Help please - Zotac Nano, Harmony One and Keyboard Mapping (1 Viewer)

[zukkster]

I have a Zotac Zbox Nano AD10 running Windows 7, and Mediaportal doesn't quite like the remote control. It recognises the arrow, number and OK keys, and the clear button operates like escape or previous menu. Pretty much everything else is ignored - play, pause, stop, fast forward… don't work.

I'm actually going to use a Harmony One remote, but if the buttons on the original remote aren't working then I'm stuck.

So far I've
1) Established the problem buttons work with Windows Media Player - so it appears to be a Mediaportal specific problem, and not that the buttons are just not working at all
2) I've installed the Keyboard Input Plugin for Mediaportal and managed to workout how to set up a keystroke combination to emulate play (e.g. Ctrl + Alt + P) and that works - I tried mapping the key to an action but when I go into Keyboard Mappings on the plugin put the cursor in the key dialogue box and press the remote control keys it only makes a change for the remote buttons that are already working and there is no change for the play or stop buttons, so they clearly just aren't being picked up by Mediaportal.
3) I've installed Event Ghost and using the MCE remote plugin I can see the play button press event in Event Ghost
4) I've installed AutoHotkey and had a very brief look at it but gone no further

What I'm unsure of is how to get the Harmony remote sending the keystroke (Ctrl + Alt + P) when I hit the play on my remote. I think I've got the piece of the jigsaw, I just need some help on fitting them together. I'm not sure whether Event Ghost or Autohot key is the best software choice. I used Event Ghost to do some things on my very first HTPC setup many years ago and I don't really remember what I did and how to use it - but I have the bare bones of how it works.

Any advice or help from someone who has already done this would be appreciated. Hopefully you can see that I've searched the forums to get as far as I have already, and I'm stuck. Any links you can point me to would be appreciated, and advice on whether to go Event Ghost or Autohotkey would also be appreciated. My wife is getting bored and wants me to talk to her again ...

 

[4Fred]

Logitech Harmony can emulate Microsoft Mediacenter keyboard and remote, should be no problem at all.
I only use MCE Remote 1039 as my emualted device and have ticked use MCE Remote in MePo, everything just works.

There is some info about emualting keyboard here: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...-harmony-remote-mapping-keyboard-keys.104202/

 

[zukkster]

OK so I solved this last night with a bit more research.

4Fred - I have an old MCE remote with a USB receiver which (like you say) "just worked" on my old build, and I did get so frustrated that I tried plugging that in, but the Zotac didn't pick anything up. Probably because it's got it's own built in IR receiver and I would have needed to start playing around with the drivers - plus one of the reasons I bought the Zotac (as will as it being dinky) is that it had the built in remote so I was keen to get that working

Here's what I did for those with a similar problem:
1) I installed the Message Plugin which is needed by EventGhost. This didn't work when I used the Mediaportal Plugin Installer, so I had to do it manually. It can be found here.
https://www.team-mediaportal.com/extensions/input-output/message-plugin-for-mp1-2
　
The file you need is
Archived File 1 (MessagePluginSources.zip)
within this there are two folders and within the "Files" folder are two files you need to save to specific locations - the readme.txt tells you where
2) I disabled the Keyboard Input plugin - the message plugin says other Remote plugins need to be disabled to prevent conflict, so I assumed that this would be such a plugin.

3) I used EventGhost to map the remote buttons to MediaPortal actions. I found a very simple tutorial on you tube that reminded me how to use the software and it took about 10 minutes

EVENT G
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnMzu1h1gxc
A simple explanation of the process is - which you can see in the video
a) Add the two plugins to the Configuration Tree

i) Mediaportal​

ii) MCE Remote Windows 7 (not the exact name but it should be obvious which of the two MCE plugins it is)​

b) Create a folder on the Configuration Tree
c) Add a Macro to the Configuration Tree
d) Add an Action to the Configuration Tree - this will be what you want to happen in Mediaportal when you press a particuler button on the remote - for example Play
e) Point the Zotac remote at the IR receiver and press the specific button you want to add the action to i.e. Play. You will see an Event (a little lightning flash icon with a code) appear in the event log (the left hand box in EventGhost). Drag this icon from the left hand log onto the macro you just created in the Configuration Tree on the right hand side.

Note - occasionally I saw two events (with different codes) appear when I pressed a button, in these cases I did the same button press again and I only got a a single code. I think I got the double codes when I did a long press, but I can't be sure. Anyway the single codes worked so I didn't explore any further, but thought it was worth mentioning to watch out for, and if you see anything you aren't sure about repeat the button press just to be sure you've got the right event.
Then you just repeat the process for all the other buttons. It's really quick.

I haven't got as far as doing the finishing touches of saving the EventGhost file so that it comes back at reboot. When my wife heard the cheer she came in and said OK you've got it working now lets watch some TV. Once I've put the finishing touches to it I'll take the time to write it up properly and submit it. I love Mediaportal, but one of my frusatrations is it takes so long to work out how to do things because the support material is a little bit here and a little bit there. It's got significantly better than when I first started 4 years ago, but if I can help and save anyone else from wasting 2 evenings of their time then I'll be happy ...
I'll update this post once I've done the last bit, I wanted to post this interim soultion just so people were aware that I had one.

 

[4Fred]

I'm happy to see that you solved it and shared the solution for everyone to use

 

[foxbenw]

Thanks.
I haven't tried with my zotac remote for a while as I bought a USB one that works and has a rollerball built in.
However, I just did a streacom FC-8 build for the living room and guess what remote is bundled with the streacom ir board?
Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!
Needless to say, I will now be trying event ghost!

Any thoughts on irss or event ghost?
Ben

 

[zukkster]

OK my Mediaportal won't load anymore ... maybe this wasn't the solution it first appeared to be

 

[foxbenw]

Won't auto start or won't load at all? Have you disabled te event ghost auto start?

 

[chefkoch]

I am not sure if it helps with your issues., but belcom implemented added for "Philips MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plus" (shipping with some Zotac Boxes) to IRSS.

 

[foxbenw]

Hi
The IRSS Philips plugin worked pretty well. Didn't have time to try all the buttons but many of them worked.

I don't use the built in receiver on the zotac, as I need a wider angle than this can provide, but was interested to give the plugin a go after struggling at the beginning before I bought the USB remote I now use.

I will try a fuller test at some point and report back. However this is the first time I have managed to get some of the more important buttons (inc back, pause) working with just an installation of a plugin rather than messing about. Ie it's the first time some of the buttons were recognised at all.

Note, this is for the zotac nano packaged remote over the internal cir.
It looks the same as the wesena remote but cannot confirm.