MCE remote query

[buzzydotinfo]

Hey everyone,

I've got a PVR-150 and Hauppauge 45 button remote. The 150 is purely used to handle the remote via the Hauppauge IR32.exe. I use a Logitech Harmony instead of the Hauppauge remote.

I'm looking at an MCE remote with a USB receiver, but I can't find any info about how the MCE remote works.

In the Hauppauge irremote.ini file, I've got sections for itunes, VLC, and nPVR. in iTunes mode, IR32 kicks off VBscripts to drive itunes. When in PVR mote, it sends key presses to nPVR, and so on.

Can you do something similar with the MCE remotes? i.e. customise what buttons do depending on the active window, or set a mode, or anything analogous to that? Or is it hard-coded to send specific signals to the active app window?

[imilne]

By default, the MCE remotes only tend to work with (obviously enough) Media Center/WMP, along with a few other standard buttons they send.

But using something like HIP or IRSS you can customize it to send whatever keys you want to whatever program you want.

Iain

[buzzydotinfo]

Thanks Iain - a bit of further searching around keymappings.xml revealed some posts that discussed much the same.

Next question: what's HIP? I've tried googling "HIP" and apparently I can get a hip replacement tomorrow for an astonishingly small amount of money, if I'm prepared to travel to Mongolia. Not that much use for my particular query though ;-)

[McBainUK]

Next question: what's HIP?

http://www.byremote.com.au/HIP/

[smajor]

LM Remote is another.

http://www.lmgestion.net/

[mikeh49]

A quick summary:

MCE remotes work well without additional software with GBPVR and NPVR (as well as MCE, of course). In my experience, this is an advantage over the Haup remote as you don't need additional programs running (ir32.exe). However, again in my experience, the Haup remote is easier to configure for other programs by just editing the irremote.ini file. To get the same features from the MCE remote, you need to use an additional program to capture the MCE remote buttons and route them to the right program. The most common ones mentioned here are HIP, IR Server Suite and LM Remote Keymap. Various people are very satisfied with them; there seems to be no consensus that one is better than another. None of them are as easy to configure, for me, as the Haup remote. In addition, the MCE remote can be tweaked to a certain extent by registry edits. Look for a post by pBS on the MCE remote with no software.

[buzzydotinfo]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

MCE remote getting ordered later this week...