Will the Boxee Box Remote work with XBMC (on any hardware other than the Boxee Box?)?

Hi all, sorry for resurrecting an old thread but i thought this may be a good place to ask the question. Has anyone managed to get this to work? For what i use XBMC this remote is great i can go into my movies, play/stop/fast forward etc etc.

What i would like to know however is if there is a way to change the CAPS key to SHIFT instead as previously mentioned to make my browsing a little easier.

The rest of the remote seems to work quite well although the play/pause button is not recognised in Windows 7 however i do not really need this as i have the enter button on the front to start/stop my movies. Is there a way to map this lunch xbmc.exe?

Thanking in advance,

Sprite

znelbok Wrote:If this remote has a gyro to enable the keyboard, how well does it work sideways?

No before you think why would you use it sideways, I lie on the couch watching TV and often have the remote near my hand and it gets used sideways while I am lying down. If this remote turns off the downward facing keys, then I need to know how it responds to being used sideways.

Is there a simple guide to getting it to work with live/freaks or openelec installs. I have never delved into the xml file for setting up a remote. I see you assign a key ID to a keyboard keystroke, but how do you get the key id?

Mick

I have the boxee remote for one week. It does work good
On openelec it works out of the box. On xbmc live it does not work, because of a problem in the x server, and i haven't been able to fix it yet.
On xbmc live freak 10.1 maverick it does work out of the box, there is a patch around, to make it work.

About the key stroke, that is one question i haven't figured out yet, maybey with debug mode turned on?

sprite1 Wrote:Hi all, sorry for resurrecting an old thread but i thought this may be a good place to ask the question. Has anyone managed to get this to work? For what i use XBMC this remote is great i can go into my movies, play/stop/fast forward etc etc.

What i would like to know however is if there is a way to change the CAPS key to SHIFT instead as previously mentioned to make my browsing a little easier.

The rest of the remote seems to work quite well although the play/pause button is not recognised in Windows 7 however i do not really need this as i have the enter button on the front to start/stop my movies. Is there a way to map this lunch xbmc.exe?

Thanking in advance,

Sprite

Take a look here. So you can remap the keys. Only like mick say, i haven't figured out yet, how to get the key ID's.

Indeed the pause/play button does not work to start a movie, the pause/play button does work to pause the movie. I use xbmc live.

Hi,

I don't know if this well help anyone but just in case.

I have managed to remap the play/pause button to launch xbmc.exe using event ghost.

Install XBMC.exe
File > options > Auto start
Configuration > Add plugin > Generic HID > select DLINK USB HID RECEIVER (second one down if you have three listed)
Configuration > Add Macro > Start Application > Browse to XBMC.exe in program files under windows.
Press the play button on the remote and check the log on the left hand side, should show up as HID.Button.13+26+27+28+29
Drag this event on the left hand side under the macro you have just created and test.

If no action is being logged on the left check your HID plugin.

As i say i don't know if this will be of help to anyone but in case it is i'll post it.

I am using the Boxee remote with Openelec, works like a charm after you remap the keys.

I use the following to find the keypresses: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=104.0;wap2
and map them to these commands:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keymap.xml

and put them in keyboard.xml located:
/storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

This is the file I use to give it the same functionality as an Apple Remote (i.e. change the volume using the up and down arrow etc.)

<keymap>
<global>
<keyboard>
<key id="61467">ParentDir</key>
</keyboard>
</global>
<FullscreenVideo>
<keyboard>
<key id="61453">Pause</key>
<key id="61480">VolumeDown</key>
<key id="61478">VolumeUp</key>
<key id="61467">Stop</key>
</keyboard>
</FullscreenVideo>
</keymap>


The only thing I havent figured out is if you can do long presses. Also, as I am a Linux noob, there might be a better method.

rye787 Wrote:I am using the Boxee remote with Openelec, works like a charm after you remap the keys.

I use the following to find the keypresses: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=104.0;wap2
and map them to these commands:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keymap.xml

and put them in keyboard.xml located:
/storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

This is the file I use to give it the same functionality as an Apple Remote (i.e. change the volume using the up and down arrow etc.)

<keymap>
<global>
<keyboard>
<key id="61467">ParentDir</key>
</keyboard>
</global>
<FullscreenVideo>
<keyboard>
<key id="61453">Pause</key>
<key id="61480">VolumeDown</key>
<key id="61478">VolumeUp</key>
<key id="61467">Stop</key>
</keyboard>
</FullscreenVideo>
</keymap>


The only thing I havent figured out is if you can do long presses. Also, as I am a Linux noob, there might be a better method.

Thanks for sharing, it looks great i shall test it out.
Long presses has to be added to the keymap.xml also if i am right. Maybey you can check other keymaps that uses long presses.

Anyone got this to work? how? I have tried to pressed al the buttons - but all it do is re flash XBMC logo and then back to where I am.

I tried it on på PC with XP = no problem.

What du i need to install (and how) on my XBMCLive computers to get this to word?

mrLunkwill Wrote:Anyone got this to work? how? I have tried to pressed al the buttons - but all it do is re flash XBMC logo and then back to where I am.

I tried it on på PC with XP = no problem.

What du i need to install (and how) on my XBMCLive computers to get this to word?

XBMC Live 10.1: it does not work there is a problem with X-Server, so far as i know there is no fix.
Openelec XBMC Live: it does work out of the box. This is the one i use.

There are also custom XBMC Live cd's build on Ubuntu 11.04 (natty). With this patch you are able to able to fix the x server bug.

znelbok Wrote:If this remote has a gyro to enable the keyboard, how well does it work sideways?

Mick

There is no gyro. The keyboard works in any position.

Some good info here, and got me working on my own keyboard.xml file. I currently have some questions tho.

1) Whats the Key ID for the Play/Pause Button? When I press it and look in the log, all I get is:

I'm trying to remap the play/pause button so that in the menu it acts as a context button.

2) I'm not sure what the proper term to call this is, but is there a "bracket" (like <FullscreenVideo></FullscreenVideo>) for when you just have video playing, but NOT in full screen? For instance, I want a button to do one thing in the Menu, but if a video is playing in the background of the menu, I want it to do something else.

3) Is there anyway to detect how long a button is being pressed like on a apple TV remote? For instance, if I hold a button for 1.5 seconds it does something else?

The play/pause button is sending an appcommand message not a keypress. In XBMC v10.1 there is no way to change the action of appcommands so can't modify the action of the play/pause button.

The current development builds (http://mirrors.xbmc.org/nightlies/win32/) do allow you to change the appcommand actions, though note that the development builds can be a bit buggy.

JR