Problem with Windows 7 and MCE Remote (1 Viewer)

[gavo]

Hi All,

I've got what I think is a Microsoft eHome infrared receiver/remote combo. The USB receiver is marked "TSES-IR12" and the remote "TSHA-IR01". I've just fired up a Media Portal 1.1.1 client on my Windows 7 (64bit) machine to connect to my main media portal server and everything is working except for the remote (the one thing I didnt think I would have any issues with ;-) ).

The receiver is recognised by Windows and installs as a "Microsoft eHome Infrared Receiver" (or similar) and although I've set Media Portal to use a "MCE" remote, I get absolutely no response in media portal when bashing any of the remotes keys (the light on the remote lights up, as does the light on the receiver when I'm pressing buttons). I've done a bit of surfing and found people having issues under XP with this type of remote, but seemingly not under Windows 7. Should this just work?

I did find this in the log, I'm not sure if its relevant or not.

2011-01-24 19:48:55.430983 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MCE: Initializing MCE remote
2011-01-24 19:48:55.441984 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MCE: Found: \\?\hid#irdevicev2&col01#2&2818a073&0&0000#{4d1e55b2-f16f-11cf-88cb-001111000030}
2011-01-24 19:48:55.442485 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MCE: Using: \\?\hid#irdevicev2&col01#2&2818a073&0&0000#{4d1e55b2-f16f-11cf-88cb-001111000030}
2011-01-24 19:48:55.463487 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MAP: using default mappings for Microsoft MCE
2011-01-24 19:48:55.467488 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: MCE: MCE remote enabled

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

 

[gavo]

Ok. So I'm now pretty sure my remote/receiver is a Hauppauge MCE clone. It occurred to me that I had a nicely working genuine Microsoft MCE remote/receiver on my main MediaPortal box so used that for some testing. My Microsoft remote with the Hauppauge receiver on the Windows 7 box worked fine (and as easy as expected by simply selecting MCE Remote in the mediaportal config), so I figured it must be the remote.

I installed IRSS and using its debug client, determined that the Hauppauge remote was indeed sending IR codes - but wacky (to me who doesnt really know what it should be sending anyway) ones. Each time I hit a button on the remote, IRSS would show me two 4 digit codes being received one after another. The first code was always the same no matter what button I hit, the second seemed related the actual button being used. The wacky thing was that for each button, the second code alternated between two codes (always the same two codes for each button) - seemed odd to me, but maybe its normal.

Anyway, trying to map these codes with IRSS didnt work out (but my IRSS skills are fairly basic) - the problem being that every time I went to learn a code, IRSS seemed to only detect the first four digit code the remote sent - so basically every button on the remote looked the same to it.

Ok, so I'd googled some good things about Intelliremote, and it had a 30 day trial. I uninstalled IRSS and installed Intelliremote. Interestingly, in the Intelliremote manual mentions some "non standard" MCE clone remotes - such as the Hauppauge RC6. It includes a profile for this type of remote, but again, I was unable to get any kind of sense out of my remote with Intelliremote (it just kept telling me it had seen unrecognised codes).

My conclusion? Either I'm, or my remote is mental or broken. Either way, the remote is now in the bin and I'm on the lookout for another (preferably Microsoft) MCE remote.

I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has managed to get a Hauppauge MCE "clone" remote (with USB receiver) working with Mediaportal, and if so, what the part numbers of each was, and if you needed to do anything other than click "MCE Remote" in the mediaportal config.

Cheers,