There are two shortcomings common to existing MCE RC6 IR receivers:Obviously there are loads of MCE receivers out there, so there's no need to develop another one, I think. Does it have shortcomings? Maybe something could be improved.
(1) On wake from sleep or wake from hibernation, a USB-connected MCE RC6 IR receiver sometimes malfunctions, and Windows displays a message to the effect that "a USB device has stopped working". The malfunction evidently occurs at some point during the wake-up process, as the receiver is able to initiate the wake-up process without problem.
This problem seems to affect quite a few users, but not necessarily all users (so it may be dependent on the exact sequence of wake-up processing resulting from the specific hardware and software present in the HTPC). Certainly, I experienced this problem during the five years that I used WMC, and I have continued to experience it now that I use MP. In my case, it occurs on average perhaps once per week, but it is erratic. The solution that I use is simply to unplug the IR receiver, wait 10 seconds, and then replug it.
(2) The MCE RC6 signalling protocol uses "toggle codes", whereby there is an extra bit flag that toggles between 0 and 1 on successive button-presses (this may not be an exact description, but it is something like this). So two consecutive presses of the same button actually give two different button codes. This technique helps to eliminate the effects of contact bounce occurring in the remote control. The problem is that the Microsoft driver implements debounce processing incorrectly, with the result that some button-presses are ignored in certain sequences of button-presses. This is described in excruciating detail in this post:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?p=55303#p55303
There is a registry setting that can disable Windows debounce processing. That eliminates the problem that causes some button-presses to be ignored, but introduces the problem of some single button-presses being interpreted as two or three button-presses (caused by contact bounce in the remote).
Recently I have been using the Ortek/Hama remote control (with its own dedicated IR receiver). This remote is not an RC6 remote, and does not suffer from either of the shortcomings described above, so I am probably going to use it long term (albeit with the Ortek/Hama definitions programmed into a universal remote control). I also have a Logitech 650, and that does implement toggle codes correctly, so does not suffer from shortcoming (2). However, it still requires a conventional MCE RC6 IR receiver, and so does suffer from shortcoming (1).
-- from CyberSimian in the UK