xbmc for the average user
#16
going along with the above comments, instead of trying to program remotes to work with xbmc, there should be a user interface to program xbmc with any remote.

in other words, a list of commands/functions, and then be able to assign a remote button by having xbmc 'listen' for the remote button to be pressed.
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#17
LaTropa64 Wrote:You can do everything with the keyboard:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Default_Cont..._and_Mouse

how can i map this ir codes to actions?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Pronto_Unive..._Hex_Codes

and will it work some how with MSWindows IR-USB adapter or IMON IR receiver?
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#18
TeknoJnky Wrote:going along with the above comments, instead of trying to program remotes to work with xbmc, there should be a user interface to program xbmc with any remote.

in other words, a list of commands/functions, and then be able to assign a remote button by having xbmc 'listen' for the remote button to be pressed.

That would indeed be a sweet solution. I have it more or less going myself with eventghost but getting there took quite a lot of try and error.
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#19
yecora Wrote:First thing - many remotes can simulate keyboard buttons. So, if XBMC can be fully contrallable via hot keys - it will be easy solution.

Exactly what I was thinking. My Harmony (using an MCE receiver) works perfectly with keyboard-compatible programs such as Beyond TV and SageTV. It puzzles me in XBMC that I can't pause or exit DVDs without having to install EventGhost. Can't these be mapped to more keyboard-friendly options like escape and spacebar?

DarkHelmet Wrote:That would indeed be a sweet solution. I have it more or less going myself with eventghost but getting there took quite a lot of try and error.

I spent several hours learning and setting up EventGhost yesterday to get functionality that other apps have out-of-the-box. This must be a huge barrier of entry to a lot of people.

TeknoJnky Wrote:going along with the above comments, instead of trying to program remotes to work with xbmc, there should be a user interface to program xbmc with any remote.

Perfect - a keyboard wizard that launches after install. For example "press the play/pause button...press the exit button"...etc. Map it without having to edit xml files or install third party apps.
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#20
TeknoJnky Wrote:in other words, a list of commands/functions, and then be able to assign a remote button by having xbmc 'listen' for the remote button to be pressed.

Ok, going down to basics..

All remotes need a driver, these drivers are all different on Windows, and all send keys differently to that program they want to communicate to.

Also these programs are usually closed source and the communication is aswell.

This makes that little program that should just 'listen' forced to know every known remotes drivers codes. Im sure you by know understand how damn impossible that is, this is why we use apps that already try to do this incredible feat, IRSS or EventGhost.

In Linux all drivers might be different but produces a more standardised form of output, this is done via lirc. although they do name key´s differently they always send the data the same way, this makes us able to map the incomming data to something usefull.

EDIT: If you suggest via HID, then yes that wizard would be doable. But it would grately diminish the supported remotes and you wont be able to use your keyboard
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#21
What about WinLIRC http://winlirc.sourceforge.net/ being open source could it be integrated in XBMC??

Mike
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#22
winlirc was already considered and ruled out as it only supports rs232 devices and was dead. This may be changing. Someone went to the trouble of converting their cvs repo to svn, but there's no real news indicating it being picked up again.
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#23
why are people not using the ir server suite? It's easy to install and all you really need to do is to enable the mce remote within it. Works like a charm and I can't really see why it would be hard.
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#24
I would like to say I have my mce mapped with eventghost and like someone also mentioned this is quite some work. Even for someone who is not the average user.
One of my problems was (and still is) 100 actions (or so) and only 20 buttons (or so).
Many of the actions seems to work multiple places which is not always logical (like parent dir/previous menu which I had to map to two different buttons which to me seems wrong since it is two different things but in my mind it should just be "back" - so if you are standing in a menu then back is previous menu and if you are standing in a folder back is parent dir.)

I would like to have the most common remotes work out of the box with xbmc - on my std mce remote left/right/up/down - select and clear worked without doing anything. The clear button was not that logical but xbmc accepted it when it was pressed (cant remember what the action itwas mapped to). So why does some of the buttons work?

Someone also said that people need a driver license to drive a car (strange compare if you ask me)- but somehow people understand mce....and even windows which is more complex.

/needtotest
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#25
needtotest Wrote:I would like to say I have my mce mapped with eventghost and like someone also mentioned this is quite some work. Even for someone who is not the average user.
One of my problems was (and still is) 100 actions (or so) and only 20 buttons (or so).
Many of the actions seems to work multiple places which is not always logical (like parent dir/previous menu which I had to map to two different buttons which to me seems wrong since it is two different things but in my mind it should just be "back" - so if you are standing in a menu then back is previous menu and if you are standing in a folder back is parent dir.)

I would like to have the most common remotes work out of the box with xbmc - on my std mce remote left/right/up/down - select and clear worked without doing anything. The clear button was not that logical but xbmc accepted it when it was pressed (cant remember what the action itwas mapped to). So why does some of the buttons work?

Someone also said that people need a driver license to drive a car (strange compare if you ask me)- but somehow people understand mce....and even windows which is more complex.

/needtotest

ParentDir is PreviousMenu when you hit root of that perticular view. I´m unsure atm what it maps to in non folder views (like settings and such) but logically I would say it should become PreviousMenu, if not then suggestion on trac for this is most welcome.

And the reason why only a few buttons on the MCE works out of the box have I already explained, the retarded driver of MCE have a few buttons HID (keyboard emulated) and the rest in some other weird way (getable through windows form iirc)

And usually people doesn´t understand windows, they just think they do Wink
But MCE is rather easy to use, mainly because the 1 remote its suppose to run with, It supports out of the box. Personally I think if there was one remote that worked perfect on all three major OS (there isn´t one) we would support it out of the box.

o_dog Wrote:why are people not using the ir server suite? It's easy to install and all you really need to do is to enable the mce remote within it. Works like a charm and I can't really see why it would be hard.
It does work wonders! Hopefully we can strip the MCE part and make an eventclient out of it.
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#26
Will do a check on the parent dir and previous menu thing and put it on trac if needed.

But one thing I was thinking - without knowing how you acctually implemented this in xbmc - I would group these actions and put that into the views of the skins. So if you are in one group you would have a certain actions available and another group some other actions available. Then a skin should have the "FolderControlGroup" around most of the view and a "MenuControlGroup" around the menu options in that view. Does this make sence og does it sould like total rubbish?

/needtotest
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#27
Just another call from a new user for this to be put high on the priority list.

I installed XBMC played around with it and loved it but the MCE remote doesn't work out of the box which is frustrating for the new user. Searching on the forum for 10mins finally brought up this thread and I still don't really get what I have to do to get my MCE remote working. EventGhost, HIP, Girder, XML files, not really ideal. Maybe even someone writing a guide on the wiki could help matters? If someone can explain or give me a link I will write it up on the WIKI.

Media portal, Meedio and Media centre all work out of the box with the MCE remote but I do see why its harder on cross platform app like this. Here is the SVN for an MCE plugin if thats any help

https://meedios.svn.sourceforge.net/svnr...ugins/MCE/
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#28
MediaPortal is open source too. That's not the issue.

They would have to write a Windows specific implementation and I don't think anybody on the team wants to take the time required to do that right now. It would be a pretty massive undertaking and it would only benefit a minority of the user base. Anybody who disagrees is free to work on it and submit a patch.

I personally think that EventGhost is the best solution and it's not that hard to setup. Just make sure you download the latest beta release and enable the XBMC plug-in. Then just drag the remote commands from the log to the XBMC commands. Then disable ehTray and map the green button (or start button) to starting XBMC. This should be all you need to do. I also set it up so it kills XBMC when going to sleep and starts it back up on resume, but that's totally optional.

What we need is a really good EventGhost guide. The one linked in the sticky is really outdated. It's much easier now. If I had the time I would write one myself.

The big thing that everyone should know is that you don't need to mess around with a replacement driver. If you see a tutorial that mentions this, just ignore it. The newer builds of EventGhost don't require it and you're just setting yourself up for trouble if you try to install one. IR Server Suite doesn't need one either with the latest builds.
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#29
@needtotest
Every button can be mapped to a specific action depending on current view / window. Search wiki for keymap.xml for more information.

@zag2me
Great! will look through it. Already looked somewhat halfassed on mediaportals mce plugin.
Both are C# and XBMC is in Cpp so its abit of work to get it nicely together (need to write a eventclient class for it, takes abit of time). But its certainly on the table to do.

We have hoped to have it before next release but that might not be possible, but near enough hopefully.

Cheers,
Tobias.
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Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.

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"Well Im gonna download the code and look at it a bit but I'm certainly not a really good C/C++ programer but I'd help as much as I can, I mostly write in C#."
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#30
@topfs2
OK I was unclear. I know about the keymap and also it is quite a list - but it is one long list. Does not look like it is grouped and that is what I was looking for. What I mean is all keys related to menu stuff should not work if you are not in a group "menu" (so xbmc should not listen for those key presses at all) and all folder buttons (including parent dir) should only work if you are in a folder/directory group....Hope you understand what I am trying to say.

@zag2me
look at one of the pinned topics in this group and you will find help on how to use eventghost and your mce remorte. But the reason I starte this thread was that even that I got it to work after some tries I am pretty sure that alot of people would not.

/needtotest
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