New way to get MCE Remote signals in EG (for Vista/Win7)

[jitterjames]

I believe the TV will emit IR interference at all times, especially if it is a larger LCD screen, but it is particularly bad when you first turn the TV on. Probably something to do with the CFL warming up. I don't know how long it takes to get better, or how much better it gets but it does seem to be at it's strongest when the TV is first turned on and I have read others report this too. The bigger your TV the stronger the interference is likely to be, though I suspect it varies from brand to brand. I upgraded from a 37" LCD/CFL (which had no ir problems) to a 47" LCD/LED and (also no problems), but I didn't like the LED TV so I traded it in for a 47" LCD with a CFL backlight. This new tv causes a lot of problems with excessive IR interference.

Obviously if you can move the IR transceiver further from the TV that is good, but you can also experiment with a combination of putting paper over the whole IR receiver window and also putting something around the edges of the window so that only more direct signals get through. It's not perfect but it helped make my blaster mostly useful as opposed to completely useless, due to the IR interference from my TV creating constant unknowns and drowning everything else out.

Don't blame the plugin though, blame your TV.

[Mordred]

I realize the TV is the source of the interference. My IR receiver is placed below a sheet of opaque glass, to the right of the TV. The IR from the TV is bouncing off the far wall and being reflected towards the receiver. I don't have another place to put the receiver where I can still use it. It's about as isolated as it gets. I'd understand if the IR was being emitted by the TV immediately when it turns on... but that's not the case. I've noticed the crap input going on for 30 minutes after I'd turned the TV on last night, and then the plugin crashed.

Two reasons why the plugin is to blame:
1) The plugin crashes when it's receiving bad input. It should handle this gracefully if at all possible (and I don't see why it wouldn't be possible).
2) When the plugin crashes and restarts it doesn't exhibit any of this bad behavior, even though <30 seconds ago it was receiving tons of extraneous IR signals. Why does it work when it first starts up, but after 12-24 hours start exhibiting the problem?

I can understand that the plugin might not respond properly to every keypress with interference, but it shouldn't crash. Something is going wrong and it's not my TV.

[jitterjames]

well, try putting a sheet of paper over your MCE transceiver and see if it helps. It does for me. I also found that the IR was bouncing off my wall, but it is still scattered and weak enough that it won't go through the paper. But the direct beam from the remote does. I find that I have to point more accurately though. But I never had problems at all with my old TV. I haven't experienced the particular behaviour that you are describing but it does seem odd. Perhaps there is something that could be done to the plugin, although it seems as though Stottle is on a sabbatical or something. btw what kind of TV do you have? Mine is a Samsung. I'm just wondering if they are more prone to the interference.

btw I've heard of other devices such as set to boxes being incapacitated by LCD TV interference as well.

[stottle]

Can you try copying the files in the attached zip over the files in the plugin directory and testing if they help?

The default directory will be
C:\Program Files\EventGhost\plugins\MceRemote_Vista on x86
or
C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\plugins\MceRemote_Vista on x64.

[Mordred]

Trying it out now. Hopefully I'll have some more information for you by the end of this weekend (always tricky when a problem takes some time to develop). I also wanted to say thanks for taking the time to look into this, stottle. It's greatly appreciated.

One thing I noticed in my testing this morning (before installing the new files): I turned on my TV and started getting the IR interference as the CCFL warmed up. The red LED on my IR sensor was going continuously as it almost always does in the similar situation. Button clicks weren't reading great either. Not sure if it being daytime having something to do with it (the backlight is brighter in daytime due to a power saving feature which might change the nature of the IR output from it) but in 5 minutes or so after the CCFL fully warmed up I noticed that the LED on the IR sensor was blinking rapidly. Looking at event ghost I was seeing a lot of BE, CF, BEDC, etc., scrolling really rapidly. I then turned the TV off for about 30 seconds. IR sensor didn't blink. Turned the TV back on... all interference was gone. The plugin was working like it was a fresh reboot, or after a crash and restart, but the logs proved that it hadn't. Hopefully that'll help some.

[Mordred]

After a day and a half it seems to be working much better. I turned on my TV tonight, started getting the interference that I've gotten before, but after about 5-10 minutes (wasn't watching EG at the time) I noticed that the IR receiver's LED wasn't on. I figured it had probably crashed, but I checked the log and everything was fine. No crashes at all. We'll see if it's really fixed, or if I just got lucky tonight, but so far I'm pleased.

[jitterjames]

Hi Stottle.

Thanks for the update. I'm wondering if you could briefly explain, in layman's terms, what you changed in the plugin in your effort to improve it.

thanks

J.

[stottle]

I guess I'd say I just made the service well behaved in the presence of crap. There really isn't anything I can do to pull IR signals out when there is a lot of interference, but the service shouldn't need to be restarted when it gets hit with a lot of interference.

I'm not seeing the interference myself, but on code inspection, I could see where I was putting packets into a queue to get passed to the python plugin. If the python plugin takes too long to process the data, the queue could grow which would eventually run out of memory. If the updated code helps, that is most likely what was happening. I simply put in a conditional that won't add to the queue if it has more than 100 packets. So, in effect, it will drop data on the floor if there is too much noise. It also means your chances of recognizing valid IR go down, but realistically if you are in this crap state, you probably weren't recognizing anything anyway.

I also put in a statement on the python side that says if the length of the sequence is greater than 500, drop it. Held down keys are broken into multiple sequences, so this would only throw out long sequences like noise. Don't know if this will ever trip, but it shouldn't hurt anything.

Hopefully people will still try to place their receivers away from interference or put something in front to block the noise, as that is the only way to minimize the noise.

[jitterjames]

Thanks for the explanation, as well as the update. I'm in the same boat as others, where moving the receiver doesn't help, at least not unless I move it to a place where it is no longer of use (like another room haha). A bit of paper makes a big difference. I have seen problems mostly when trying to blast signals if there is noise coming in at the same time. Maybe this will help with that as well. I will let you know if I notice any difference, good or bad.

[Mordred]

Thanks for the update on what you did stottle. I have to say that I'm now 5 days in and the plugin hasn't crashed. I don't experience more than 5 minutes of interference while the TV is warming up and then everything is kosher again. I've never been able to go more than 36 hours without a crash so I'm gonna say you've fixed my (and some others) problems with your update. It's greatly appreciated!

[NudeNutAU]

Hi, newbie to this forum and EventGhost. Seeking assistance in resolving an issue with EventGhost which does not seem to run properly on my newly built Home Theatre PC. I have browsed my way through this forum and have noticed that various peiple have had similar issues where EventGhost does not register the keys that are being pressed on my MCE remote (RC6). I have attached a screenshot of the system information displayed in EventGhost, of the machine in question. I have also attached a txt file of the output from the Event Viewer to assist.

I know that all my hardware is working prpoerly as I have successfully tested the same hardware on my laptop with no issues. I installed EventGhost with no issues, with all button presses being recognised in EventGhost as expected. The home theatre PC and my laptop are running the exact same versions of Win7 Ultimate (Build 7601 SP 1), the exact same version of EventGhost (0.4.1.r1544) and the same Microsoft MCE Remote - Vista/Win7 plugin.

The differences that come to mind are that the home theatre PC was used to test various plugins and has gone through a number if installs / uninstalls so it is likely there are remnants of plugins and EventGhost installs floating around in the home theatre PC, whereas the laptop has had one install of EventGhost and one install of the correct plugin. The failure of EventGhost to register events on the home theatre PC is not restricted to functions on the remote. It also would not register the launch of Windows Explorer whereas it did on the laptop but they both registered an addition to the clipboard.

I have uninstalled the "AlternateMcelrService" and reinstalled a number of time with reboots to the home theatre PC, but to no avail.

Any assistance would be appreciated. If you need any other info please let me know.

Thanks

Andrew

Update on this post.....

I have since resolved this issue by reinstalling Windows. Bit of a sledgehammer approach but it has sorted things out.

[Locke496]

I'm not sure anyone is still following this thread but I am having a slight issue where I am getting multiple responses from a single button press, so while navigating xbmc I will hit the right arrow once and it moves 2-3 times. I have tried by just watching the log screen on EG. I used the old plugin with vista and there was a way to set a delay between button presses and I haven't found any configuration options for this plugin. I'm not sure what information you need from me to tell where the issue is coming from but any help you all could give would be very appreciated.

Thanks

[cafe.racer]

on't know if tis helps (or if youstill havethe prblem) but I remember somthing similar with the IRSS plugin - there was a registry hack that got round it.

[jitterjames]

I have tried by just watching the log screen on EG.

What do you mean by that?

[shrap]

Hi there,
I just tried this plugin and have one question (or maybe more : Is it so that the service (which is intercepting and passing on all IR signals to EG) also prevents the signals from reaching MC? I have installed Microsoft MC Remote and it worked fine in my win7 MC (32bit). Then I installed the alternate driver, EG sees the signals, but MC does not react to them. Is it designed to be like that? Do I have to remap all the buttons to keyboard shortcuts to make it working in MC? Or am I missing something? Thanks anyone.