[Coogan]

I'd really like to get my DirecTV remote (RC32, I think) to work fully with XBMC. Right now, it's only working about half-way.

Here's the deal. I found an old Toshiba IR-USB receiver at work (came with a WinXP MCE laptop that had been excessed long ago) and have it working with LIRC on my Ubuntu Lucid system running XBMC. We have a Logitech Harmony remote, but my wife doesn't like it much, so for that reason (plus keeping the amount of remote clutter down) I'd prefer to use the DirecTV remote that came with our HD PVR. The remote has AV1 and AV2, and I found the code to get it working with Windows Media Center.

Currently, only MENU, SELECT, and BACK are the only buttons that work, other than the navigation buttons. Because of this, anytime I have to Set Content, or pretty much anything that requires a popup box, I have to switch over to the Harmony (which is also programmed with WMC)

LIRC is using a MCE conf file for both the remote and the receiver. The remote is currently programmed for WMC on AV1.

[poofyhairguy]

We have a Logitech Harmony remote, but my wife doesn't like it much

What model, and why doesn't she like it?

Only reason I ask is because it seems you are trying to turn a DirectTV remote into a crappy Harmony. What might be impossible with a DirectTV remote takes a few mouse clicks to do in the Harmony's interface...

[Coogan]

It's a Harmony 880; we bought it several years ago. She's not crazy about it because (A) it's another remote we have to keep up with, (B) we frequently forget to put it back on the charger and don't notice the battery is drained until we want to watch TV, and © we've used the DirecTV remote for so long we know where all the buttons are just by touch. With the Harmony we were having to glance down at the remote all the time. Another thing we both didn't like was having to scroll thru the LCD menus to find the command we wanted, and the buttons along the side were kinda small.

Out setup is not complicated. We don't have a stereo so we're just controlling the TV and the HD DVR. We have a Blu-ray player but never watch anything on it. The DirecTV remote does an excellent job of controlling the 2 components we use. Really, I'm just looking to get a few more buttons to work on it with XBMC (mainly the popup menus).

Coog

[poofyhairguy]

Thanks for the answer. The reason I asked is because I recommend Harmonies more than any devices in AV-land, and I wanted to know why someone wouldn't like one (as I think any of mine are the greatest devices ever invented). To be honestly though all of mine have been 700 and lower, I have no experience with the 880. I guess in the future I will specifically avoid recommending that model.

As far as your question, if you are using Windows this is the only advice I could find:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=66608

Which is kinda a dead end.

In Linux you could always get it to work by creating a custom Lircmap.xml:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Lirc_and_Lircmap.xml

I personally have never done that, but I have found this picture to explain how it works:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5266/xbmcremote.jpg

Thanks again!!!

[Coogan]

I have no experience with the 880. I guess in the future I will specifically avoid recommending that model.

As far as your question, if you are using Windows this is the only advice I could find:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=66608

Which is kinda a dead end.

In Linux you could always get it to work by creating a custom Lircmap.xml:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Lirc_and_Lircmap.xml

I personally have never done that, but I have found this picture to explain how it works:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5266/xbmcremote.jpg

Thanks again!!!

Thanks for the advice. Don't get me wrong; there's nothing wrong with the Harmony 880. We're just both so used to the DirecTV remote; the buttons are large and arranged well, whereas we were constantly having to glance down at the Harmony LCD to do some of the more basic operations that it became distracting.

Thanks for the picture. The single biggest problem I was having was trying to wrap my head around how LIRC interacted with the remote and the receiver, and how XBMC got the info from it.

Coog

[Coogan]

So, is it correct to say that if run irw and start hitting buttons, that any buttons that don't register with irw are just not supported/recognized by the IR receiver?

[Coogan]

Hmmm, ignore that last question. Still figuring this out, but irw sees a lot more commands from the Harmony using Media Center PC profile than the DirecTV remote does. Methinks the DirecTV remote programming codes only program certain buttons.