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[WINDOWS] HOW-TO get MCE remote to work in XBMC without other programs
#16
Using the .reg files on W7 x86 makes my MCE remote more compatible, before this only the arrow keys worked...

But there's one key that never works.

It's the "i - MORE" key, A MUST for me.

Can anybody please tell me a workaround for making this key work like the mouse right buttonHuh

Besides that, W7 still recognizes some keys because it launchs Media Center >_<

EDIT -

OH wait, with the first post .reg file i can use more keys =)

But i haven't find any to use as it if was the right mouse button... Sad
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#17
@vexation: I've tried the .reg files on Windows 7 Pro x64, and they both work as expected. However there appears to be a bug in the showkey.exe app that until you resize it for the first time it doesn't show any keystrokes. Try running showkey then resizing the window by a small amount. Press any key on the keyboard to confirm that showkey is catching the keystrokes.

JR
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#18
Hi, JR.

Thanks to your great support to make XBMC the media center I prefer.

I use WIN 7 X64
Remote pinnacle pctv remote kit
XBMC 9.11 beta 1

I've downloaded your mceremote.zip.
What I want is to use the remote only for XBMC, so I will install the remote-xbmc.reg.

I use XBMC with dual screen display, running it on the second display, and using 1st display for the internet and so-on...

Without installing your files, the remote works, at least to browse files, launch movies, go forward, backward...
As I run a film on the second display, thanks to XBMC, and when I use applications on the other display, XBMC still runs the movie, BUT the remote became inefficient. In fact the XBMC window is disactivated.
The only way to get back control on XBMC with the remote is to clik on XBMC button in the task bar on the 1st display, which is in another room. That's boring me.

So here is my question : With your reg file, is there a button to get back control, green logo button for example ? Could this button have exactly the same function as it has with Win Media Center ?

I hope I've been clear. Thank you for your support;
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#19
@waroc: The remote control sends a keystroke when you press a button, and it sends the keystroke to whatever application has the focus. If XBMC is running in the background then the remote won't control it.

You can modify the button settings yourself. For example you could configure one of the buttons to send alt-tab, and you might be able to use this to bring XBMC to the front. Aside from tricks like this i think you're going to have to use an external program like EventGhost.

JR
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#20
Hi JR,

So what do you think about the "mix-using" :

- Install your "remote-xbmc.reg" to disable actions on Win Media Center, and to be full efficient on XBMC.
- And run Eventghost, setting a button to focus xbmc.

Questions :
- Do I have to disable hid device or not (eventghost option) ?
- You talk about Alt-tab, what about pointing to "xbmc.exe" as I guess that if it's already running it won't run once more but will be focused ?
- How do I affect this action to the "green button" with event ghost ?
- And last, what is your showkey.exe usefull for ?

Thanks
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#21
waroc, there are other, better places to find answers about using eventghost. For example, the EventGhost guide in the Windows sub-forum. Also, the eventghost website and forum.
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#22
Ok thanks
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#23
@waroc

>Install your "remote-xbmc.reg" to disable actions on Win Media
>Center, and to be full efficient on XBMC.
>And run Eventghost, setting a button to focus xbmc.
>Do I have to disable hid device or not (eventghost option) ?
>How do I affect this action to the "green button" with event ghost ?

Don't know for sure. Actually I've never used EventGhost. But I would guess that if you use EventGhost you won't need anything else.

>You talk about Alt-tab, what about pointing to "xbmc.exe" as
>I guess that if it's already running it won't run once more but will be focused ?

Experiment suggests that this isn't the case, though I haven't tried it on a twin screen setup.

>And last, what is your showkey.exe usefull for ?

It just shows you whatever keypresses it receives. It's useful so you can see exactly what keypresses a remote control is sending, especially if they're non-printing keys.

JR
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#24
Hi JR,

I've thought about what you wrotte :

You can modify the button settings yourself. For example you could configure one of the buttons to send alt-tab, and you might be able to use this to bring XBMC to the front.

Then I would like to experiment this :

1- Generate a hotkey for xbmc.exe. For example ctrl+alt+x.
Once this done, I add in your "remote-xbmc.reg" the line 0d,00,00,00,04,05,1b, to configure the "green button" to send ctrl+alt+x


2- Set back to 0c,00,00,00,03,82,00 to switch the computer into suspend mode instead of shuting down xbmc.


What do you think, will it work ?

Other question, just to try to understand how it works, because I like understand : I compared your files (remotesendkeys.reg and remotexbmc.reg). I didn't understand why the remotexbmc.reg is unefficient on Windows media center. I noticed that there are several common lines, so if media center is opened it will be affected by the remote, isn't it ?

Thanks
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#25
How do you make it stop launching media center with the big center button?
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#26
Why doesn't the ShowKey correspond to the .reg?

For example for the BACK button (which works BTW), ShowKey shows:

WM_KEYDOWN: vkey 0x8 (8), scancode 0xE (14) - VK_BACK


The value for the BACK button should be 23...

My Pause and Stop button don't work as well. Huh
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#27
@AboveBeyond: you're making the mistake of thinking that MS would do something logical like using ASCII codes, or at the least scan codes for the registry data :-) My ShowKey app shows the virtual key code, scan code and character if a WM_CHAR message is generated, which is what we programmer dudes need for handling keystrokes.

The first column, where you saw "23" is just some MS number for the Back button. All the buttons on the remote have a number from 0 to however many buttons there are. To be fair there isn't an obvious way to number the buttons so these numbers are bound to be a bit arbitrary.

Less forgivable is that the last of the 7 numbers that make up each row sets the character sent, but it's a random number that you can only find by looking it up in MS datasheets. If you're really interested you can download the key mapping info from http://download.microsoft.com/download/1...nslate.xls.

Is your remote a standard MS remote? What does ShowKey report when you press the pause and stop keys? Note that by default XBMC maps the space key to something to do with selections and not "Pause", so the pause button on the remote isn't useful until you modify your keyboard.xml file.

JR
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#28
MioTheGreat Wrote:How do you make it stop launching media center with the big center button?

It's just a matter of finding out what number the button is and mapping it to something harmless. If I get time I'll see if I can produce a definitive list of the button numbers.

JR
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#29
@waroc:

>What do you think, will it work ?

Try it! As long as you back up the key first there's no harm in experimenting.

>Other question, just to try to understand how it works, because I like
>understand : I compared your files (remotesendkeys.reg and
>remotexbmc.reg). I didn't understand why the remotexbmc.reg is unefficient
>on Windows media center. I noticed that there are several common lines, so
>if media center is opened it will be affected by the remote, isn't it ?

The lines that are identical in both are things like the numbers and cursor keys, and these should work with Media Center in both configs. The Play, Pasue etc buttons are different and after installing Remote-XBMC.reg they will not work with Media Center.

JR
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#30
@ JR

Thanks

However, I get a little bit confused trying understand the way of mapping.

Following a previous link in this thread, I learned that for each button there're 7 bytes.

So that a code for a button is like that :

11,00,00,00,04,00,56 for example.
A B C D E F G

A defining the button
B,C,D always 00 for MCE remote
E depending the type of action. 04 for a key press event.
F 00 if you don't modify G, 05 for CTRL+ALT, 06 for SHIFT+ALT, 01 for CTRL, etc...
G HID usage ID that we can find in the "translate.pdf"

Now, looking in your "remote-xbmc.reg" for the button "volume up" for example, you write
10,00,00,00,04,00,57. I agree with that. 10 is "vol+ button", 04 for key pres event, 00 for "no modify", and 57 for "keypad +".
Just after you write "was 01, e9, 00". Didn't you want to write "was 01,00,e9" ?
Because I don't find the code "e9" for F position, and 00 in G position means "no event".

So if I want to restore the suspend function of the remote, souldn't I write 0c,00,00,00,03,00,82 instead of ...,03,82,00 ?

Thank you for taking time to explain me.
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[WINDOWS] HOW-TO get MCE remote to work in XBMC without other programs0