[solved] MCE RC6 IR remote control not working in Win Server 2016 (1 Viewer)

Cordraconis

Portal Pro
July 26, 2016
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I hope somebody has a few pointers as to what I could try, before I do a support request with Hauppaughe.
For hardware details on my HTPC itself, I refer to my profile here on this forum.

So when I ordered my Hauppaughe TV card, it came with a USB Infrared Reciever and a matching remote control.
I checked the reciever a few days ago, and it has "RC6" on it, so it is a full-fledged MCE Remote control reciever, right?

I also have a small wireless Multimedia Keyboard. (USB nanostick in the back of the HTPC, trackball on the upper right corner, play>stop>forward>etc... buttons on the edge.)

In windows 7 both worked simultaneous: I could pause with the keyboard and resume with the Remote control, both in Media Portal, VLC player etc... also the IR reciever gave a "blip" with the red led about every 10 seconds so I knew it was on. In the hardware manager the IR showed up as a Microsoft eHome device or something similar.

Now I upgraded to Windows Server 2016 (I know it is not officially supported, but basically it is a souped-up version of Windows 10, so...) and *finally* my playback issues in MP2 are gone, but... the MCE remote is not working ...


It turns out there was an exclamation mark in device manager (problem with driver), and the IR reciever is recognized as a Pinnacle PCTV device???
Somewhere in the forum it was suggested to disable the 3 HID devices connected with the multimedia wireless keyboard, but then the play>stop>forward>etc... buttons of the keyboard just don't work.
I manually forced the driver to microsoft eHome, but still the same problem. After manually forcing it to a Hauppaughe CIR device (or an older Pinnacle PCTV), the IR reciever reacts to ALL the remote controls I have with a blinking red light (no 10-second "blip" btw...) but MP2, VLC or any other software doesn't reacts. the only keys that work are the ones from my multimedia keyboard.
Also the Ir reciever now is in the "removeable USB devices" on the bottom right corner. Small annoyance though.


So I think the hardware works, but somehow a "link" in the software is missing so MP2 and VLC doesn't reacts.

Does anyone have some ideas to test this hypothesis before I contact Hauppaughe? It seems IR remote controls and Win 10 are not good friends according to google...
Thanks in advance.
 

Cordraconis

Portal Pro
July 26, 2016
82
2
Home Country
Belgium Belgium
OK, I was hoping that maybe someone during the weekends had time for some insights, but in the mean time I haven't sat still either.
I contacted Hauppauge support and they said the problem is the Remote control uses a driver that is from Microsoft and they decided not to include it in their server OS, which is probably lacking some sort of "Framework" to make everything work.

However I HAD SUCCESS!!!


First I uninstalled and removed the "PCTV Remote" driver that I manually forced onto the machine, then ran the HCW removal tool and rebooted.
Then I installed winTv 8.5, but there was no difference as to version 8. Still no remote control drivers found. (I expected this, but I tried anyway.

Finally my Google-fu paid off and I found this link:
eHome IR Transceiver | Win 2012 Workstation
I downloaded the eHome drivers and with the "Find Drivers" I managed to install them. (I had to do this a second time, as the first time it didn't work 100%??? Sometimes WinServer2016 does this ...)
After the reboot ALL the hardware was found and I had some extra eHome Infrared Devices in my System Devices tab, so I took the remote control, fired up VLC Player and pressed the pause button ... IT WORKED!
I think by installing the eHome drivers, I also installed (a part of) the "framework" that goes with it. Now it is not 100% perfect, as depending on the program some buttons don't work. And sometimes I see other minimized programs in the background are now maximized when I close MP2.
Next step is to install and configure "EventGhost", an open source software program to re-map remote control buttons for different applications. But Since I now have a Proof Of Concept, I am sure EventGhost will get this completely working for me.

For completeness sake, I had some other options:
- Force the PCTV driver again (=Transceiver works) and then hope EventGhost can read the USB inputs, even if windows itself cannot.
- Try to get the full Windows Media Centre on my WinServer2016. (It is unsupported in Windows 10 (=WinServer2016) but there are hacks out there, so maybe I am lucky to get the "framework" that way onto the server.)

So if someone has the same situation like me, where the MCE Remote control is not working, you might want to give the above link a shot.
 

The Solutor

Portal Pro
August 25, 2012
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- Try to get the full Windows Media Centre on my WinServer2016. (It is unsupported in Windows 10 (=WinServer2016) but there are hacks out there, so maybe I am lucky to get the "framework" that way onto the server.)

I'm a coauthor of the WMC for win 10 port an the author of the latest and most upgraded installer of the WMC package. I can confirm that it is working w/o a glitch on win server 2016.

Actually is better than the original from MS, given the ease and speed of [un]installation, the included backup and reset features, and the RDP patches I have included (you can use WMC via remote desktop)

Just click on the installer and enjoy.

The above sentences are valid "as thy are" for any user around the world except the Cable Card users in the US.

For those unlucky people the only known solutions are:

#1Use W10 build 10240, aka RTM, aka 1507 (the LTSB 2015 version is your best option)

#2 Use W10 build 10586, aka November update, 1511, block windows update and update it carefully, and manually

#3 Use Win Server 2016 Test Preview 4 (four), which is the same build as the option #2

#4 obviously use win7/8/8.1 or win server 2012r2 essentials or whs 2011 or its brother win storage server 2008R2 essentials.

MS did remove the whole DRM support which is needed by the cable card idiocy, so there isn't any easy solution to fix this in Win 10 anniversary, creators and current Win server 2016

A partial solution to use WMC on W10 anniversary (and later) is to proxy the CC tuner using Dvblink, this way you can get clear channels only, DVBlink is an European company, just like me, so it's very hard to support US people for anyone outside the states.

Back to MP and troubles with remotes, IMO it's way better to use Eventghost, which isn't limited to a single program, it's very easy to configure, and can collect inputs from any peripheral. It works perfectly with anything from MP1 to WMC, and also notepad or whatever you need, if you like.

MP2 (incredibly) still lacks a bunch of shortcuts, so it works but not on 100% of its functions
 

Cordraconis

Portal Pro
July 26, 2016
82
2
Home Country
Belgium Belgium
Thank you VERY much for this post! (and your work on WMC, I used it on Win7 for a while and was happy with it untill the dreaded EPG problems popped up and it got me on the steep learning curve to get MP2 to play nicely on my hardware.) Actually I wanted MP2 first, but WMC was already there and "just worked". I'm sure you all know what I mean.


"MP2 (incredibly) still lacks a bunch of shortcuts, so it works but not on 100% of its functions "

I'll definately try Event Ghost when I get to it, as it seems lighter/simpler to run on the host OS than hack WMC onto it. Thx for the confirmation.

Then it's time to put pen and paper next to the HTPC to officially take it into production and report the quircks and bugs I might find in MP2.
 

Cordraconis

Portal Pro
July 26, 2016
82
2
Home Country
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Also on a sidenote with your update recommendations: to block the *CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED!!!* mandatory windows update "feature" in Windows 10 and Server 2016, I discovered that if you put a fake proxy server in the Internet Settings on the Control Panel, windows will not connect to the Windows Update servers and this will not bug you with mandatory updates and reboots (on a server for **** sake!!!)
Edit: I use Portable Applications, (Firefox) and they work normally, so they don't use the windows supplied proxy server unless you manually add it. I cannot vouch for Internet Explorer and Edge.

I discovered this when I accidently took down my VM with Squid on it and my GFs Win10 laptop HAD to update+reboot but the server didn't ... Also Portable Update couldn't connect to the windows update servers, so I started digging...

I'll still have to confirm, but this might be a lifesaver in some cases. Like staring with some collegues for 45minutes to a beamer watching a laptop updating when you have a presentation... I felt deeply sorry for the guy, and enraged at win 10.

Anyway, when doing The Solutor 's post, you might want to try this right before...
 

The Solutor

Portal Pro
August 25, 2012
63
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The EPG troubles on MS servers aren't a a reason to switch. Just use the great EPG collector instead of the MS servers (or in addition to them).

EPG collector can also generate xml files that can be easly used by MP1, MP2 kodi and whatever.

Also there isn't any reason to "switch" from a program to another. You can use, say, the free Office Starter and the free and open source Libre Office, taking the advantages of both worlds, the same rule is applicable to TV programs.

MP2 and WMC aren't mutually exclusive, you can just start and stop their services via a script or via something like "Bill2's process manager" or you can use Dvblink as a server then use any client seamlessly.

Speaking of program ligtness... surely WMC is the lightest of any usable media centre in 2017. WMC was heavy when it was released. But that happened in the AD 2004. Then it evolved, but nevertheless WMC is practically unchanged since the day Win7 was released, 8 years ago, which is an era by the IT metrics.

MP instead is a maintained program, which is constantly evolving and growing as you can easily spot looking at its installer size...

Say MP1 v1.2 was 24MB, MP1 v1.7 is 210MB...

So MP has a bunch of pros, but lightness is not among them ;)
 

Sebastiii

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    Yep all default skin take so much place, we are working to download them as separate but still it will take size too for downloading them :p
     

    Cordraconis

    Portal Pro
    July 26, 2016
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    @The Solutor : I've tried the Mediaportal plugin in Eventghost, but it seems I'll need another pligin which is ... MP1.
    I've read up a bit and you mentioned you use the keyboard emulation. Is this for MP2 or WMC? (I'm MP2-only btw.)

    More concrete example: I press the green button on my remote and MP2 comes up. Then I want to press the arrow+OK buttons but MP2 doesn't reacts.
    When I press the "guide" button, I get the EPG and one of the programs is highlighted in blue, but again the "arrow" buttons do not work. I tried the arrow buttons on my *keyboard*, but they also do nothing, so I end up useing the trackball+mouse buttons to get something done.

    So how do you get MP2 running with your remote? You have started a thread about keyboard shortcuts, so I fear not all keypresses are "known" in MP2.
    Probably after the weekend I can get another shot at this, and maybe I can help testing some things out. (MP2.1, I haven't tried the new MP2.1.1 )
     

    The Solutor

    Portal Pro
    August 25, 2012
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    I never used the MP1 plugin relying on the plugin is dangerous because the plugin has to be maintained
    Keyboard emulation works everywhere. (assuming the program you want to control is controllable via the keyboard)

    You have just to assume the window is in focus so you may want to add a look for the window bring to foreground.

    That said, if your arrows aren't working using the real keyboard, clearly there is no hope to emulate them. You must have something wrong my arrows are working as expected in 3 different installations.

    Most of the basic command are somewhat universal say ESC. arrows,enter... so most of the function are (and were) working as expected.

    Other shortcuts were added recently (like CH+, CH-), some other are still missing see the zoom mode or other more specific shortcut.

    So the program is mostly usable
     

    Cordraconis

    Portal Pro
    July 26, 2016
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    I had to simplify things: I disabled the keyboard-only emulation in eventghost, since this disabled the HID capabilities, then I *uninstalled* eventghost and rebooted.

    The green button brings up MP2, and after some seconds pressing the "up" button, it seems I can select stuff and mostly the remote works.
    However, after a give time, I noticed very quiet sound in the background while nothing was playing! After closing MP2, for some reason the WinTV 8.5 application was active and playing a channel.

    So I suspect focus-issues and I have activated focus-stealing-logging.

    It would be nice if there was a list of mappings of what each MCE-remote button is *supposed* to do, so I can check. (for instance, the "power" button doesn't bring up the schutdown menu of MP2.)
     

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