[BORIStheBLADE]

I don't know if the new version that is due to release very soon has it included, but I looked at the new features and didn't see mention of this.

I have noticed other people and me included would also like to be able to program our Harmony remotes to "MCE keyboard" so we can get a little more control out of the remotes. This would help us totally let go of the use of a keyboard.

I know the keymaps can be adjusted to get the customization people want out of their computers and remote combo, but for a lot of people this work is very confusing, tedious and hard.

XBMC has come a long way with plugins, HD support, different OS support and PVR support( in the works). I feel as if the remote control end of it has been shoved to the side while other features have been worked on and implemented. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining and if I could help with programing I would, but I don't have any education in this field. The only thing I can help with is being a tinkerer and suggesting improvements. I can also donate which is in the works when I get off this 9 months unemployment crap.

So basically what I'm getting at is there any future work going into the remote control aspect of XBMC?

I also keep on thinking about how the best supported remote control setup is a IR receiver we are buying off ebay. Are they new... not being produced anymore? What happens when this supply runs out?



thanks

[GJones]

Amazon has tons of new MCE remotes. I paid $14 for the remote and USB IR Receiver. That's about as reasonable as I think you can expect.

[BoxFreak]

Hmmm... is there already, or could it be possible to implement text-input via ir-remote in "sms-style" eg. you get "a" by pressing nro 2 once, "b" by pressing nro 2 twice and so on?

Logitech´s Squeezeboxes have this feature, and it´s really helping when inputing text for example for searching a song or an artist etc.

[GJones]

Hmmm... is there already, or could it be possible to implement text-input via ir-remote in "sms-style" eg. you get "a" by pressing nro 2 once, "b" by pressing nro 2 twice and so on?

Logitech´s Squeezeboxes have this feature, and it´s really helping when inputing text for example for searching a song or an artist etc.

I think they mean being able to use I for info or M for menu, etc. They are not referring to scrolling down to I in the movie list, if I understand their request.

[Flomaster]

can you program your harmony remote to be a MCE keyboard so it is sending keypresses? im pretty sure there is a MCE Keyboard profile to be had.

-=Jason=-

[BORIStheBLADE]

can you program your harmony remote to be a MCE keyboard so it is sending keypresses? im pretty sure there is a MCE Keyboard profile to be had.

-=Jason=-

You can program a harmony remote to send MCE keyboard strokes, but XBMC doesn't recognize them in live. I think only in Windows + XBMC.

[AaronD]

Hi,

I have a Harmony (900) and MCE remote USB receiver. It's working fine - I'm wondering what benefit people are getting out of setting up the remote as a MCE keyboard remote? Why would I want it to do this instead of just a regular MCE remote? Is it something to do with getting more buttons to map to other functions or something? That's the only problem I have with my setup - I'm almost run out of "unused" buttons that I can map to other functions on the remote screen like zoom in / zoom out or update library etc.

Cheers

[BORIStheBLADE]

Hi,

I have a Harmony (900) and MCE remote USB receiver. It's working fine - I'm wondering what benefit people are getting out of setting up the remote as a MCE keyboard remote? Why would I want it to do this instead of just a regular MCE remote? Is it something to do with getting more buttons to map to other functions or something? That's the only problem I have with my setup - I'm almost run out of "unused" buttons that I can map to other functions on the remote screen like zoom in / zoom out or update library etc.

Cheers

If you look at the keyboard controls you can toggle and cycle subtitles subtitles without needing to go to a menu. There are two separate buttons for this. It would be nice to make these subtitle buttons used on the remote.

These are just a couple I can think of off the top of my head.

[StarChild]

What about plug-ins with different keymaps for different remote controls?

EDIT: Also, maybe a plugin that allows the user to setup a custom keymap right in the gui. A list of all available things that the remote buttons could be mappet to, like many games keymaps works.

[BORIStheBLADE]

What about plug-ins with different keymaps for different remote controls?

EDIT: Also, maybe a plugin that allows the user to setup a custom keymap right in the gui. A list of all available things that the remote buttons could be mappet to, like many games keymaps works.

This would be really good. I think others have mentioned it, but I haven't seen any other talk about it. I feel it would make things a lot easier if they can have XBMC read ir signals and have them set to desired basic functions.

[Mindzai]

Hmmm... is there already, or could it be possible to implement text-input via ir-remote in "sms-style" eg. you get "a" by pressing nro 2 once, "b" by pressing nro 2 twice and so on?

Logitech´s Squeezeboxes have this feature, and it´s really helping when inputing text for example for searching a song or an artist etc.

Already works fine for me in dharma beta 2 both for jumping to titles in lists and for the on screen keyboard.

[dukey]

I feel as if the remote control end of it has been shoved to the side while other features have been worked on and implemented.

Probably because it has. Linux has LIRC which is pretty much standard. Under windows there are a bunch of programs, girder, eventghost, etc. Each htpc software, media portal etc all seem to write their own plugin system for remote control support. So nothing is even remotely standard. To top it off the cheap remotes install themselves basically as keyboards and aren't configurable at all. A double whammy.

I am the developer of winlirc, so clearly I am biased, but winlirc could potentially really solve your problems, not just for XBMC but maybe other programs. Essentially winlirc just decodes signals, and outputs the name of the button on a socket. Any program can listen to this socket message. And for the user all he/she has to do is bind the name of the button in the LIRC config, to an action inside your program. Historically WinLIRC only supported home brew serial receivers. A few people on ebay etc commercially made them, but they aren't that widespread. But all that has changed, I rewrote the entire program, and ported a large part of the code over from the linux version. So now we have a plugin system that can support pretty much any remote control. I've just finished a plugin for the firefly mini remote.

Next up is the MCE receiver. The MCE receiver, like some of the other hardware I have, gives access to the raw timing information of the signal. So with an MCE receiver we can support any infra-red remote control, not just the MCE one. That is the plan for the anyway. I just need to buy one first :p

Check out the audio receiver. An infra-red receiver hooked directly to the line in on your sound card.
http://winlirc.sourceforge.net/audioreciever.html
You can decode pretty much most remote controls with that, and it costs only a few pennies.

[stryba]

Hmmm... is there already, or could it be possible to implement text-input via ir-remote in "sms-style" eg. you get "a" by pressing nro 2 once, "b" by pressing nro 2 twice and so on?

Logitech´s Squeezeboxes have this feature, and it´s really helping when inputing text for example for searching a song or an artist etc.

Already works fine for me in dharma beta 2 both for jumping to titles in lists and for the on screen keyboard.

This at least already integrated since Camelot, I use it alot when navigating through lists of movies or when renaming stuff. The soft keyboard would be very tedious to use otherwise