Use the MCE Remote to Control your PC, New (free) programs available

[impact]

Found this posted at dtvforum.info - and thought it worthwhile to post here....

Anyone who tries it out - report back here, let us know what you can do with it, what you can not, experiences... good the bad and ugly!!!

Have not played with it yet - but it may be a way to answer some peoples questions regarding the MCE remote - controlling other devices - maybe even to remap a key on the remote to do aspect ratio ???? hmmm.....

_________

Work on a new set of drivers and programs to "re-program" the Microsoft-branded MCE remote control makes this an interesting alternative for anyone wanting to replace their existing device.

Digital Addict (Adelaide) and a guy from France called Bruno FLEURETTE have worked together to provide extensions to Hip, and a dll that uses a different device driver for the device allowing you to:

1) Use the remote and ALL buttons to control ANY application (not just MCE)
2) Provides an interface to some non-Microsoft remotes (primarily any remote based on Philips protocols which is the large majority)
3) Learn the IR commands from ANY remote and then send them via the supplied IR blasters to external AV equipment such as TVs STBs etc
4) The IR Sending procedure can also the Hex codes that are in all pronto-based CCF files, and so with these you have access to a huge library of pre-programmed commands and discreet codes. (In an forthcoming version, I will be adding support to enable you to extract these codes directly from Hip).

This dll is also Girder compatible - the full story may be read from here http://www.thegreenbutton.com/commun...48&TopicPage=8 (start with pallismn's post as this saves you reading the preceeding pages.

The remote itself has a pretty good layout with backlighting, although the IR Blasters are not very powerful and must be located very near the equipment you want to control.

The current version of Hip includes a MCE plugin and the device drivers available from the follow NEW location:
http://www.byremote.com.au/downloads...asp?SCLASS=HIP

If you want simply to download the full application and all plugins, the following link will take you straight there:
http://www.byremote.com.au/downloads/download.asp?SID=2

In the Hip help file there is information how to install the driver.

[aswigon]

Hi.

I gave it a go and got it all to work with the new driver and Hip. After adding some extra configuration settings to Hip I discovered a problem that I would be interested to know if anyone has worked out a way to get around.

When using the new driver I can no longer search the guide by title. Instead of cycling through the letter options as part of the number keystrokes it only produces numbers.

Does anyone know how to work around this?

Thanks.

[btmi]

Originally Posted by aswigon

Hi.

I gave it a go and got it all to work with the new driver and Hip. After adding some extra configuration settings to Hip I discovered a problem that I would be interested to know if anyone has worked out a way to get around.

When using the new driver I can no longer search the guide by title. Instead of cycling through the letter options as part of the number keystrokes it only produces numbers.

Does anyone know how to work around this?

Thanks.

I am aware of this problem and I would like to find a work around how to get the SMS-style keyboard shortcuts to work. I have not yet been able to find out how to do this programmatically without actually substituting the numeric keys for their alphabetic equivalents. If anyone has any idea how this works I woudl be interested to know and I will make any changes required...

[aswigon]

It is quite an interesting feature as it seems to "know" when to use alphabetic characters like when in title search but numeric when in live tv for channel numbers. I am guessing that their must be some sort of status flag being passed around to determine the correct mode to use.

[btmi]

Originally Posted by aswigon

It is quite an interesting feature as it seems to "know" when to use alphabetic characters like when in title search but numeric when in live tv for channel numbers. I am guessing that their must be some sort of status flag being passed around to determine the correct mode to use.

I have analized the output from the default drivers, and there is nothing special (that I can find) that distinguishes a numeric key press on the remote with one on the keyboard.

Can you try something for me, can you see if the same behaviour can be replicated via the keyboard (using either the numeric key pad or the number keys). There has to be a trick to this and so if anyone can shed light on exactly what is the difference I would love to know!

[eepunk]

Good to see you here btmi, no doubt your contribution will be well appreciated.

Have been following your work with the French fellow, Burningzeroad (I think?), and am well impressed with what you have come up with in such a short amount of time.

E.E.

[aswigon]

Originally Posted by btmi

I have analized the output from the default drivers, and there is nothing special (that I can find) that distinguishes a numeric key press on the remote with one on the keyboard.

Can you try something for me, can you see if the same behaviour can be replicated via the keyboard (using either the numeric key pad or the number keys). There has to be a trick to this and so if anyone can shed light on exactly what is the difference I would love to know!

I just tried it remotely (VNC to my MCE box) and the keyboard works like a normal keyboard (Multiple number presses result in multiple numbers). When I get home tonight I will try the same with the physically attached keyboard.

[arkay]

Hi BTMI,

Welcome to xpmediacenter.com.au!

I found something once to do with this. It involved a registry hack. Somewhere in the MCE registry is a key where you have to set a GUID for a specific HID device to tell MCE that it is a compatible remote device.

I tried it, got the key changed no problems, but it still wouldn't work with my remote. Doing the mod for my IR keyboard did however work within MCE (number keys would work as multitap keys), so it is a little closer. I'll see if I can find the information and get back to you.

Glad to see you on board over here as well!

Cheers,
Arkay.

(Edit) Haven't been able to find it... Will see if I have it documented at home....

[btmi]

Originally Posted by arkay

(Edit) Haven't been able to find it... Will see if I have it documented at home....

I will keep an eye on this thread to see if you have any success in finding the solution.

Peter

[aswigon]

I tried the keyboard numerals and they also didn't operate like SMS mode keypad. I would be interested to know how this all works with the MCE remote receiver "magically" knowing when to operate in each mode. My guess is that the driver monitors some sort of flag in MCE that indicates a text entry field and adjusts itself to suit???

[btmi]

The workings of the SMS-style numeric keys in MCE is discussed here:

http://www.thegreenbutton.com/commun...8&TopicPage=22

As this is hardware-based, I will look at a Hip-specific option to emulate this feature unless the amazing BZR can find a better solution.

[aswigon]

Awesome work! If you guys get this going I will buy you a carton of beer.

[btmi]

Looks like no beer is in the offing as it is not possible to get these SMS keys to work (although Hip has its own SMS-style keyboard)...

There is howver a new build of Hip available at:

http://www.byremote.com.au/downloads/default.asp?SCLASS=HIP

This version if for users with the MCE remote as it adds a couple of (nice) new features...
-Selectable IR Blaster Ouput (Left Right or Both)
-Extract Codes from Pronto format CCF Files directly
-Looping Test IR to test placement of IR receivers

Note: The IR Driver has been updated with this release. See the section Tutorial - Setting up and Using the MCE Remote in the Help file to install the new driver

[aswigon]

What a shame! You still deserve a carton of beer for all your hard work though.