[solved] Map "media keys" on HID device to MP2 actions? (1 Viewer)

Digsy

Portal Pro
August 29, 2018
206
21
53
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
I have just bought a multimedia remote for my HTPC. Not a Microsoft style IR remote, but a 2.4GHz mouse & keyboard combined Rii Mini MX3+ (remote on one side and full QWERTY keyboard on the reverse side, plus built in "air mouse").

Most of the keys work but some don't. In particular the remote has a full set of media keys. These will control Windows Media Player and WMC "out of the box" but they do nothing in MP.

A similar thing happens with the "menu" key (left), and the "return" key (right). In WMC the menu key behaves like "information" (toggles the info screen on and off) and the return key takes you up one menu level (like ESC in MP2). However in MP2, the menu key behaves like a right mouse click and although the return key shows the "back icon" in the top left of the screen in the WMC skin, it does not actually take you back a step.

I have tried mapping these keys to equivalent functions in MP2, but the Input Manager does not recognise when they are being pressed - with the exception of the "menu" key, which comes up as "APPS".

Does anyone know if it is possible to get these keys working in MP2 by default, or include them in the input manager somehow?
 

Attachments

  • Remote.jpg
    Remote.jpg
    33 KB
Last edited:

smarty12345

Portal Pro
November 23, 2011
100
17
United Kingdom
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
Probably not much help to you. But I use the same remote with MP1 and the "menu" key you refer to actually is mapped to right mouse click in windows. Which is likely why it behaves as such in MP2. In MP1 it doesn't do anything. But on windows desktop that's the button you would press to get the right click menu on a highlighted doc/folder.

In MP1 the "return" button works as it should without issue and takes you up a level. Basically like hitting "Esc" on the keyboard.
Play/Pause works as it should too.. But none of the other "media" buttons do anything in MP1 either. The "search" button pops out the windows 8 search pane. (cos I have windows 8.1 on the MP1 PC)

I know MP2 has all that HID device stuff but I haven't really looked at it as every time I install a version of MP2 I'm always disappointed with it (mainly for input control reasons and end up giving up on it.) It may may be the HID stuff in MP2 is designed for the more typical WMC IR remotes. The remotes you and I have are basically keyboards. And MP2 keyboard key support seems to be pretty lacking from what I have found. Seems its more geared towards using an IR remote or a mouse.
 

Digsy

Portal Pro
August 29, 2018
206
21
53
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
Probably not much help to you. But I use the same remote with MP1 and the "menu" key you refer to actually is mapped to right mouse click in windows. Which is likely why it behaves as such in MP2. In MP1 it doesn't do anything. But on windows desktop that's the button you would press to get the right click menu on a highlighted doc/folder.

Yes, that's the behaviour I am seeing.

In MP1 the "return" button works as it should without issue and takes you up a level. Basically like hitting "Esc" on the keyboard.
Play/Pause works as it should too.. But none of the other "media" buttons do anything in MP1 either. The "search" button pops out the windows 8 search pane. (cos I have windows 8.1 on the MP1 PC)

Odd that the behaviour is different in MP2.

I know MP2 has all that HID device stuff but I haven't really looked at it as every time I install a version of MP2 I'm always disappointed with it (mainly for input control reasons and end up giving up on it.) It may may be the HID stuff in MP2 is designed for the more typical WMC IR remotes. The remotes you and I have are basically keyboards. And MP2 keyboard key support seems to be pretty lacking from what I have found. Seems its more geared towards using an IR remote or a mouse.

I have since read in the Wiki that MP1 doesn't have full media keys support by default, but it seems to have more media keys support than MP2.

I have since downloaded the free version of KeyReMapper by Atnsoft. Using this I managed to get the "return" key working as desired, but that's where the success stopped. Even though it is recognised, the great big "HOME" key seems to be hard wired to launch the browser, and even if I remap it, it still performs its default action. Even more odd is that this app recognises all the media keys apart from fast forward and rewind.

The strangest thing is that I can't seem to get any of the "media buttons" in MP2 Input Manager to work by mapping them to normal HID keys anyway. For example, if I map the "play/pause" button to "P" and then play a video, hitting "P" does nothing. I am starting to wonder if I am using this feature correctly?

Also, I can't find a list of MP2 keyboard shortcuts and the MP1 ones in the wiki don't work for me either.

I have never had to worry about this before as for my main HTPC I use a keyboard and mouse but for my client which is a media player only I wanted something more elegant.
 

smarty12345

Portal Pro
November 23, 2011
100
17
United Kingdom
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
I have since downloaded the free version of KeyReMapper by Atnsoft. Using this I managed to get the "return" key working as desired, but that's where the success stopped. Even though it is recognised, the great big "HOME" key seems to be hard wired to launch the browser, and even if I remap it, it still performs its default action. Even more odd is that this app recognises all the media keys apart from fast forward and rewind.
Indeed it is "hardwired" to launch the windows default browser. I'm not sure that one can be changed as its a built in OS shortcut. you would have to find a way of blocking or turning off that input key in the OS. My main issue with MP1 was that I couldn't get the info pane up so I could search or enable subtitles etc. So I used a little program call AutoHotKey to map the "!" key (the one after the 6) to that button. I cant remember how I did it but I remember it being a pain in the arse.

The strangest thing is that I can't seem to get any of the "media buttons" in MP2 Input Manager to work by mapping them to normal HID keys anyway. For example, if I map the "play/pause" button to "P" and then play a video, hitting "P" does nothing. I am starting to wonder if I am using this feature correctly?

Also, I can't find a list of MP2 keyboard shortcuts and the MP1 ones in the wiki don't work for me either.
And that right there is exactly why I can't get on with MP2. It drives me mental trying to get it to navigate. Its just not intuitive and no wiki and the keys you would think would work (like in MP1) don't. Its a real shame as I quite like the concept. And being able to import tv shoes with nfo finally. But all the navigation issues, plus how slow it seems to be to open things ends it there for me.
 

Digsy

Portal Pro
August 29, 2018
206
21
53
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
And that right there is exactly why I can't get on with MP2. It drives me mental trying to get it to navigate. Its just not intuitive and no wiki and the keys you would think would work (like in MP1) don't.

Well, Input Manager is a new feature in 2.2 and it is still just "pre-release" but its surprising that it doesn't seem to work at all (at least for me). Maybe I will raise a bug report on it, but I guess it works for most other people otherwise someone would have done so already.

Looks like I will be sending this remote back - in fact the second one I have had to send back, as I can't make it work either with the built in key mapper, or a third party one! At this stage I am thinking it will just be easier to buy a cheap wireless keyboard with a touchpad and no media keys (a mouse is no good when you are watching TV in bed).
 

Digsy

Portal Pro
August 29, 2018
206
21
53
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
Well, Input Manager is a new feature in 2.2 and it is still just "pre-release" but its surprising that it doesn't seem to work at all (at least for me). Maybe I will raise a bug report on it, but I guess it works for most other people otherwise someone would have done so already.

I'll retract this. Now that I have removed the USB receiver for the Rii remote, mapping standard media functions like play/pause, ffwd and rewind are now working with a normal HID keyboard. I still don't think this will help getting all the buttons on the Rii remote to work, though.
 

smarty12345

Portal Pro
November 23, 2011
100
17
United Kingdom
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
one last thing that I used to use with MP1 but I'm not sure is available with MP2 is WifiRemote. And just used AMPDroid to control the client in a pinch,. That got me out of a hole when the kids spilt their drinks over the last keyboard I had, Lol. That's why I switched to the remote..

I don't know why it wont work with the Rii. it should as jt should identify to the OS as a standard keyboard. Nothing flashy. You may have to fore go the media keys. But in theory you could map the non media keys and/or the keyboard side of the remote.
 

Digsy

Portal Pro
August 29, 2018
206
21
53
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
I don't know why it wont work with the Rii. it should as jt should identify to the OS as a standard keyboard. Nothing flashy. You may have to fore go the media keys. But in theory you could map the non media keys and/or the keyboard side of the remote.

I managed to get play/pause working by mapping the button on the Rii to CTRL+P on my keyboard, and then mapping the play/pause button to CTRL+P in MP, but I had to make sure I pressed the mapped button on the Rii to programme MP and not CTRL+P on my keyboard. I thought that was the key but it refused to work for any other media buttons. :( I'm giving up on the Rii and sending it back. Its pointless buying a media remote if the media buttons don't work.
 

smarty12345

Portal Pro
November 23, 2011
100
17
United Kingdom
Home Country
Great Britain (UK) Great Britain (UK)
Unfortunately they probably do work. In media player. the issue is likely MP doesn't use the same inputs. My guess is they are also coded into windows and cant be duplicated.
I remember when I did mine it took a few goes to map the key I wanted to use. If I remember right I had to use additional software to capture the keypress on the remote so I could map the signal/ID of that button when pressed to a specific key as used by mediaportal. its possible I could do the same with the media keys but I have never tried.
It may be easier to get an IR remote as that's what MP seems to be more geared towards.
 
Last edited:

HTPCSourcer

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 16, 2008
    11,418
    2,335
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Gentlemen,

    Please consider two things when using MP2:
    • The current recommendation is to use a fully MCE-compatible remote, which will work out of the box
    • There is one exception to the above: the global Windows media functions, which one can find on the MCE remote (i.e. Music, Video,...) aren't working.
    My main HTPC in the living uses a Logitech Harmony hub that comes with a small remote, which is fully configurable with the Logitech app. Setting it up as a MCE is all thatI needed to do. However, the four media keys (Video, Music,...) don't do anything, but the FF etc. work as they should.

    It may may be the HID stuff in MP2 is designed for the more typical WMC IR remotes. The remotes you and I have are basically keyboards.
    Among others I am also using a Logitech wireless keyboard (with a touchpad for mouse control) and it's working flawlessly including its media keys.

    how slow it seems to be to open things ends it there for me
    That is something that must be related to your system. However, just mentioning it in a side conversation is not getting you anywhere. If you would like us to look into this then please open a thread and add full logs.

    For example, if I map the "play/pause" button to "P" and then play a video, hitting "P" does nothing.
    Hopefully you are pressing Shft-P as "p" does indeed nothing.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom