Windows Media Center (MCE) - Beta

[stottle]

All,

Given the progress on the new Mce Remote plugin (ok, before that too, but I want to give myself some credit), there have been some requests to control MCE from EG after the HID registry keys were removed. I don't use MCE, but given the right keyboard actions, I can pull together a plugin. So that's what is attached. If you want to try it out, just unzip the attached folder into your plugins folder and load the plugin in EG.

Let me know what works/doesn't work.

By the way, I used the following sites for reference:
All about Media Center
MediaCenterGuides
Windows Media Center keyboard shortcuts

Interestingly enough, the HID interface is only partially through keyboard shortcuts. A lot of the media buttons map to "Consumer Controls", not keyboard. I didn't know of a way to call these from EG (probably you can't), so I mapped those keys (as many I could anyway) into keyboard shortcuts from the last website.

Enjoy!
Brett

[mazmaz]

That seems to work fine. Thanks.

The only buttons that I can't map are the four coloured ones at the bottom, but as far as I know they don't do anything in Win7 MC anyway so no loss there.

I attached a macro to start Win7MC to the Green Button, use the on-screen menus to shut WMC down when finished, and then use a programmed key (the green key) for starting ZoomPlayer and to get EG back into the right mode for controlling it.

[stottle]

Glad it's working. I don't know if you looked at any of the links I posted, but they didn't list any actions associated with the color buttons (other than the green start button).

Another thing you might want to add is autorepeat (so holding down the button works as expected) to several buttons, such as Up/Down, Volume, etc..

Brett

[mazmaz]

Good idea about the auto-repeat, but for some reason I already have a seperate folder of commands for the volume control functions. Not sure where it came from as I don't remember creating it.

For what it's worth, the "Green Button" often referred to by MCE users isn't the green button to be found with the blue, red and yellow buttons at the bottom of the MCE remote. It's the big button with the multi-coloured MCE logo (with green backgound) in the centre of the remote which starts MCE when pushed.

The group of four coloured buttons don't seem to have any function at all, as you said. Interestingly the MS page you linked to says in the first line that "you can control all the functions from the keyboard" so that about sums it up!

Thanks again for your work on this. I posted a link to this thread in the big Win7MC thread on the "general" page where someone else was looking for the same sort of thing.

[LanceDrolet]

All,

Given the progress on the new Mce Remote plugin (ok, before that too, but I want to give myself some credit), there have been some requests to control MCE from EG after the HID registry keys were removed. I don't use MCE, but given the right keyboard actions, I can pull together a plugin. So that's what is attached. If you want to try it out, just unzip the attached folder into your plugins folder and load the plugin in EG.

Let me know what works/doesn't work.

By the way, I used the following sites for reference:
All about Media Center
MediaCenterGuides
Windows Media Center keyboard shortcuts

Interestingly enough, the HID interface is only partially through keyboard shortcuts. A lot of the media buttons map to "Consumer Controls", not keyboard. I didn't know of a way to call these from EG (probably you can't), so I mapped those keys (as many I could anyway) into keyboard shortcuts from the last website.

Enjoy!
Brett

Just so I've got it straight, this plugin uses keyboard emulation? So that means the application still has to have focus for the commands to get through? Is that right?

Thanks

[stottle]

Just so I've got it straight, this plugin uses keyboard emulation? So that means the application still has to have focus for the commands to get through? Is that right?

Actually, the plugin finds the MCE window and sends the key sequence to that window. So it should work even if the application isn't in the foreground/doesn't have focus.

Brett

[JasonD]

Should this work with Windows 7? For me, it oly seems to work when Media Center has focus.

Media Portal works, no matter what else I'm doig, but MCE only responds to commands if it has the focus.

[stottle]

yes

[JasonD]

yes

Oops, sorry, I edited my post, just as you were writing your response.

Maybe I need to set something else up. With HID turned off, I needed to install a Message Plugin for Media Portal to work properly. Do I need to do something similar with MCE?

[stottle]

Sorry, but I have no idea what your configuration is. What remote you are using, what plugins, etc..

What's the message plugin, too?

Brett

[JasonD]

Sorry, but I have no idea what your configuration is. What remote you are using, what plugins, etc..

What's the message plugin, too?

Brett

Thanks for the help.

I am using an MCE remote, with the USB receiver/blaster that came with my Hauppage HVR-1600.

The receive function works fine, I see the commands comming in the log, and I see it try and send the corresponding action picked from your plugin, but it's like Media Center is not receiving the commands, unless it has the focus.

The plugin I mentioned is for Media Portal. http://www.team-mediaportal.com/files/D ... agePlugin/ without it, Media Portal was ignoring remote commands as well, unless it had focus. It isn't the problem, as it is loaded by Media Portal, I only mentioned it, as I thought maybe I needed something similar for MCE.

Anything other information you might need to help me troubleshoot this? I've attached my EG config file, if that will help.

[tnkrer]

I have USB-UIRT as the IR receiver and a universal remote
I have created a folder for VMC that maps keyboard shortcuts to remote keypress and that is working OK
I was hoping that I can use this plugin for my VMC
I downloaded the zip file, extracted it in the plugin folder and added the plugin to my event ghost
and now I am stumped, I thought this will give me some folder where I will see VMC actions that I can map my remote buttons to.
What am I missing?
Do I need to have MceRemote to make this work?

Thanks

OK, I think I figured this out. Now instead of doing my own keyboard shortcut mapping, I can select the action from the MCE plugin. Is there an xml file already that I can import into my eventghost ..

[stottle]

Anything other information you might need to help me troubleshoot this? I've attached my EG config file, if that will help.

Couple of suggestions.

First thing, there are a couple of places where you enable exclusive on MediaPortal. When you want to use MCE macros, is the MCE folder enabled or disabled (if it is disabled, it needs to be enabled for the macros to work).

Also, in the EG log, it should list any actions that are run in response to an event. The the remote events occur, does it list the MCE actions afterwards? If so, that implies that the action is running but not correctly. If not, that implies the config is incorrect (disabled MCE folder would cause this, for instance).

OK, I think I figured this out. Now instead of doing my own keyboard shortcut mapping, I can select the action from the MCE plugin. Is there an xml file already that I can import into my eventghost ..

There's a parameter in the plugin's __init__.py file called "createMacrosOnAdd". If you set this value to True, then save the file, restart EG, then remove and re-add the MCE plugin, it will create a folder with all of the actions. Then you just need to add events. That's what you are looking for, correct?

Brett

[JasonD]

First thing, there are a couple of places where you enable exclusive on MediaPortal. When you want to use MCE macros, is the MCE folder enabled or disabled (if it is disabled, it needs to be enabled for the macros to work).

Yes. The macros you reference allow me to swap between MediaPortal and MediaCenter. The one in the MediaPortal folder closes mediaportal, opens MCE then gives exclusivity to the Media Center folder. The same macro in the Media Center folder does the opposite. I've checked that when the appropriate app is open, the exclusivity is given to it.

Also, in the EG log, it should list any actions that are run in response to an event. The the remote events occur, does it list the MCE actions afterwards? If so, that implies that the action is running but not correctly. If not, that implies the config is incorrect (disabled MCE folder would cause this, for instance).

Yes, the logs look like this.

Code: Select all

MceRemote.Right
   MCE: Right
      MCE: Right

Event, Macro, Action.

If Media Center has focus, the selector moves right. If something else has the focus, the same things show in the EG log, but nothing actually happens in Media Center.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me with this, I really appreciate it.

[tnkrer]

There's a parameter in the plugin's __init__.py file called "createMacrosOnAdd". If you set this value to True, then save the file, restart EG, then remove and re-add the MCE plugin, it will create a folder with all of the actions. Then you just need to add events. That's what you are looking for, correct?

Brett

Thanks Brett, That's what I was looking for!