HFX MCE Remote for Vista, in XP Pro SP3 (1 Viewer)

[ScoobyMP]

MediaPortal Version: 1.0.2
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: XP Pro SP3 (slipstreamed - 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
Remote: HFX Model No TSGP-IR01

Hi, I've got a Trust PCMCIA-sized remote which I can use to control MP, but it doesn't have enough buttons really. So I bought the above HFX remote (marked RC6 which I think has something to do with Philips IR), figuring I'd be able to wangle it to work in XP easily enough. It seems getting remotes to work is something of a dark art, however. I have tried every suggestion I can find to get this thing to work. XP is happy that it's working. The receiver's little light is on, and blinks when I press buttons on my remote. I have MCE Remote control enabled in MP's configuration, but the remote does diddly squat. Not one button does anything. It doesn't work in WMP either.

I've used the KB912024 rollup pack but it said my service pack is more up to date than the version I'm applying. It couldn't find drivers when I plugged the receiver in though, so I unpacked the contents of that update and have used those to do the installation. Device Manager shows that I have:

USB controllers:
eHome Infrared Receiver 5.1.2600.5512

Keyboards:
Microsoft eHome MCIR 109 Keyboard 5.1.2600.5512
Microsoft eHome MCIR Keyboard 5.1.2600.5512
Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys 5.1.2600.5512

When it came to installing these, I needed some DLLs like kbd106.dll which wasn't on my slipstreamed CD, so I managed to find a copy and download it. As you can see all the version numbers match up for the above devices.

According to XP, everything is working swimmingly. Except in reality it isn't. So much for Plug'n'Play
I read a tip somewhere about including the ID for your device within irbus.inf, so I've done this too, tried again, and still no joy.

It seems other people can just plug in and go and I've read accounts on here of Vista remotes working no problem with XP SP3, whereas others end up tearing their hair out. I've been trawling the internet and trying various things for a couple of days now. Can anyone give me a step by step guide to follow to clean things out, and start again with something that will hopefully definitely work?

Thanks

 

[surfermc]

Have a try with one of the remote control configuration programmes like Eventghost. Set it up as a Microsoft MCE remote and then you will hopefully be able to see some activity when you press the keys.

 

[ScoobyMP]

Thanks for replying; I'll give it a try and see if it's picking up anything.

 

[ScoobyMP]

EventGhost seeing remote

Hi, I installed EventGhost, and even before installing the MCE plugin it was seeing the various keypresses of my new remote. Does this mean that it should be working automatically with MediaPortal but isn't for some reason?

Seeing the events was a promising result at least. I see it doing keyboard stroke emulation according to the events shown. I've added the MCE plugin and the MediaPortal plugin in to it but am not sure if I need to... It looks like the MediaPortal plugin works via the MessagePlugin plugin, but that requires a file to be installed via HIP, though I don't know what that is at present. After some promising experiments with EventGhost where it's in Keyboard Emulation mode, I'm looking at setting up a folder for it for exclusively MediaPortal when it's activated to do keystrokes. I love the way it picks up applications starting and stopping too - very powerful by the look of it, and it's so easy to use too. Is the MessagePlugin the way to go though?

All suggestions and tips appreciated

 

[ScoobyMP]

EventGhost has done the trick. I haven't tried it with the MediaPortal plugin yet, but just doing keyboard emulation and macros I've got it doing just about everything I need. Fantastic! EventGhost is an excellent piece of software. Thanks surfermc.

 

[surfermc]

No problems. It is a bit of a steep learning curve, but worth it in the end.

 

[In2Photos]

Scooby,

Did you have to do anything special to get MediaPortal to recognize all of the buttons from the remote? EventGhost shows that the computer is detecting all the buttons, but MP only sees 6 (up, down, left, right, OK and Play).

 

[ScoobyMP]

Remotes and MP

Hi In2Photos,

I couldn't get MediaPortal itself to recognise the buttons. EventGhost did however so what I did was copy the keyboard emulation profile, and map the keys for MediaPortal to the remote - basically I created a keyboard emulation profile for MP.

I also have it so that it en/disables profiles as different applications are launched or shut down. This turns out to make for a solution that's more powerful than I expected because I can have the remote launch different applications but also have good functionality in all of them.

For instance, In the default "Keyboard Emulation" profile, the green Windows button launches MediaPortal, but by hooking into the event for MP becoming active, I disable the Keyboard Emulation profile. Similarly, when MediaPortal is deactivated, its profile is disabled, and the ordinary keyboard emulation one is enabled. I do the same for WinAmp. This allows me to use the green windows button to do "X" in MP and toggle full screen for visualisations/video. The music button on the desktop launches WinAmp, but in MediaPortal it runs a macro that does keypresses to get into the music menu within MP.

The keyboard emulation approach isn't ideal though, as MP has some overlap of functionality for keys, but the main ones are consistent. I do have odd things though like the "i" on my remote shows the info panel for whatever movie I'm watching but in the music view, the same underlying key press ("Y" I think) adds items to the playlist when it's showing movies/albums/etc.. So it's a bit of a compromise. Doing macros like the music one does make some assumptions so if you run it from somewhere a bit quirky in MP, the macro won't take you to where you expect it to. From main areas it's ok though and the main thing is I can now use all the buttons!

EventGhost does have a MediaPortal plugin but as I understand it it needs something else to be in place in order to work with MediaPortal. It lets you map straight to particular actions in MP, rather than emulating keyboard strokes. I've not yet had time to look into that and try and get it working. I wasn't sure what was required and couldn't find any particularly clear info on that... it seems you need a plugin for MP but when I looked it seemed to be a very out of date one that isn't supported or something (if I remember rightly). Perhaps someone can advise us if they're using EventGhost with the MP plugin...

Scooby

 

[In2Photos]

Hi In2Photos,

I couldn't get MediaPortal itself to recognise the buttons. EventGhost did however so what I did was copy the keyboard emulation profile, and map the keys for MediaPortal to the remote - basically I created a keyboard emulation profile for MP.

I also have it so that it en/disables profiles as different applications are launched or shut down. This turns out to make for a solution that's more powerful than I expected because I can have the remote launch different applications but also have good functionality in all of them.

For instance, In the default "Keyboard Emulation" profile, the green Windows button launches MediaPortal, but by hooking into the event for MP becoming active, I disable the Keyboard Emulation profile. Similarly, when MediaPortal is deactivated, its profile is disabled, and the ordinary keyboard emulation one is enabled. I do the same for WinAmp. This allows me to use the green windows button to do "X" in MP and toggle full screen for visualisations/video. The music button on the desktop launches WinAmp, but in MediaPortal it runs a macro that does keypresses to get into the music menu within MP.

The keyboard emulation approach isn't ideal though, as MP has some overlap of functionality for keys, but the main ones are consistent. I do have odd things though like the "i" on my remote shows the info panel for whatever movie I'm watching but in the music view, the same underlying key press ("Y" I think) adds items to the playlist when it's showing movies/albums/etc.. So it's a bit of a compromise. Doing macros like the music one does make some assumptions so if you run it from somewhere a bit quirky in MP, the macro won't take you to where you expect it to. From main areas it's ok though and the main thing is I can now use all the buttons!

EventGhost does have a MediaPortal plugin but as I understand it it needs something else to be in place in order to work with MediaPortal. It lets you map straight to particular actions in MP, rather than emulating keyboard strokes. I've not yet had time to look into that and try and get it working. I wasn't sure what was required and couldn't find any particularly clear info on that... it seems you need a plugin for MP but when I looked it seemed to be a very out of date one that isn't supported or something (if I remember rightly). Perhaps someone can advise us if they're using EventGhost with the MP plugin...

Scooby

Thanks for the response!

I plan on using my Harmony One once I get the MCE remote going in MediaPortal with some more functionality. I don't need a ton of options, but a lot more than 6 buttons to work! So I'll check out EventGhost some more and see if I can get it to do everything I need.