MCE Remote HIP and Media portal (2 Viewers)

[and-81]

Ah what the hell, here's a brief explanation of what IR Blasters do as well ...

IR 'Blasting'
--------------
The MCE 2005 remote & receiver comes with two Infra-Red transmitters called 'Blasters'. It's like handing the remote control to the PC. The blasters are little remote controls, in a way, and give the PC the ability to control your TV, DVD, Surround Sound, etc...

All you have to do is teach the PC the remote button presses for the device you want to control and then stick one of these blasters in front of the IR receiver on that device. So if you want the PC to turn the TV on, you teach the PC the 'On' button from the TV remote and then put an IR blaster in front of the TV's remote receiver.

Of course, you'll need some software on the PC that knows when to pass on IR commands to the TV and that is where HIP comes in. You can also use Girder, but it's got a steeper learning curve and HIP is free.

IR Blasters pre-date MCE, and you can get other devices out there that do the same thing. The MCE 2005 remote comes with the transceiver and two IR blasters, I paid $70 Australian for that. I paid a lot more for a USB-UIRT a while back, and it was just the transceiver. So as far as I'm concerned you can't beat the MCE 2005 remote.

 

[vbap]

Thanks. Very well put. It was the concept of IR Blasters that was foreign to me.

How "instrusive" are the blasters? What do they "plug" into? Any pictures of what they look like (I'm googling in another session....)

 

[and-81]

I don't find the blasters intrusive.

They plug into the MCE transceiver box, there are plugs for two of them. Basically, they're just a little headphone style jack, a long thing wire, and a little fingernail sized 'bud' that has an adhesive under-side that sticks to the IR receiver (little black panel) on the TV or other device.

Here is a picture of the remote, transciever box, and a blaster:
http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/images/info/IMG_VI-MSMCEREMOTE_18315_0_lrg.jpg

And here is one of just the remote (it's different to the remote in the first picture, this is the MCE 2005 Australian/European remote, it's the one everyone is after because it has more buttons than the US version):
http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/images/info/IMG_VI-MSMCEREMOTE_18329_0_lrg.jpg

 

[Lyxalig]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. I tried HIP last night, and I am SO pleased I can turn on, and off, my plasma screen. The remote for my plasma has gone missing now for quite a while, and I have tried to turn it off, and on, using every single universal remote available in norway, exept the Pronto (3000NOK approx. 400USD). Nothing helped. . that little bastard of an MCE blaster understands discrete codes JIPPEY!!!

Now I have one small prob.. How to make the MCE remote work in the same manner as it did before. I mapped the Keyboard commands, but that makes my loose a lot of functionality

I am currently at work, so I havent tried out the idea I got when sleeping:
Does MP use the same App-controlls as MCE. Can I simply put the MP path instead of the Ehome one? Or is there more fiddle to it?
As well, I wonder; how can I make "The greenbutton" plugin for MP and MPhook work again. What i'm trying to accomplish is to start MP with a press of "the green button"

But never the less;L IM A HAPPY HAPPY MAN...

 

[nigel_williams]

Thanks for this, I've been wanting to use the blasters to switch on the TV and change inputs for months!

But I have 2 problems now:
1. When I go into MP, the cursor keys jump 2 places at once. So I think it's MP and HIP responding to the key press. Which should I disable? MP support or HIP?

2. I made my MCE2005 remote learn my TV on/off. HIP will not let me assign this since it is no longer send the MS code. Any way to reset the MCE2005 remote to factory settings?

 

[and-81]

OK, Your first problem is because you have to replace the original MCE remote driver with one that comes with HIP. Once you do that you will avoid the repeated key-presses. Once you've installed it you won't be able to use MediaPortal's built in support for the MCE remote, but as the help file says, you can switch back to the original driver.

The HIP help file has this to say about setting up the MCE remote ...

To use the XP Media Centre Edition (MCE) remote control to receive and send commands with Hip you must install the HIPMCE plugin which includes a new driver developed by Bruno FLEURETTE that must be installed for this plugin to work.

Installing the new MCE drivers

Make sure the MCE remote is installed.

In the Control Panel/System, select the Device Manager button on the Hardware Tab.

In the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section, locate the entry for the remote, right click and select "Update Driver"

- Select "No, not at the time" for the Window Update prompt.

- Select "Install from a list or specific location"

- Select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install"

- Select the "Have Disk" button and enter the location of the supplied drivers (which by default is the \MCEIR directory located in the main Hip installation directory)

- Select the MCE Infrared Remote Receiver option and the rest should be self explanatory.

Easy mistakes to make are

- The remote is listed as an input device as well, but you need to change the driver for the USB device
- To find the driver you need to navigate right to the driver folder and select the "mceir.inf" file.
- Follow the instruction entirely - if you don't the system will most likely find the standard MS driver.

Please note that as you are no longer using the MS driver, any keypresses will not control the PC

If you want to go back to the normal driver, just repeat the above but instead of "No, not at the time" click "yes, this time only" and it should find the original driver.

Once installed, Hip can now process commands from this remote control. If you are unable to install this driver, then your remote is not compatible with this plugin.

As for your second problem... easy. There is a manual for the MCE remote online here:
http://oem.microsoft.com/static/Worldwide/file/MCE_Remote_Manual.pdf

The MCE Remote Manual has this to say about reseting the programmable buttons ...

To restore the default remote control settings
1 Press and hold the DVD MENU button and LEFT navigation button at the same time until the remote control for Media Center PC lights turn off.
2 Press the OK button.
The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink twice to confirm that the buttons have been reset. The TV button will have no command assigned to it and the VOL + and VOL – buttons will adjust the Media Center PC system volume.

If the default settings were not restored, the lights blink quickly four times. To try again, repeat steps 1 and 2.

Hope that helps.

 

[and-81]

Lyxalig,

I didn't notice your last post on this thread until now ...

If you are trying to launch Media Portal from your MCE remote, you can map a button on the remote either through the System-Wide mappings section in HIP or you can make an application profile for Explorer.EXE, which is what HIP detects as the foreground application when you are at the desktop.

Instead of mapping the button on the remote to simulate a key press you click on the "Execute Program" button when defining the mapping in HIP and then point it at the program you want to launch (media portal in this case).

I hope that helps you. If not, could you rephrase your question and I'll try again.

Also, I might mention: Anyone using HIP and the MCE remote will probably want to install the My Keys plugin and map some of it's keys to the Recorded TV, Live TV, Guide, and DVD Menu buttons on the remote. Works nice. I can't wait for the Home plugin to be completed so we can map all sorts of shortcuts like that. Get 'My Keys' here:
http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5232

 

[sonic-attack]

I have now spent some time setting up HIP and getting used to the way it works. Once you figure out whats going on, HIP is a breeze.
I have remapped all the MP key commands to keys that I like to use (took a bit of time) and have set up buttons on the MCE Remote to

1.turn off my TV and mute MP
2.turn on my TV switch it to AV2 and UNmute MP

I only wish the MCE remote came with more blasters that way I could control my AV amp and my DVD player.

next task is configure my sky box to change channels from MP
I have mapped all the sky remote codes into HIP just need to work out the correct way to use them.

will post back when complete.

 

[Lyxalig]

You can try something like this : http://www.iautomate.com/infrared.html
repeat the signal from one blaster ....

 

[a.dimuzio]

next task is configure my sky box to change channels from MP
I have mapped all the sky remote codes into HIP just need to work out the correct way to use them.

A stupid question.. since I didn't play with HIP yet.

Why do you need to map the sky remote codes into HIP? Isn't it enough to use the MyBlaster plugin to change channels?

On the other hand I want to configure HIP so that when I watch tv I can press the green key on the remote to interact with the sky box