[JazJon]

I'll try the whole
________________________
<FullscreenLiveTV>
<keyboard>
<!-- Remap direction keys to skip -->
<left>StepBack</left>
<right>StepForward</right>
<up>BigStepForward</up>
<down>BigStepBack</down>
_________________________

But can we make it so when we're viewing the EPG and highlight a show, pressing the remote's Record button sets the timer? A second press to record the series would be great too. (to copy Media Center behavior) The info method isn't too bad actually just need to time to get used to it
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add...th_pvr.wmc

[LSU Jonno]

OK,

Here is my first attempt at providing a community keyboard.xml file.

The goal of this file is to create a better user experience for navigating PVR functions of XBMC, while using a programmable remote, with a hat tip towards our WMC backgrounds.

We should (in my opinion) try to preserve the existing XBMC keymap, meaning our added features shouldn't break the standard XBMC controls. The caveat to this, obviously, is where we are remapping certain PVR button presses to accomplish a different task on a certain PVR menu.

The file can be downloaded at the link below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kcacozl04gekn7/keyboard.xml

For windows users, to use this file place it in your XBMC keymap folder that is located in your userdata folder
%appdata%\XBMC\userdata\keymap\

For other users check the keymap wiki to determine where to place the file:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keymap

If you already have custom edits to your keyboard.xml BACK IT UP!!!!!

What's in version 1.0?

• Maps "record" function to keyboard key "a". Enables one touch recording from XBMC EPG
  
• Maps "fullscreen" function to keyboard combo "ctrl+x". Enables returning to live video with one button press from any menu.
  
• Maps "fullscreen" function to keyboard key "e" within <mypvr> tag. Enables toggling of EPG while watching live TV and recorded TV only.
  
• Enables what I'll refer to as the "Scarecrow420 changes" described in this post: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1638147
  

Notes:
You can map these new functions to any buttons you'd like on your programmable remote.

All edits to the default keyboard.xml are commented out in the linked file. You'll need to remove the comment tags:

Code:

<!--
-->

for each function you'd like to implement. Because you can only use each tag in the XML file once, I had to spread out the changes in the file into 4 parts. I tried to make it fairly obvious where the changes occurred.

To send combination keyboard presses with a Harmony remote you need to make sure you've added the MCE SE Keyboard to your profile, as it provides combo keypresses (such as ctrl+x) via the regular dropdown menu when you customize your buttons. Adding a sequence will not work unless you are running a hotkey program.

If something doesn't work right, post and we'll try to figure it out. If you have a feature request, post it and we'll try to implement it.

[JazJon]

Thanks for the clear instructions as well. The XBMC forum is pretty friendly to all which is great.

What's in version 1.0?

• Maps "record" function to keyboard key "a". Enables one touch recording from XBMC EPG
  
• Maps "fullscreen" function to keyboard combo "ctrl+x". Enables returning to live video with one button press from any menu.
  
• Maps "fullscreen" function to keyboard key "e" within <mypvr> tag. Enables toggling of EPG while watching live TV and recorded TV only.
  
• Enables what I'll refer to as the "Scarecrow420 changes" described in this post: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1638147
  

That's an Excellent V 1.0

Those 4 things are a must for former MCE users. We're on our way to making XBMC the next generation Home DVR one stop shopping Media Solution.

[scarecrow420]

Isn't fullscreen already bound to "\" so why Ctrl-x?

Also Im not sure about using key "a" for record,,, the default MCE remote record command (mapped in logitech harmony) sends Ctrl-R so I just use that


Also just to point out that my Channel -/+ commands are in the keyboard.xml as home and end keys, but im not sure what other people are binding those to in their harmony software so if you all like my home/end thats all well and good but if thats non standard then you could go with something else. I use those keys because before PVR existed in XBMC, the channel buttons on the remote really didnt have much function so i figured being able to jump to top/bottom of lists was useful. Another option could be pageup/pagedown i guess...

[JazJon]

Good point I just remembered I have my Harmony blue button mapped to the "\" works great for fullscreen (works great)

Also,
I already installed the following a few days ago. (Method 1)
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=78179
http://xbmccustomregis.sourceforge.net/remote_auto.html

This was before I started reading the forums. I'm not sure what I would be missing if I didn't already install the above.

[LSU Jonno]

Isn't fullscreen already bound to "[backslash]" so why Ctrl-x?

According to the keyboard shortcuts wiki:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keyboard_controls
Fullscreen is already mapped to the tab key, which I must have missed during my initial search. Backslash is mapped to toggle windowed mode. I'll delete this one from the xml. Saves a key!

Also Im not sure about using key "a" for record,,, the default MCE remote record command (mapped in logitech harmony) sends Ctrl-R so I just use that

Sweet! I'll change this in the .xml. "A" works, but I'd rather stick to default keys if we can.

Also just to point out that my Channel -/+ commands are in the keyboard.xml as home and end keys, but im not sure what other people are binding those to in their harmony software so if you all like my home/end thats all well and good but if thats non standard then you could go with something else. I use those keys because before PVR existed in XBMC, the channel buttons on the remote really didnt have much function so i figured being able to jump to top/bottom of lists was useful. Another option could be pageup/pagedown i guess...

I haven't used end and home yet. Pageup/down I've already mapped to the top arrow rocker on my harmony one. But yeah, people might need to switch these keys around even if we are being careful to not break XBMC functions.

Here is the link to the updated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kcacozl04gekn7/keyboard.xml

I'm going to look around in some other remote threads and see what additional things people are doing to their remote.xml that we can incorporate into the keyboard.xml. Also, if you have any feature requests let me know.

---

I'll try the whole
________________________
<FullscreenLiveTV>
<keyboard>
<!-- Remap direction keys to skip -->
<left>StepBack</left>
<right>StepForward</right>
<up>BigStepForward</up>
<down>BigStepBack</down>
_________________________

But can we make it so when we're viewing the EPG and highlight a show, pressing the remote's Record button sets the timer? A second press to record the series would be great too. (to copy Media Center behavior) The info method isn't too bad actually just need to time to get used to it
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add...th_pvr.wmc

I think this would require a code change to XBMC and is not something we can fix in our keyboard.xml file. The fix in the keyboard file does two things: 1) it enables a record key to work on a harmony remote 2) it skips the info screen and goes straight to the record confirmation screen. So you save a couple of button presses plus a screen, and since the record button actually works it greatly increases the WAF. We probably should start a list of things like this that we'd like to request as features for XBMC Gotham++. I'd like to see this feature as well, and we've already talked about needing more PVR tags so that we can customize our button layouts even better.

[scarecrow420]

Hmm i think i may be wrong on that Ctrl-R thing as it didnt work for me when i actually went to test it... Not sure what keypress the "Record" command sends, so yes perhaps we should bind it to a spare key in XBMC instead. "A" isnt spare though as it's used for audio delay control in video playback (which recordedTV counts as im pretty sure, even if liveTV doesnt). I think "G" is free (only one odd binding for it on a rarely used small EPG OSD for the current channel). We also have a bunch of IR commands from the Media Center SE device for key combos like Alt+1-9, Ctrl+A,C,V,W,X,Z etc. Some/most/all of these will likely not be bound to anything in XBMC so are "spares" we can grab to allocate things to if we require a new key for XBMC. So I guess we should set record to G or one of those Media Center SE ctrl-key combos

I also have the up/down rocker on my Harmony 700 remote assigned the PageUp/PageDown keyboard commands, and as mentioned above I have Channel +/- in the harmony software mapped to keyboard keys Home and End

[krustyreturns]

Thanks Jonno, this is really great - its very cool that you took this on. We should decide how we want to distribute it, we could embed it in the wiki or make it a sticky and have the wiki point to it. What do you want to do?

BTW, pressing the record button to start recordings from the guide is not something we can control in addon/backend either, it has to change in xbmc.

[LSU Jonno]

No problem. I've received way more help on these boards than I could ever return so this was the least I could do.

I'll update the file this afternoon or tonight and repost with a new record mapping.

One other idea, we probably should post a "recommended" harmony key map...Or do you guys think the XML file speaks for itself?

Personally I check the forums more than the wiki. Maybe get a sticky with a link in the wiki for max exposure?

[scarecrow420]

Yes I definitely think we need to list what commands should be set in the Harmony software, so people dont have to read the keymap file to piece it all together themselves...

In terms of recording from the EPG with the record button, I thought I read this was now working in Gotham (as of nightlies from about 2 weeks ago). I like the idea of second press for series recording, assuming the 2nd press does get sent through to us (eg if XBMC already knows the show is recording does it actually then suppress the record command coming to us a 2nd time). Hopefully not... We could even do a 3rd press to cancel the recording

On a related note I noticed that the popup message for extending the duration of instant recording (on 2nd record button press) is showing ERROR icon rather than INFO... we should fix that if we do a new build of the client addon

[LSU Jonno]

Yes I definitely think we need to list what commands should be set in the Harmony software, so people dont have to read the keymap file to piece it all together themselves...

Ok, I'll work on that and post it to dropbox too. I've got parents in town this weekend so it'll probably be the middle of the week before I can get something to post.

In terms of recording from the EPG with the record button, I thought I read this was now working in Gotham (as of nightlies from about 2 weeks ago). I like the idea of second press for series recording, assuming the 2nd press does get sent through to us (eg if XBMC already knows the show is recording does it actually then suppress the record command coming to us a 2nd time). Hopefully not... We could even do a 3rd press to cancel the recording

Recording from the EPG works with our .xml file...well after I switch up the ctrl+r thing it will. By the way, according to this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189249.aspx
...ctrl+r is the keyboard shortcut for record in WMC. You'd think that's what the harmony would send. Are you sure you mapped/tested this correctly?

This is the file with g mapped to record.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kcacozl04gekn7/keyboard.xml

[LSU Jonno]

Ok.

Here is the link to the latest keyboard.xml file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kcacozl04gekn7/keyboard.xml

Here is the link to the instructions (copied from my original post):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9k0dsscmq1zqwh/Keymap.docx

And here is a link to a recommended keymap:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g1zn1sum9eknazd/keymap.jpg

Krusty,
let me know if you want me to create a new post for you to sticky or if you want to just take these files and place them on your wiki. I don't have a strong opinion either way.

[LSU Jonno]

Just installed openelec beta 1 on one of my boxes replacing my Win7 build. Noticed that the above keyboard.xml does not work with openelec boxes because openelec does not recognize the Windows MCE keyboard. Apparently this is a known issue and has been around for 2+ years.

I'm working on a remote.xml file for us to use with openelec installations with the Microsoft MCE Remote mapped to a harmony remote. I'll have it up by the end of the weekend. I've got it 90% finished.

[krustyreturns]

Yes, I think creating a new post that I can stick is the right thing to do. When you get an openelec map working (which would be awesome btw), you can add it to the sticky post. Thanks!