recommendations on remote (1 Viewer)

[hunter33]

I installed MediaPortal and after setting it up with some plugins and skins, it looks and plays great. However, the interface is difficult to use with a wireless mouse, so I'm going to use a remote control instead. I'm looking for one that I could use to launch a custom application and then navigate through Media Portal. Could any of the following do that? Does anyone have a recommendation?

Newegg.com - AVS Gear GP-IR01BK Windows Vista Infrared MCE Black Remote Control

Amazon.com: Windows 7 Vista XP Media Center MCE PC Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Home, Premium and Ultimate Edition: Electronics

DealExtreme.com - Wireless Multimedia Infrared IR Remote Controller

 

[userjan]

Have you looked at the Logitech Harmony remotes ? I peronally really like those couse you can learn/configure them with every IR command you want, make custom commands on the display.

You can program it to for instance to turn your tv to the right channel, amp to right output and wakeup you mediapc just by pressing one button.

(remember you still will need a IR reciever on the PC

)

Newegg.com - Recertified: Logitech Harmony 510 Advanced Universal Remote Control

It's a litle more expensive then the models you where looking at (±50$), but i think it is worth the extra money.

 

[elliottmc]

I have the first two remotes in the original post, and they are both good and work out of the box (configure MediaPortal to use MCE remote).

Mark

 

[hunter33]

Thanks for the help, guys, it's much appreciated. I went with the first remote, Newegg.com - AVS Gear GP-IR01BK Windows Vista Infrared MCE Black Remote Control, and I'll update this thread if it doesn't work for some reason.

Update:
The remote works perfectly, Windows 7 detected it and installed it automatically. I did have some issues, though:
-The "Power PC" button sleeps the computer. I disabled this under Windows setting "change what the power buttons do"
-The "Power PC" button is actually "Power2" and cannot be remapped using standard remote plugin. Instead, I used the IRSS remote plugin to map the key.

Otherwise, the standard MCE options work well. The remote is well built and I'm very happy with it.

 

[tim50stroud]

I've just started playing with the second one, and hit a few minor issues with key mapping; trying the pluggin "KeyboardInputPlugin" (using Vista) and only one unresolved issue trying to map "X" to one of the keys; doesnt seem to work the same as my imedian remote used to