Will EventGhost work with a 2000-era Sony IR remote?

[zeke7]

Before I really dig in and learn all the nitty gritty details of setting up EventGhost, can some informed person advise if I can use EventGhost to translate a signal sent from a button on my venerable 2000-vintage Sony RM-VL700 IR Universal Learning Remote (http://www.remotecentral.com/vl700/index.html) using current USB IR receivers to execute simple keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl-W, Ctrl-+, or Ctrl-"-" in any running program in Windows 7 64-bit?

My HTPC is nearly complete, all that's needed is to execute said keyboard shortcuts from the remote (to close a tab or increase/decrease the display font size in programs like Chrome browser, where I read the news from a distance on a large-screen TV). These particular keyboard-shortcut functions that aren't typically provided on other Windows-Media-Center type remotes that I can copy onto the VL700.

I recently bought a couple of those WMC-oriented remotes from amazon ("PC Remote Controller" and "Vista MCE Remote Control") and taught their basic Windows commands like Close Window, Enter, and mouse movements onto my VL700... using those remotes' USB receivers to send the signals to Windows. I want to extend the commands that the VL700 can transmit and get executed in Windows to those particular Ctrl-_ keyboard shortcuts. Is it fairly straightforward to teach EventGhost to do such, by teaching it to translate a given standard signal sent from one of the remote's buttons into a keystroke-combo such as Ctrl-W that Windows 7 recognizes?

On initial peruse of the online documentation that seems to be the case. I just wonder if the age of my remote is a limiting factor, or do I need particular USB receivers perhaps. Sorry for the menial query, but EventGhost looks to entail a big program-learning curve to implement what in the end are fairly simple requests. Just want to be sure of a successful result before delving in. Thanks much for informed replies.

[mickelin]

What you want to do is super simple and can be achieved in minutes, without understanding much about about Eventghost. However, it all comes down to if your USB receivers are recognised by EG. Very simple to check: install EG, create a new config file and load the Generic HID, the MCE and the Keyboard plugins. Then shoot some keys from the remote and see if anything is logged in EG (make sure the check box in the lower left corner is unchecked!). If so, just create the macro shortcuts you need and drag-and-drop the right remote key to the right macro.

If no signals are logged, try loading any other remote plugins you find under the plugin menu. If still no luck, the best bet is probably to get a USB-UIRT receiver. (http://www.usbuirt.com) It can receive just about any IR signals and both learning, receiving and blasting is supported by EG.

[zeke7]

Many thanks mickelin! Exactly the cut-to-the-chase pointers I was hoping for. I'll be experimenting with it this weekend, I've a couple USB receivers on hand so hopefully one will work. Cheers!