remote, is that it might not have enough "spare" buttons that the TV won't try and process when you press them.

    As for a more suitable remote, it depends on budget.

    For an entry level remote, you could try a MCE remote (MS mediacentre remote) - you can pick clones up off ebay (but check as they are slight different versions). Or if you are feeling rich, look at the logitech harmony range.

    Thanks,

    J.

    ps - Watch out for remotes/receivers that won't wake you system from standby :(
     

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