MCE Remote on client

[elbryyan]

I bought a new mce remot for my client PC. Most things work but the ff and rw buttons do not resond as well as the back button which is the esc keyboard cmd. These buttons will work for the server reciver but not on the client. Is there a microsoft update or setting that needs to be made for these buttons to work?

[johnsonx42]

did you select the MCE remote option on the DVD page in config on the client?

if you did do that, then I don't know.

[elbryyan]

It's weird because these commands work with the server PC but neither remote will work on the client. ie the same buttons do not respond on the client with two different remotes but both remotes respond on the server. The reciver red lights shows that it receives the command but nothing happens in gbpvr. I'll switch receivers and see if it will work on the server to see if that may be the issue.

And yes I did set MCE Remote on the DVD tab in config.

[johnsonx42]

I was having a discussion with sub some time ago about exactly how GB-PVR receives MCE remote signals. It seems that somewhere in his code there is a hard-coded translation table he uses to translate the MCE remote button-press events into a virtual keypress of sorts that gets used later on (he didn't say that per se, I asked if that's how it works and his response was more-or-less in the affirmative).

Over the years there have been some changes in the events that get generated; sub's lookup table is based on the original table published by microsoft when MCE first came out. There may be differences in the remotes, the receivers, the driver that gets loaded for the receiver, or Windows itself. It's a low priority wish-list item that the remote code lookup table become a user-editable XML file.

It won't surprise me then if the behavior follows the receiver, nor will it surprise me if it stays with the computer.

One thing you can try is to run the ShowKey program in the gbpvr/keymappings directory, and then hit the problem buttons on your remote. *some* remote keys will generate a .NET keypress event; if you do get a keypress event, you can add it to the keymappings files where appropriate.

Otherwise, you can use HIP or EventGhost. I ultimately ended up reprogramming my entire remote using EventGhost, because on the MCE setting one button did something I didn't want it to do. I put the remote setting in gb-pvr back to Hauppauge (which effectively means none if you don't have a Hauppauge remote), which made all the non-keyboard buttons on the remote quit; then in EventGhost I mapped each button to the appropriate keypress. For a nice touch I made it so that the EventGhost mappings are only active when PVRX2's window is active, otherwise the remote reverts to normal MCE operation.

You may not have to go that far if all you want to do is make otherwise inactive buttons function. You can leave the remote setting on MCE, then program the additional buttons outside of gb-pvr. EventGhost works for me because my remote installs as multiple USB HID devices, and generates a USB HID Event for every button; I have no idea if other types of MCE remote work with EventGhost.

edit: a question: do both machines have exactly the same version of windows with the same service packs?

edit again: here are two of my threads that may give you more info:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=38765
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=40396

[fering]

I just set up my new MCE Remote with IR Server Suite. Instructions and a config file are in this thread: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=33633

[elbryyan]

It is definately computer specific. Both receivers and both remotes show the same behavior on the client computer and both show the same behavior on the server computer as well. On the client the back and ff and rw buttons do not respond but on the sever they do.

[elbryyan]

OK, eventghost has fixed the buttons that were not responding for GBPVR so that is all good.

One issue that I do have is if the pc restarts I have to exit PVRX2 and run the eventghost program again and tell it to execute the profile I have loaded before it will work. I put the eventghost application in the startup folder and it does automatically start it just doesn't seem to process the events. Am I missing something?

On a side note, I can use the PC power button on the MCE remote to put the PC in standby but the PC will come back on to the user login page instead of going back to the application that was running before. Does anybody know a way around that, to get it to restore back to windows the way it was instead of asking for the password first?

[stustunz]

there is a setting in actual event ghost to run on start up maybe you need to set that

change your login way
also look at this gets rid of having to enter password but at the same time you can access network fine
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using...knox2.mspx

so you could setup a user account for just media stuff and still have your other account for hidden stuff if you care