[nero120]

Running the latest version of XBMC. Go into music, play an album. Press pause on your keyboard/remote, "oh that's strange, pause doesn't actually pause, it switches the screen". Next, try to skip back a track. Nothing.

It may just be me, being the simple fellow that I am, but doesn't this strike anyone as a fundamental and obvious flaw? I mean, what's the point of any of this if you can't control the damn thing?

Please excuse my flippant remarks, I am simply at my wits end. I don't see why I need to trawl through 100s of posts and become an expert in IR receivers and XML in order to get basic stuff like this working.

Now, if anyone could be so kind as to help me out with these two commands I would be forever in their debt.

[stoli]

Try here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Global_Keyboard

[jhsrennie]

You don't say what remote you're using, or what if any extra software you've installed to support the remote. I'd guess you've made the natural but sadly misguided assumption that all MCE remotes are identical :-)

There is no standard interface for remotes in Windows, so most remotes work by emulating a keyboard and sending key presses when you press the buttons. The Pause button will normally send ctrl-P and the Next button will send ctrl-F. See http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi..._with_XBMC or http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi...in_Windows if you're using an eHome/RC3 remote. Alternatively just tell us what remote you're using and with a bit of luck it will be one we know about. Is it one of the remotes on http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Remote_Control_Reviews

JR

[pulpfxn]

I have my Harmony remote set up as an MCE Keyboard and mapped all the buttons in accordance with the Common Platform-Independent Keymapping. I can confirm that skip back (Comma) in music (playlist or visualisation) does not seem to do anything.

[butchabay]

Remote send keypresses enabled in settings?

[nero120]

Hi guys thanks for the responses. The remote has nothing to do with it. Plug a keyboard in and try it. You should find that pause and skip previous simply do not work.

Edit: As an update to this, I've found that the media centre keyboard shortcuts (ctrl-shift-p, etc) work correctly at all times. Anyone know why these commands work yet XBMCs own keys don't? Is this a bug? Unfortunately I can't program my Harmony One to send complex keystrokes.

[butchabay]

Pause is a simple keypress "space" working perfectly, also next and previous track, no problems here. Can't reproduce the problem you have.

[nero120]

Guys, I've finally fixed it. Turns out there were actually two problems:

1. My remote was not sending 'comma' properly so skip previous didn't work properly. I fixed this by changing the system keyboard.xml to assign previous to another key, updated my remote and now this works fine.

2. It turns out (by default) the space key switches between the playlist screen when in library view. Seems a bit idiotic seeing as this key is already assigned (by default) to what I would describe as a rather crucial function. I fixed this by updated keyboard.xml to assign playlist switching to a different key when in all the library views.

I really like XBMC, but sometimes it drives me up the wall how unnecessarily complicated it is. It's taken me a stupid amount of hours to get the thing working in a way that most other players come out of the box with. Anyways, I'm happy... for now!

[jhsrennie]

Hi guys thanks for the responses. The remote has nothing to do with it. Plug a keyboard in and try it. You should find that pause and skip previous simply do not work.

Give me credit for having at least one brain cell working. I checked with the keyboard to make sure the keys were working. Period and comma skip next and previous just as they should. Space doesn't pause because in the screen you in it's probably mapped to the action Playlist. Go back to the home screen when the music is playing and you'll find space does pause.

In the old days the first thing i did with a new XBMC installation was to edit the keyboard.xml and change all the <space>Playlist</space> mappings to <space>Pause</space> instead, though since my current remote uses the MCE keypresses I no longer bother.

Try creating a keyboard.xml in %appdata%\xbmc\userdata\keymaps containing:

Code:

<keymap>
  <MyMusicFiles>
    <keyboard>
      <space>Pause</space>
    </keyboard>
  </MyMusicFiles>
  <MyMusicLibrary>
    <keyboard>
      <space>Pause</space>
    </keyboard>
  </MyMusicLibrary>
  <MyVideoLibrary>
    <keyboard>
      <space>Pause</space>
    </keyboard>
  </MyVideoLibrary>
  <MyVideoFiles>
    <keyboard>
      <space>Pause</space>
    </keyboard>
  </MyVideoFiles>
</keymap>

This should override the mappings in the system keymap.

JR

[jmarshall]

I'll change the space mapping - that is indeed retarded.

@nero120: I'm intrigued as to why you thought space would be pause - did you look in the wiki, or guess this? All of our keys (other than general navigation) are not discoverable, which is something we have to fix. Also, does your remote send CTRL-P, CTRL-F et. al. by default?

Cheers,
Jonathan