RC6 MCE Remote Mapping (1 Viewer)

deamon_knight

Portal Member
November 11, 2014
48
0
44
Home Country
United States of America United States of America
I have an RC6 Media Center Remote. In Media Portal, I need to use the General HID device mappings to make it work. I need some help Identifying what keys map to what. Specifically, the colored teletext button along the bottom, the "Live TV" "Recorded TV" "Guide" Button, and the "Information" button to the right of the direction Pad. Ideally, I;d also like to get the large "Play" Button to behave the same way as the small "Pause" button currently does (indicated with red arrows), to play when media is paused, and pause playing media. Using the conditional formatting the way the pause button is already configured doesn't work, it will play but not pause. Perhaps I'm missing something?



Thanks, Pics are attached

Back.jpg
Front.jpg
 

CyberSimian

Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • June 10, 2013
    2,849
    1,771
    Southampton
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    I have an RC6 Media Center Remote. In Media Portal, I need to use the General HID device mappings to make it work.
    This post contains an image of your remote:

    http://www.sevenforums.com/media-ce...remote-not-working-post919582.html#post919582

    from which I see that you are trying to use the Hauppauge remote control. Although it says "RC6" on the label on the back, the fact that you need to enable "General HID" suggests that it may not be a true WMC-compatible remote control. Perform this check:

    (1) Ensure that you have plugged in only one IR receiver (I recollect from the other thread that you have two remote controls, and presumably two IR receivers).

    (2) Start MP and check that the remote still works as before (this will confirm that you have plugged in the correct IR receiver).

    (3) Go to Windows "Device Manager" and expand the device tree for "Human Interface Devices", like so:

    Start > Control Panel > Device Manager > Human Interface Devices (left side bar)

    (4) Look at the devices listed under "Human Interface Devices" to see if there is one called "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver".

    If "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" is present, then I believe that you have a true WMC-compatible remote, and you should enable "Microsoft MCE" in "MP Config", and disable "General HID".

    If "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" is not present, your remote uses some other protocol. I would guess that it is generating keyboard shortcuts for Windows Media Center. The problem with this is that the keyboard shortcuts that MP uses are not all identical to the keyboard shortcuts that WMC uses, so some buttons will not work as you expect, or not work at all. If your remote is sending keyboard shortcuts, the following buttons should work correctly:

    up; down; left; right; select; channel up; channel down; volume up; volume down; numeric digits

    As far as I know, the button-mappings available under "General HID" do not allow you to remap the other buttons that are present on your remote control; "General HID" is oriented towards keyboards that have media controls and other dedicated buttons. Unfortunately, the button-mappings available under "Microsoft MCE" will not affect your remote (because your remote is sending keyboard shortcuts and not WMC-compatible RC6 IR signals).

    So, the first thing to do is to check "Device Manager" to see if "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" is present; that will indicate what sort of signals your remote is sending.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    deamon_knight

    Portal Member
    November 11, 2014
    48
    0
    44
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    Thanks for the response CyberSimian, I really appreciate the help. This Media Center project has been years in the making. I built the first system maybe ten years back, running Windows MCE and an ATI TV wonder card. I've upgraded a few bits at a time, replacing the ATI card with two Hauppauge PVR-150s, and some other parts, but still running XP MCE. That XP MCE system is my current one. Since my current system doesn't support digital, and XP MCEs other limitations, I've wanted to get a system that supported digital built for some time but I've had no end of troubles. I've finally solved a lot of those problems, and made the most progress yet with Windows 7 and running Media Portal.

    My point is that I've collected a lot of parts that didn't come together. The Remote in my picture is the one I'm currently using. I know that remote did not come with my USB IR receiver I'm using. The Pictured remote replaced one of the original Grey Media Center Remotes that had failed. However the pictured remote works as expected in XP MCE. I *THINK* that reciver came with the Microsoft MediaCenter Keyboard, the one with the Media Center Keys and the Touchpoint, although I really don't remember. When I use this Remote and USB receiver in MediaPortal, most of the keys work as expected, except the ones I indicated in the Picture. I'm pretty sure that the Receiver shows up as "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" in device manager, but I'm not in front of my Media Portal test rig. As soon as I get a chance I'll verify and post it.

    Aside, You are right that I have another remote. That remote came with the HVR-2250 and by all appearances is exactly the same as the picture I mosted, RC6 label and all, and the HVR-2250 has its own IR receiver setup. However, I'm not using either the Hauppage Remote or Receiver.
     

    deamon_knight

    Portal Member
    November 11, 2014
    48
    0
    44
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    Looking at my System Device manager, there is a listing for "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" under HID devices. In fact, there are two. Both entries go away when I disconnect the USB IR receiver I'm using. But I do have to use HID remote settings in MediaPortal control panel. If I use MCE Remote setting instead, only the arrow keys and number keys work.
     

    CyberSimian

    Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • June 10, 2013
    2,849
    1,771
    Southampton
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Looking at my System Device manager, there is a listing for "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver" under HID devices. In fact, there are two. Both entries go away when I disconnect the USB IR receiver I'm using. But I do have to use HID remote settings in MediaPortal control panel. If I use MCE Remote setting instead, only the arrow keys and number keys work.
    This is very strange, and is not behaviour that I have seen before.

    If the remote that you are using is identical in appearance to the Hauppauge remote, it is possible that they are both Hauppauge remotes. In which case it might be worth disabling "Microsoft MCE" and "General HID" in "MP Config", and enabling "Hauppauge" instead (rightmost tab on the "Remotes" panel in "MP Config"). It is possible that it will support the remote fully, or you might still have to enable "General HID" to get all of the buttons to work.

    Another possibility that is mentioned from time to time in the GreenButton forum is the interaction between the Microsoft MCE remote, "iTunes", and (separately) the "Chrome" browser. "iTunes" and "Chrome" both steal button presses and/or keystrokes. If you have either of them installed on your HTPC, try disabling them and then retesting the remote. For "Chrome", you have to stop it running in the background.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    deamon_knight

    Portal Member
    November 11, 2014
    48
    0
    44
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    I tried installing the Hauppauge IR drivers and have the same problem, same keys don't do any action. I tried using the hauppauge receiver instead of the USB one, and the performance was far worse, a lot of double key-presses . When I navigated with the keyboard, I still couldn't get the extra keys to work. I also tried using the remote that came with the HVR 2250, it is identical to the one I have pictured, and still have the same problem.

    I think your may be onto something when talking about a 3rd party program capturing these key-presses, using the live TV button below the mute button in my picture starts the WinTV application. I had better luck using the WinTV application to troubleshoot Tuner behavior. I'll look into disabling it.

    Attaching Pictures of my IR receivers, in case its helpful.

    The Microsoft IR Receiver, this the one I want to use and works properly with my XP system:



    The Hauppauge receiver, this one doesn't work well for me:
     

    Attachments

    • 20150226_083300.jpg
      20150226_083300.jpg
      70.1 KB
    • 20150226_083330.jpg
      20150226_083330.jpg
      98 KB
    • 20150226_083719.jpg
      20150226_083719.jpg
      119.3 KB

    deamon_knight

    Portal Member
    November 11, 2014
    48
    0
    44
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    OK looks like the WinTV might have been the culprit. I had this problem on my test system. I've since gotten the parts I needed for the final build. I didn't install the WinTV software, only the appropriate Hauppauge drivers. When I attached the IR receiver, everything started working as expected! That was the last Major stumbling block.

    One minor question remains, I want to map the "Chapter Back" and "Chapter Forward" button, right below the big "Play" to Skip forward 30sec and skip backwards 7sec. Any way to do this? it looks like there are the "Replay" and "Skip" buttons in the Media Portal. I can get the "replay button" Skip Back 15 sec with "Small Skip Back", but the "Skip Forward" function doesn't skip 30sec, it acts like the arrow keys, letting yo cycle skip values before applying them. I'd like to just hit one key and skip 30 seconds. Big Skip
    forward seems to be too much.

    Also, I'd like the big "Play" button to Pause playing video, or play when paused. Not sure how to set that up conditionally.

    Any way to do this?

    Thanks!
     

    CyberSimian

    Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • June 10, 2013
    2,849
    1,771
    Southampton
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    OK looks like the WinTV might have been the culprit. I've since gotten the parts I needed for the final build. I didn't install the WinTV software, only the appropriate Hauppauge drivers. When I attached the IR receiver, everything started working as expected!
    Excellent! :)

    I want to map the "Chapter Back" and "Chapter Forward" button, right below the big "Play" to Skip forward 30sec and skip backwards 7sec. Any way to do this?
    It is possible to customise the size of the fixed skip in "MP Config", but that affects both skip forward and skip back (the skip amounts are identical). I don't know how that relates to "small skip back" as I have never tried that (thinks: I must try that!). So the small skip back may be a fixed size, or it may be a fixed fraction of the standard fixed skip. I too prefer skip back to be smaller than skip forward (and I like the instant response of the fixed skip -- no waiting for a timeout to expire).

    The customisation procedure for an MCE remote is very flexible -- you can assign any function to any button, and alter those assignments according to the panel that is on display. So you should be able to assign the fixed skip to whatever buttons you want. This might require some experimentation to find the correct functions to assign (e.g. maybe assign small skip back to LEFT, and fixed skip forward to RIGHT).

    I'd like the big "Play" button to Pause playing video, or play when paused. Not sure how to set that up conditionally.
    The default definition of the PAUSE button will cause it to pause playback when playing, and resume playback when paused. What it won't do is start playback if nothing is playing.

    So, I think that what you need to do is define the PLAY button to be the same as PAUSE when video is on the screen. There is a panel id for fullscreen video, and maybe another one for live TV. So those are what you need to specify in the conditionality tests in the MCE config. The PLAY button for other panels stays as it is, and so will start playback when you are on the "Videos" panel or "Recorded TV" panel. (Note: I have not tried any of this, so I may not have got it quite right.)

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    deamon_knight

    Portal Member
    November 11, 2014
    48
    0
    44
    Home Country
    United States of America United States of America
    Cool, glad I could give you an Idea. Small Skip back works immediately, I just need to find out what command would be a fixed and instant 30sec skip forward. It looks like there are only 3 steps, Small, Regular, and Large, and regular cycles through options.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom