[archie456]

Hi,

I have XBMC setup on a computer which is connected to my Panasonic TV with CEC set up and working.

I can control XBMC with the Panasonic remote and it works well, except the remote does not have play, pause etc.

I'm hoping to use the Harmony 650 remote to control the TV and XBMC for everything.

Can anyone advise on the best setup for the Harmony that would allow XBMC to use all buttons (I assume it would have to be set up as a Panasonic remote so it works through CEC).

Thanks.

[Uncle_Tubbie]

Hi
I have a panasonic remote that controls XBMC fine. If I puch the large button in the center of the remote I get a stop, play, pause screen at the bottom of my TV screen. from taht I can use the outside ring on the large button on the remote to do what I need.

Hope this helps

[sgibbers17]

Use the mce keyboard device in harmony's software. Any keyboard shortcut can be linked to a harmony hard or soft button including the windows key. I don't know how may devices you have but you can also add a mce remote as an additional device to to add simple buttons like play/pause without knowing the shortcuts.

[archie456]

I have a panasonic remote that controls XBMC fine. If I puch the large button in the center of the remote I get a stop, play, pause screen at the bottom of my TV screen. from taht I can use the outside ring on the large button on the remote to do what I need.

I use that now to control XBMC, but I'd really like to get all of the buttons on the Harmony remote working...

Use the mce keyboard device in harmony's software. Any keyboard shortcut can be linked to a harmony hard or soft button including the windows key. I don't know how may devices you have but you can also add a mce remote as an additional device to to add simple buttons like play/pause without knowing the shortcuts.

I tried that, but when I SSHed into the computer and ran CEC-Client, I could not see the computer picking up any of the mce keyboard commands - so I presume that the CEC link through from the Panasonic TV doesn't work with MCE Keyboard - correct me if I'm wrong...


Is there any way of finding out what commands the panasonic will send through via CEC? (I assume it has to be a panasonic specific list??)

Thanks

[sgibbers17]

Get a ir USB receiver

[SheHateMe]

Get a FLIRC.


IMO, its better than a regular IR receiver. I have a Harmony One and have all buttons mapped, including the touchscreen buttons.

[Loto_Bak]

I also recommend LIRC, the audio adapter is EASY and CHEAP to make. Or buy a usb one.

Personally I use a JP1 remote. (google JP1 remote if your interested)
Tried a harmony one but it was SLOWWWW. JP1 blew it out of the water responsiveness wise.
And they're dirt cheap. Especially if you can solder.

[archie456]

The Harmony is quite fast, but it was slow when I used it with my IR6 USB receiver - so I guess thats the receiver's issue not the remote... this was why I tired CEC.

, not tried FLIRC, would you recommend one?

How about this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/FLIRC-Dongle-Med...B00BB0ETW8

SheHateMe - when you use a FLIRC, what setup on the Harmony do you use?

Thanks.

[mattchapman]

I also recommend LIRC, the audio adapter is EASY and CHEAP to make. Or buy a usb one.

Personally I use a JP1 remote. (google JP1 remote if your interested)
Tried a harmony one but it was SLOWWWW. JP1 blew it out of the water responsiveness wise.
And they're dirt cheap. Especially if you can solder.

Can you tell me what JP1 remote you're using?

I'm fed up with the slooow laggy Harmony's. I'm super picky about responsiveness and wish it were faster.

[SheHateMe]

SheHateMe - when you use a FLIRC, what setup on the Harmony do you use?

Thanks.

The Flirc basically receives IR commands from my Harmony One and outputs them as keyboard commands to my computer. You can do whatever you want. Inside of Flirc's software is a simple XBMC layout thats already there, you just press a key and then map it on your remote. There is also a full keyboard layout (what I used for XBMC instead) in FLIRC where you can map your remote to keys from there. Combinations also work (like CTRL + F)

Before you start, add "FLIRC XBMC" to your remote using the harmony software. The first thing you have to do to be able to map all the buttons on your remote to something is to go to the myharmony software and map each physical button to a function. Even if you don't intend on using the function, map it anyway...because we are going to use Flirc to re-map them anyway.


To control XBMC, I just used the FLIRC's software to map each button to a key for XBMC (I just looked up the buttons on the Wiki + a button I setup in keymap.xml to put the computer in S3 mode ("powerdown")). After that was done, I moved to the touchscreen buttons. I deleted most of them since pretty much all the functions I needed were mapped to a physical button. I edited a button to be the "Power" button for xbmc...it also serves as the "Power On" button when I started the "Watch TV" activity on my remote.

Other than that, for the touch buttons I mapped other basic things like a button to show my TV recordings, toggled to Live TV, Mark something as watched, Show subtitles, switch subtitle language, switch audio language, fullscreen, and a Wake up button for my remote to be able to turn on my HTPC for the watch TV activity.


I make it sound like a lot, but its a lot simpler than you think. Really, you just take the Flirc, plug it in and map your keys however you want. Its worth every penny.

[archie456]

SheHateMe - Brilliant, thanks for your advice, I've ordered a FLIRC now. Hopefully this will fix my issues.

[danik56]

I added the FLIRC XBMC profile to my Harmony 700.
Now I noticed there is no function in that profile to perform the CLEAR or MENU function.
So what do I need to do in the FLIRC software to map a function to the MENU button so the XBMC menu is displayed when that button is pressed?