Vista MCE Remote Control VRC-1100 (5 Viewers)

[mrceolla]

Hi folks,

My EventGhost solution doesn't appear to work in Windows 10. I can't seem to get the drivers inside EventGhost to install. If anyone knows of a solution please let me know because I liked the additional features that solution offered.

I have gotten the Centarea solution almost working perfectly with the XML file added above. Thank you for that. My only problem is that when I press the green Start button, MP switches to window mode and then navigates to the home screen. If I press the green Start button again, it switches to fullscreen mode and then switches the Home screen style, as expected according to the mapping.

What I can't figure out is why it keeps flipping from fullscreen to window mode. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks!

 

[CyberSimian]

My only problem is that when I press the green Start button, MP switches to window mode and then navigates to the home screen. If I press the green Start button again, it switches to fullscreen mode and then switches the Home screen style, as expected according to the mapping. What I can't figure out is why it keeps flipping from fullscreen to window mode. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Earlier this year I created a revised definition for the Ortek to fix the problem with the alphabetics not appearing when a real keyboard was used (this problem first appeared in MP 1.12, or maybe 1.11 or 1.10). My solution uses an accompanying AutoHotKey script to correct some of the other quirks of the Ortek, and this includes fixing the problem with the START button alternating between windowed and full-screen.

I don't know for sure why the problem occurs, but I think that the explanation is this: for the START button, the Ortek sends the key combination WIN_ALT_ENTER. It seems that the MP support code for the Centarea HID ignores the setting of the WIN key, and so processes the key combination as though it were ALT_ENTER, which (of course) is the combination that alternates between windowed and full-screen.

I would expect that EventGhost could be modified to fix the START button problem, but I have never used EventGhost and cannot tell you how to implement the fix. If you want to try my AutoHotKey version, let me know and I will add it to this thread. Note: you would need to install AutoHotKey, and I don't know whether my solution works on Windows 10 (I use it on Vista).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

You could also try to come up with a keyboard profile that we could integrate in the next MP1 release.
In fact HID Keyboard will be part of the upcoming MP1.16.
If you guys can provide a profile for your remote before the release we could integrate it thus providing you with out-of-the-box support for your hardware.

 

[mrceolla]

CyberSimian,yes I would be interested in your AHK script to get a solution in place now.

Stephane, I would love to have built in support for this as I now have two machines using this remote. I don't know how to get the keyboard profile. I have files I use with EventGhost on Win7 and there is this XML file in this thread which is pretty darn close. Do any of those help?

Are there any apps that can capture each button press into useful information for you?

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

The basics to enable HID Keyboard are explained at the top of that thread linked above.
I'm afraid we lack key capture in that first implementation.
However you should be able to use our HID Demo to figure out which keys are sent by your remote. You will find it in those forum too. You will have to make sure keyboard capture is enabled in the Devices tab then head back to the default tab to see the keys coming in.

So basically:
* Use HID demo to find out which key your remote is sending.
* Change key mapping accordingly through MP1 configuration tool.
* Once you are happy with your profile just provide us the resulting XML file for possible inclusion in MP1. You'll find it in your ProgramData folder somewhere. The exact location is provided in our HID wiki documentation I believe.

 

[CyberSimian]

CyberSimian, yes I would be interested in your AHK script to get a solution in place now.

I have attached a zip file below. Unzip it and read the file "Centarea HID.txt", and then the comments at the start of the file "Centarea HID.ahk". Put the latter file in your "Startup" folder (so that it runs when you boot), and the file "Centarea HID.xml" in MP's "InputDeviceMappings" folder (in "ProgramData").

For those who downloaded the version from the other thread, this new version ("2016-05-19") is improved and I recommend updating to this new version. See the comments at the end of "Centarea HID.txt" for a list of changes in this new version.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Edit (2016-10-25): a newer version of this support package is now availabe; see post 65 in this thread.

 

[mrceolla]

Thanks CyberSimian. I installed your solution. Start button functionality of AHK is nice. However, the first thing I noticed in MP is that the Info button wasn't working as expected. With the Windows 7 and EventGhost solution, it worked as desired. With the AHK script and XML file it appears the Info button is completely disabled, along with right click. I had it working 1/2 correctly before the change.

Is there any way, with AHK and Centerea, to get the Info button to work correctly?

Stephane, are you confident your route would yield a complete solution? Free time is scarce and I'd hate to spend the time only to be disappointed.

Thanks!

 

[CyberSimian]

Is there any way, with AHK and Centerea, to get the Info button to work correctly?

The designers of the Ortek/Hama remote control made some really weird choices. One of these weird choices is that the INFO button sends exactly the same signal as RIGHT_MOUSE, and so the two buttons cannot be distinguished. By default, when you press the INFO button, Windows thinks that you have pressed the RIGHT_MOUSE button.

In the AutoHotKey script, RIGHT_MOUSE is mapped to MP's INFO function, and LEFT_MOUSE is mapped to MP's MENU function. However, I have attempted to ensure that these mappings apply only when the mouse pointer is physically within the MP window. When MP is full screen, the mouse pointer is always within the MP window, so that works as intended. When MP is windowed, the logic for detecting when the mouse mappings should occur is not 100% correct (there is a bit of "trial and error" involved).

Of course, these mappings are intended to be used with a remote control. If you are actually trying to use a mouse, the mouse buttons won't behave as they normally would.

In the "Centarea HID.xml" file, I mapped the INFO button to toggle info. That differs from the default definition, where INFO cycles through MENU then INFO then neither.

So:

(1) Are you trying to use a mouse on other parts of the desktop when MP is windowed?
(2) Are you trying to use a mouse within MP itself?
(3) Is EventGhost still active (it may interfere with AutoHotKey)?
(4) What action are you expecting the INFO button to perform?

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

Stephane, are you confident your route would yield a complete solution?

I was fairly confident before @CyberSimian mentioned that thing with the right mouse click. Are we sure the info button sends the right mouse click rather than the contextual menu keyboard key?
You should be able to use the HID Demo to check that the keys sent by your remote can be mapped to some actions in MP1.

Free time is scarce and I'd hate to spend the time only to be disappointed.

Then you better wait for MP1.16 to come out before trying anything with HID and Centarea.
To save time you could also get a proper MCE receiver if budget allows. I'm currently using one from Inteset and can't recommand them enough.

 

[CyberSimian]

Are we sure the info button sends the right mouse click rather than the contextual menu keyboard key?

Yes, I am quite sure!

When I first got the Ortek and encountered this problem with the INFO button, I searched the internet and found quite a few threads on this topic in the XBMC, Kodi, and MythTV fora. My AutoHotKey script fixes this problem satisfactorily when using a remote control, but of course makes it impossible to use a right-mouse click within MP.

The INFO button is the worst quirk of the Ortek. But there is also the PLAY button and PAUSE button, which send the same signal as each other, and the OK button and ENTER button which do likewise. So that is three buttons which send identical signals to three other buttons. What were the Ortek designers thinking?

-- from CyberSimian in the UK