[solved] (Kodi issue) MCE Remote not working in 1.13pre. Worked fine in 1.12 (3 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

The question of fixing it was raised earlier and dismissed by myself then.
...
I much rather invest time helping Kodi handle generic HID properly.

Okay, fine... but that will take time. In the meantime our OOTB MCE remote control support - surely one of the most important things for an HTPC - is somewhat broken. I think we need to do something. At least a warning.

then we could also just put a static warning message in the configuration.

Yeah, that was all I was thinking of. Nothing flash.

However it seems people are find their solutions in those forums.

I think the people who find their way to this forum thread would be in the minority compared to the people - especially "newbies" - who give up in frustration without even visiting the forum. Hence the importance of the warning inside the software itself.

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

In the meantime our OOTB MCE remote control support - surely one of the most important things for an HTPC - is somewhat broken.

Absolutely not! What's broken is the various registry hacks out there. To my knowledge MP1 has never supported, OOTB or otherwise, such a large range of input devices, including numerous variants of IR remotes.

You can test it yourself by doing the following, assuming you have a descent MCE remote hardware:

• Install Windows
• Install MP1 => Remote is working
  

What's not working, and never will, is:

• Install Windows
• Corrupt your registry
• Install MP1

I think the people who find their way to this forum thread would be in the minority compared to the people - especially "newbies" - who give up in frustration without even visiting the forum. Hence the importance of the warning inside the software itself.

Those "newbies" would have had to dig up through Kodi's online resources to find the plugin that breaks the registry in the first place so I'm betting they will have the mental and physical strength of finding out a solution for their MP1 issues online.

Now looking ahead and whenever that HID keyboard is ready for release we could have a "Kodi" and/or "WMC Keyboard" HID profile allowing users to use that Kodi MCE plugin and various other non conformant pseudo MCE remotes which are sending keyboard shortcuts instead of generic HID usages. If you want MP1 to improve in this area please feel free to contribute by testing and providing feedback for that new HID keyboard feature.

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

There is this great post from @FrankBert further up that thread that's showing how you can fix your registry by reverting to Windows defaults from that Kodi MCE plugin.

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

Yeah, that was all I was thinking of. Nothing flash.

I've amended our HID documentation with a prominent link to our HID Known Issues sticky. The HID configuration already links to our wiki HID documentation.

 

[tandoni]

Hi,

Do I place the .reg files in System32? I'm getting close, Cheers.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

@tandoni

No, you just execute them by double-clicking on them, acknowledge the warnings and changes will directly be written to the registry.

 

[tandoni]

Hi,
Thanks, that worked, double clicked them
I reinstalled my IR receiver, now remote works,
Much appreciated.

 

[Statick]

I have found this thread after upgrading from 1.9 to 1.15 and finding my MCE remote no longer works
as with other posters, I have up/down/left/right/OK and a couple of other keys, but most of the buttons don't do anything. the main one I'm missing is "back" as I cannot navigate menus without it.

I have previously installed Kodi on this system, but not the MCE plugin for it (my remote just worked there without any plugin)

despite that I've installed the registry fixes posted earlier, these did not help. perhaps this is because I'm running Win7?
I've also opened up Kodi and tried to install the MCE plugin mentioned, so that I can tell it to "use windows defaults" but cannot even find it to install it

I've tried HID Demo and the buttons all come up in there okay, the buttons that work in MP all come up under "generic desktop controls (0x001)" and the buttons that do not work in MP come up under "consumer (0x000C)". so I guess these is some problem with this "consumer" thing but at this point I don't really know what's going on!

I have previously installed some software "LM Remote Keymap" which allowed me to map a script to a remote key, wondering if this had interfered in a way similar to the MCE plugin, I have uninstalled it and re-attempted those registry fixes but still no joy

I would love some help to get this working, I guess I'm otherwise looking at a clean install (mehhh) or going back to 1.12

 

[mm1352000]

@Statick
If the buttons come up with the HID Demo, normally the remote should work in MP.
The obvious question is: are you certain that you've enabled MP's HID handler?

I would love some help to get this working...

We'd be happy to help. However, in order to enable us to help you, we need more technical/detailed info.

Please provide full log files as follows:

1. Close HID Demo and all other programs that might be interacting with the remote.
   
2. Open MP Configuration.
3. Go to the remotes and input devices section, HID tab.
4. Ensure both "use generic HID device" and "extended logging" is ticked.
5. Go to the media tab.
6. Ensure "use media keys" is unticked.
7. Click OK to close MP Configuration.
8. Open the MP Watchdog tool.
9. Select option 1 ("report a bug to Team MediaPortal") to start MP with all plugins disabled, then click "proceed".
   
10. Use your remote to demonstrate the problem. In other words, press some buttons that you expect to work, and also press some buttons that you don't expect to work.
11. Close MP.
12. Attach ("upload a file") to your next reply.

If you unexpectedly find that all the remote buttons work at step 9, check if they still work when you open MP normally (without the Watchdog).
If they still work, problem solved (...and you'll know that your problem was incorrect configuration).
If they stop working again, you'll know the problem is caused by one of your plugins. In that case, try updating your plugins.

It could also be helpful to attach screenshots of what you see in the HID Demo.

 

[Statick]

many thanks for the quick and detailed response

I checked the config as above, and the only thing that needed changing was "detailed logging", the rest was already set as you describe.

after then starting in Watchdog mode, the remote behaved as it should. so I went back and started MP in normal mode, and it still works fine. literally the only thing that's changed since yesterday is enabling "detailed logging", not an option that sounds to me like it should enable or disable functionality, and yet that's what appears to have happened.

happy that it's working now, at least!