[RELEASE] MCERemote Addon - MCE Remote Control Plugin for XBMC on Windows

kulprit Wrote:Whats the best way to go about tweaking this config now jhsrennie?

I know what I want all my buttons to do, is it just go through the keyboard.xml and try and edit the mce button bits?

Does this also stop the green button opening mce and can i remap it so it opens the context menu like i've got it set in Eventghost?

Thanks for all the hard work that has gone into this, look forward to being able to get the same setup i already have going, but without a third party program.

Cheers

The way to customise the button actions is to create a keyboard.xml in your userdata\keymaps folder and put your customised mappings there. If you grab the latest version of my addon from http://xbmcmce.sourceforge.net/ in the resources\data folder is a sample keyboard.xml and a script to copy the sample keyboard.xml into your userdata folder. Edit the file by pressing Windows-R and entering:

notepad %appdata%\xbmc\userdata\keymaps\keyboard.xml

You might want to grab an up to date copy of keyboard.xml from http://trac.xbmc.org/browser/branches/Dh...yboard.xml. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Original format" link to download the file. Use it to replace the keyboard.xml in C:\Program Files\XBMC\system\keymaps.

My addon will configure the green button to send the keystroke ctrl-shift-W, which means it will no longer start Media Center. To make the keystroke start XBMC right click the XBMC link in the Start menu, select properties, click in the "Shortcut" field and press the green button. You should see this put in ctrl-shift-W as the shortcut key.

JR

Orbi Wrote:John, this sounds great! Maybe I'll finally get my conceptronic RF remote to fully work. I got it to support the most basic functions but would like to be able to use all the buttons.

Thanks for your work!

RF remotes can be troublesome.

If your remote uses the eHome driver then my addon will configure it, but I suspect it won't.

JR

jhsrennie Wrote:The aim is that it will be an "out of the box" experience in Dharma. Dharma now has the MCE keyboard shortcuts in the default mappings, even including obscure ones like ctrl-I for My Pictures. If you use the plugin and choose the option to install the MCE config (and there are only two otions :-) then your MS remote will just work. Some of the buttons, e.g. Live TV, don't have an obvious use at the moment so they will just pop up a little message to confirm you pressed the button.

The philosophy is a bit different from yours. The aim is to make everything use the standard Microsoft Media Center shortcut keys, as documented in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189249.aspx. This means that the vast majority of MCE remotes will just work. Users can of course tweak the config if they want, though I expect that most people won't bother.

If anyone wants to try the new keyboard mappings grab the latest keyboard.xml from http://trac.xbmc.org/browser/branches/Dh...yboard.xml. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Original format" link to download the file. Use it to replace the keyboard.xml in C:\Program Files\XBMC\system\keymaps.

JR

Thanks for the reply JR thats what I wanted XBMC to do for ages now. Any ways I will download the xml file and have a play with it.

I checked the reg file in your plugin and seems that I need to make some changes. I really do not care about windows Media centre but I appreciate other people do and love to have both systems work.

Any ways I'll upload my updates after the Dharma release.

Note: I do not recommend setting the power button as "ALT+F4" it does not close XBMC properly and causes XBMC.exe process to continue running in the background hence will not allow XBMC to launch again when pressing the green button "CTRL+SHFT+W". Since I changed it to launch power menu I had now issues any more.

Great work,

Cheers

elitegamer360 Wrote:Thanks for the reply JR thats what I wanted XBMC to do for ages now. Any ways I will download the xml file and have a play with it.

I checked the reg file in your plugin and seems that I need to make some changes. I really do not care about windows Media centre but I appreciate other people do and love to have both systems work.

Any ways I'll upload my updates after the Dharma release.

Note: I do not recommend setting the power button as "ALT+F4" it does not close XBMC properly and causes XBMC.exe process to continue running in the background hence will not allow XBMC to launch again when pressing the green button "CTRL+SHFT+W". Since I changed it to launch power menu I had now issues any more.

I think we've both started from the position that it was hard to modify XBMC, so instead we've worked on modifying the way the remote worked. Since I joined the XBMC team I've increasingly felt that we should build as much MCE rewmote support as possible into XBMC and try to avoid too much tweaking of the remote. As I'm sure you'll agree, things can get very complicated very quickly trying to support lots of difference ReportMappingTable setups :-)

When Dharma releases the support for the Media Center shortcut keys will be basically complete. Remotes like the VRC-1100 or AURC-001 that use MCE shortcuts should just work. For the Microsoft remote my feeling is that we should configure it to send the standard MCE shortcuts. That way it's a standard that everyone knows, and it will just work with Dharma without needing anything extra.

There will still be some tweaking necessary. For example as far as I know there are no standard shortcuts for the four coloured teletext keys. Also some users will want to modify the standard key mappings so they'll still have to edit their keyboard.xml files. Still, I think we've come a long way since v9.11 :-)

JR

jhsrennie Wrote:I think we've both started from the position that it was hard to modify XBMC, so instead we've worked on modifying the way the remote worked. Since I joined the XBMC team I've increasingly felt that we should build as much MCE rewmote support as possible into XBMC and try to avoid too much tweaking of the remote. As I'm sure you'll agree, things can get very complicated very quickly trying to support lots of difference ReportMappingTable setups :-)

When Dharma releases the support for the Media Center shortcut keys will be basically complete. Remotes like the VRC-1100 or AURC-001 that use MCE shortcuts should just work. For the Microsoft remote my feeling is that we should configure Wit to send the standard MCE shortcuts. That way it's a standard that everyone knows, and it will just work with Dharma without needing anything extra.

There will still be some tweaking necessary. For example as far as I know there are no standard shortcuts for the four coloured teletext keys. Also some users will want to modify the standard key mappings so they'll still have to edit their keyboard.xml files. Still, I think we've come a long way since v9.11 :-)

JR

Totally agree with you

I have your plugin installed and added some of my own tweaks and works perfect. Will focus on my tutorial now untill Dharma is released hopefully there will be no need for tweaks only minor editions here and there to satisfy one's taste

Hi, i'm trying to use this add-on but i am not able to let it works.
I have an original Microsoft IR6 MCE remote so i should be in the correct condition to let it works.
My system is a windows 7 x64, and i'm using Dharma beta 2.

In device manager i see: eHome infrared receiver (USBCIR)

I 've installed the addon and i see it activeted, but i can only use directions and OK buttons. The green button start MC..

Sorry i'm really new to XBMC so maybe i'm making some mistakes. Can anyone help me? Something to check?

Thanks

bfg9000 Wrote:Hi, i'm trying to use this add-on but i am not able to let it works.
I have an original Microsoft IR6 MCE remote so i should be in the correct condition to let it works.
My system is a windows 7 x64, and i'm using Dharma beta 2.

In device manager i see: eHome infrared receiver (USBCIR)

I 've installed the addon and i see it activeted, but i can only use directions and OK buttons. The green button start MC..

Sorry i'm really new to XBMC so maybe i'm making some mistakes. Can anyone help me? Something to check?

Thanks

Download this Keyboard.xml place it in here:
overwrite it when prompted.

make sure you download the latest addon from JR site version 0.0.2. In the zip file look for "MSRemote.reg" apply it then restart your PC and it should work for you with no issues.

You will need to have an XBMC shortcut on your desktop and assign it with a shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+W then the green button in your remote will work.

Soon I will post a Pre version that is compatible with the new Keyboard.xml file that are similar to my old reg v1.20. see my sig for thread link

I can finally ditch event ghost?? (please say yes )

bfg9000 Wrote:Hi, i'm trying to use this add-on but i am not able to let it works.
I have an original Microsoft IR6 MCE remote so i should be in the correct condition to let it works.
My system is a windows 7 x64, and i'm using Dharma beta 2.

In device manager i see: eHome infrared receiver (USBCIR)

I 've installed the addon and i see it activeted, but i can only use directions and OK buttons. The green button start MC..

Sorry i'm really new to XBMC so maybe i'm making some mistakes. Can anyone help me? Something to check?

Thanks

Once you've installed the addon go to the home menu and select Programs then MCERemote. From the addon menu select "Configure MCE keyboard shortcuts". After you restart the PC you should find most of the buttons work. With the official release of Dharma all the buttons will work.

JR

isamudaison Wrote:I can finally ditch event ghost?? (please say yes )

Yes.

Well, Eventghost has some nice features. For example Eventghost can route signals from the remote to XBMC even when XBMC doesn't have the focus, though this is only likely to be needed if you have a multiple display setup.

JR