[jhsrennie]

There are a few articles in the forum about getting the MCE remote to work with the Windows port of XMBC, but they all involve extra software and considerable messing around. Given that for us Windows users the MCE remote is the obvious choice, would it be possible to have XBMC recognise the codes it generates?

My MCE remote just generates keystrokes; I assume all MCE remotes do the same. Windows sees the remote as a keyboard. For example the Play generates ctrl-shift-P. From the brief look I've had at the source code I don't think it would be easy to build this into the keyboard handler and keep it reasonably platform independant, but maybe there could be an optional module that processes the Windows keyboard messages and remaps them to something sensible. The third party apps do something like this, but it would be nicer to have it as part of the Windows XBMC.

John Rennie

[Jiggles]

I'd like this aswell, it would be very nice for all us MCE users who switched to XBMC and want to keep using their MCE remotes. (this includes third party remotes like the Logitech DiNovo Mini)

[WiSo]

One can write an event client and send us the patch
I have three remotes at home which don't even work with software like ir server suite or eventghost showing that this isn't an easy task.

I tried getting the infos via the windows messaging but this didn't work at all for my MCE v1 (HID device) and not very well with my mac mini remote. Latter one shows some different codes per key press but not for all keys.

I recently got a X10 remote which also doesn't work with event ghost with the driver windows xp has. Maybe it works when I install the medion driver.

So as summary: we also don't want the extra software and the event client is the way to go. Unfortunately it isn't that easy to get the right information out of windows.
If one has some pieces of code for me (either windows message or raw access via the driver kit) please let me know.

[jhsrennie]

I wrote a little app that showed me all the WM_CHAR messages it received and with my MCE remote I get the list I've attached below. If it helps, I fired up the Visual C Spy applet to see what keyboard messages XBMC is getting. If I press P then it gets a WM_KEYDOWN then WM_KEYUP with the wparam set to 'P'. Ctrl-shift-P gives me the same WM_KEYDOWN and WM_KEYUP messages, but of course with extra messages for the down and up events of the control and shift keys. Curiously none of the keystrokes generate a WM_CHAR message.

If you mail me a link to the source code files where you handle the Windows keyboard messages I can have a look.

The keystrokes generated by my remote are:


Record ctrl-R
Skip ctrl-F
Pause ctrl-P
Replay ctrl-B
Stop ctrl-shift-S
Forward ctrl-shift-F
Play ctrl-shift-P
Rewind ctrl-shift-B

PC alt F4
TV ctrl-T
Aspect ctrl-shift-Z
MSN no WM_CHAR message

Videos ctrl-E
Music ctrl-M (return)
Pictures ctrl-I (tab)
MyTV ctrl-shift-T

Start no WM_CHAR message

Guide g
RTV ctrl-O

Ttile ctrl-U
Audio ctrl-shift-A
DVD ctrl-shift-M
Radio ctrl-A

[WiSo]

Please have a look at the event client example code in svn http://trac.xbmc.org/browser/branches/li...entClients

[jmarshall]

Also, just to be clear: We do NOT want any helper applications to generate keyboard key presses. Instead, they should use the eventclient API. Otherwise it's impossible to tell if the user is actually using a real keyboard or whether it's a remote (essential for any text input and so on).

[jhsrennie]

I've had a look at the code. Is the best solution for this to write an event client? This would then presumably have to run as a separate app so it's a little tacky having to start a separate app to run alongside XBMC.

The event client examples look fairly straightforward, but it isn't obvious how my event client receives notifications. For example I'd need to know that the user has pressed ctrl-shift-P and respond by sending a P keypress (via the API!). Or have I misunderstood, and would I have to use a keyboard hook to trap keypresses myself?

JR

[mjfuller44]

At last someone else is trying to use a regular Vista Media Center remote control for XBMC. And I was beginning to think that I was the only one!

I have found that my remote control (Speedlink SL-6399) works perfectly in VMC but only up, down, left, right and OK work in XBMC, which means that I can browse about the application but once I start a media file I can't stop it or go back.

I have tried EventGhost, but it doesn't pick up on my button presses so I can't map the XBMC functions to buttons. In IRSS I get no response whatsoever.

I heard that XBMC Live has the Vista Remote Control built into it so it works "out-of-the-box". Is it really that simple? And if so, can I set it up as a permanently installed alternative to Windows XBMC installation? (Please redirect me to appropriate threads.)

If you guys ever crack the user-friendly remote control issue I'll gladly donate and will be touting this media center to everyone I know! Until then, I'm stuck with Windoze Media Center.

[marklassau]

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=39839 has two posts saying that MCE works out of the box for XBMC Live.

[pencer]

XBMC Live is Linux based, but i can confirm that MCE remote works out of the box.

jhsrennie was asking for out of the box support of Windows.

[Kung Foo]

Has anyone cracked this one yet?

I have a remote control that generates keycodes like ctrl-p for play/pause.
So I'd be very interested in getting XBMC to support this kind of events. Currently it does not detect these key combinations correctly (I checked the XBMC log file).