TV Guide screen bug and usability (1 Viewer)

Stéphane Lenclud

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    I noticed that on the TV Guide when already viewing a channel if I hit fast forward or rewind on my remote the TV Guide is interpreting the command by jumping 3 hours forward or backward but the TV player is also interpreting the command and thus goes forward or backward in the timeshift buffer.

    I was using StreamedMP, did not have time to get relevant logs. Is anyone else seeing that issue too.

    Also would it be possible to use next and previous to jump by 24 hours in TV Guide?
    Do we have a key to go back to current time in TV Guide? Would be great if hitting stop would do just that.
     

    CyberSimian

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    Is anyone else seeing that issue too.
    Yes, I am.

    I currently use Windows Media Center, but some months ago I installed MediaPortal 1.4pre, and have been evaluating it intermittently since then. Recently I tried to set up the remote control to mimic as closely as possible the functions available on the WMC remote, and I noticed the problem that you describe. I have not looked at it any further, so I do not know whether it is a problem with the changes that I made, or whether the problem is present in the default system. I was using the Titan skin.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    CyberSimian

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    I noticed that on the TV Guide when already viewing a channel if I hit fast forward or rewind on my remote the TV Guide is interpreting the command by jumping 3 hours forward or backward but the TV player is also interpreting the command and thus goes forward or backward in the timeshift buffer.
    Did you find a solution to this? I assumed that I had made an error in customising the definitions for the MCE remote control, so this afternoon I reset the definitions to default and had another attempt, but without success (same error as before). This time I was using MP 1.8.0 and the aMPed skin.

    I was trying to set up the remote control to mimic as closely as possible the buttons in Windows Media Center, and I would surmise that you were doing the same (where the FORWARD and REWIND buttons cause the EPG to scroll right or left by 3 hours). I first selected FORWARD and REWIND from the actions listed, but they had the problem you described. Then I tried quite a few of the other actions that looked as though they might apply (MUSIC_NEXT, NEXT_ITEM, NEXT_CHAPTER, NEXT_TELETEXTPAGE, etc.). Some did nothing, while others behaved the same as FORWARD and REWIND.

    Two observations:
    (1) Some of the actions would cause the playback of recorded TV to speed up (either forwards or reverse), but did nothing when in the EPG with the thumbnail TV screen visible (the actions did not affect replay, but did not affect the EPG either). So using the "TVGUIDE window" as the filter does seem to work.

    (2) I tried connecting a keyboard and using the keyboard short cuts directly, having reset the MCE remote control definition to default. Remarkably, the F5 and F6 keys did what we want -- they scroll the EPG horizontally by 3 hours without affecting playback of recorded TV in the thumbnail TV screen. So, the required functions do exist (somewhere), but just not in the default set-up for the MCE remote. Also, the actions available to set up the remote do not seem to include the functions corresponding to F5 and F6.

    Also would it be possible to use next and previous to jump by 24 hours in TV Guide?
    Yes. I set up the SKIP_FORWARD and SKIP_BACKWARD buttons (">|" and "|<") on the remote control to scroll the EPG horizontally by 24 hours, and that does work, with no adverse side effects.

    Do we have a key to go back to current time in TV Guide? Would be great if hitting stop would do just that.
    There is an action that you can select from the list, so you just need to choose a button on the remote control to assign the action to. The STOP button might not be such a good idea, as it currently stops playback of video in the thumbnail TV screen (either live TV, recorded TV, or video).

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    Stéphane Lenclud

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    Nice work there mate. I did not spend anytime on that. It's clearly a key handling issue but I have little knowledge of how MP deals with that.

    I was trying to have a similar behaviour than my Sky Germany decoder.

    We ought to try and get this into master as default settings since right now it's just a mess.
     

    CyberSimian

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    Do you know which XML files were changed by your setup?
    It's "keymap.xml". I was looking at it this morning, and there are quite a few entries for FORWARD and REWIND (in various guises) for different windows, and they do not all have the same action id. But I did not spot any error in the definitions, so I don't know where the mismatch is.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    Stéphane Lenclud

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    Are you talking about the bug or your changes? The bug will most certainly need to be fixed in the code. Some of your changes to that XML should be set by default I guess.
     

    CyberSimian

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    Are you talking about the bug or your changes? The bug will most certainly need to be fixed in the code. Some of your changes to that XML should be set by default I guess.
    I was trying to see if I could spot some error in the definitions that would explain the bug (and perhaps be fixable by a simple change to "keymap.xml"). But no such luck.

    A separate question is whether the default settings for an MCE remote control should mimic as closely as possible the settings within WMC. It is not obvious that they should. There might some day be a dedicated MP remote control, with settings optimised for MP. The default MCE settings would then try to map an MCE remote control to this hypothetical MP remote control (not reproduce WMC settings). But, of course, it should be possible to get the WMC settings using the customisation process (something which currently does not work!)

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    CyberSimian

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    The bug will most certainly need to be fixed in the code.
    I have not been able to identify the cause of the problem, but I have been able to devise a work-around that will give a usable system until such time as the problem is fixed. Unfortunately, the work-around requires the use of additional software and additional hardware. Luckily, I already had the additional hardware, so this work-around has cost me nothing.

    The Microsoft MCE remote control uses RC6 infra-red protocol. MCE-compatible remote controls from other manufacturers may or may not use RC6 protocol. You can tell if they do by plugging in the infra-red receiver, and then going to "Device Manager" in Windows "Control Panel", and looking at the entry for the IR receiver; if it is described as "eHome Infrared Transceiver", it uses RC6 protocol.

    One of the MCE compatible remotes that does not use RC6 protocol is the Ortek VRC-1100. This is also sold under other brand names, such as the Adesso ARC-1100, the Gmyle, and the Hama 00052451. I have the Hama version. If you plug in the Ortek IR receiver, you will find that it appears to Windows as a keyboard plus a mouse. So the Ortek remote sends Ortek IR protocol to the Ortek receiver, which then converts the button presses into keyboard short-cuts, and passes those keystrokes to the operating system.

    The problem with this is that the MCE short-cuts are (mostly) different from the MP short-cuts, so MP (mostly) ignores the keystrokes. A few short-cuts are the same, such as the ones corresponding to the OK, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, VOL-UP, VOL-DOWN buttons on the remote. To get MP to respond to all of the buttons on the Ortek remote, you have to use some additional software, and I used AutoHotKey.

    I tested this by creating an AutoHotKey script for the FORWARD and REWIND buttons. In MCE, the keyboard short-cuts for these buttons are CTRL+SHIFT+F (for FORWARD) and CTRL+SHIFT+B (for REWIND). So the AutoHotKey script maps these two keystrokes to F6 and F5 respectively (these are the MP keyboard short-cuts for FORWARD and REWIND). This is the script:

    Code:
    ^+b::f5
    ^+f::f6

    I am pleased to report that this script solves the problem with the FORWARD and REWIND buttons. When playing recorded TV, if you press the GUIDE button, the EPG appears with recorded TV continuing to play in a thumbnail TV screen. Pressing the FORWARD button on the Ortek remote control now scrolls the EPG to the right by 3 hours, and does not affect the recorded TV playing in the thumbnail TV screen. The REWIND button similarly works correctly.

    So the Ortek remote control plus Ortek IR receiver plus AutoHotKey provides a work-around for this problem. I am going to create an AutoHotKey script for the complete set of buttons on the Ortek remote, to provide a complete solution; I will post it when I have completed and tested it.

    One final point: you do need to use the Ortek IR receiver, but you do not have to use the Ortek remote control. I have never used Harmony universal remotes, but I understand that their database includes several different protocols for MCE, so one of them might be Ortek protocol (check this if you are contemplating buying a Harmony). However, I have used One-For-All programmable remotes. I don't think that any OFA remote has Ortek protocol built-in, but by using an appropriate cable and the RMIR tool (free download from www.hifi-remote.com), you can load the Ortek protocol into the remote. I have done this with an OFA Xsight Colour remote (the usability of this remote is decidedly indifferent), and I intend loading Ortek protocol into my OFA Xsight Lite remote for longer-term use with MP (the "Lite" has better usability than the "Colour", in my view).

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

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