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

[seamuss5]

This service works fine for me but breaks after each reboot.

Service starts fine, eventghost is correctly logging the key presses, but the system no longer responds to the actions.

Restarting the service does not fix the problem.
The only fix to get it working again is ->Uninstall service -> Reboot ->Reinstall service.
This then works fine until the next restart when everything breaks again.
This is with Win7 x64 and is consistent after multiple fresh installs.

Anyone have similar experience or suggest a solution?

[seamuss5]

Double Post.

[barnabas1969]

@seamuss5: It sounds like it is working as intended. When you install the service, it removes some stuff from the registry so that Windows (and Media Center) no longer respond to the remote. The registry change only takes effect after a reboot.

Blocking the remote keys from doing anything in Windows allows you to completely control what each button on the remote does (by adding an event/action for each button in EG).

If you want BOTH events in EG AND in Windows/MCE, then you can add those registry entries back into the registry database after you install the service. That's what I did, because I wanted Media Center to work as normal, but I also wanted to catch the key press events in EG. If you want the registry entries, see this post.

Or, you could use the MCE plugin (discussed in the thread linked above) to define the action for all of your buttons. However, doing so will prevent you from using fast scroll in Media Center (when you press-hold an arrow key).

[seamuss5]

@barnabas1969 : Thankyou very much, this solved my problem perfectly.
I had misunderstood the purpose of the service. This problem had been bugging me for about a year, should have posted here earlier.

Thanks again

[knilch]

I set up a Win8 machine to use it as HTPC. As already in the past I use Eventghost to control it. After adding the new MCE plugin to Eventghost, I installed the AlternateMCEIrService ("Install") and rebooted. Then I tried to get any signals from my MCE Remote but according to the log window nothing happens although the plugin has created a message saying that it successfully connected to the IR Service.When I then manually restart the service via windows administration or via command line the plugin says that it is not able to connect to the service anymore (sc stop) , then says that it has successfully connected (sc start) as it has already done after the start of eventghost. The difference is that it does work know. Even after standby or hibernation everything works as expected. Until the next reboot... -> no signals from remote. Manually restart service -> works.

So I thought to be very clever and adding a "Start Application" action to the autostart of eventghost, doing an sc stop and then an sc start. Guess what? Doesn't help! Even with a timer that stops/starts service 2 minutes later it simply doesn't work. I have to manually (services or command line window) restart then it works immediately.

On the other hand - When I add a keyboard plugin to eventghost and define macro to start/stop after let's say STRG+I it does work either!

Has anyone any explanation for this strange behaviour?

Regards
Knilch

[NateEaton]

Based on some of the comments in this thread, it appears that with an original Microsoft MCE remote IR transmitter it should be possible to address each emitter port independently, i.e., to only send signal over one of the two emiters at a time. I have two devices that understand the same codes but when I use Transmit IR the code is emitted on both. According to Get IR Device Capability, it shows two transmitters supported and attached but I don't see where in Transmit IR to indicate which port to use. I have looked at the XML and can see a second parameter but assume that is associated with the number of times to repeat parameter in the Transmit IR form.

Any suggestions?

[kkl]

The plug-in has the following comment in it:

#Port is set to zero, it is populated automatically


So, it appears that the port is hard-coded in the plug-in. Someone would have to update the plug-in to add this capability. I wish I had the knowledge to do it.

[NateEaton]

Thanks... had forgotten the source code is included so hadn't checked that. It appears that the code in question - that which would determine what port to transmit on - is in the Python code. If so, the next question is whether that can be altered without having to recompile the binary executable (the service). Having done a little digging, it seems like as it should be possible to update the plug-in to accept a port number that would be passed in the header to the Transmit function. I'd be tempted to test it but while I know a number of software languages, Python's not one I've every actually used so a bit hesitant.

Anyone else know what it would take to update this plug-in to allow us to specify which IR port to transmit on for units (like the original MCE transceiver) that supports it?

Regards,
Nathan

[barnabas1969]

Does anyone know how to fully control windows 8 with an IRTrans VF110 Receiver? I have all the remote functions working except play, pause, stop, fwd, rwd, skip, prev. I would like to have it function the same as a ehome cert receiver.

I tried an ehome transceiver/remote and it works to control windows 8 start screen, I'm trying to figure how it controls the play, pause, stop, fwd, rwd, prev, next. There does not seem to be keyboard shortcuts to do so.

I'm somehow trying to map the controls; Example: I would like Ctrl+F to skip to next song in xbox music app.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Go to the thread linked below. Install the plugin. You can then use the actions in the plugin to send play/pause/etc to Media Center.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1838

[MartyMc]

I am trying to skip programming MCE remote, go straight into programming keypresses of my Sony remote to control my Win 7.
However EG does not accept sequential commands when they are pressed faster than 2 per second. Is there a bug? Or is there a setting I can change to stop this?
I tried with two different remote and same thing happens with both remotes, but when I use MCE remote, the commands can be pressed one after another quickly.

[KairuByte]

Odd problem here, hoping someone has run into it before.

EventGhost(Latest) is working fine, Service is installed and talking to the plugin, I can query the IR receiver and it identifies properly, but no IR signals are getting through.

If I uninstall the service and reboot the signals are indeed being received by the computer (Normal MCE way, not through eventghost), but installing the service and rebooting yields the same response.

I am running Windows 8.1 Preview, but looking through the source I'm not sure that would be a problem... Going back to 8.0 is an option but I'm not entirely sure that will fix things as I had this exact problem 2 reinstalls ago and it took a complete reinstall of Windows to fix.

Any help is appreciated!

[barnabas1969]

KairuByte,

When you say "no IR signals are getting through", what do you mean by that? I think you mean one of the following two possibilities:

A) You are not seeing any events in the EG log when you press buttons on the remote. In this case, I suggest that you un-check the box at the bottom of the log so that EG will show all events, not only those that are registered in a macro.

B) Media Center is not doing anything when you press buttons on the Media Center remote. If this is the problem, and you want Media Center to recognize the buttons presses, then go to the post below:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1838&start=45#p22340
Install the service, download the file, rename it to have a file extension of .reg, double-click it, and reboot. Simple.

[KairuByte]

Ok, so I ended up going back to Windows 8, and got everything set up nice and neat. It's working once again, still no idea what caused the issue.

Though, now I have another request. Does anyone have the source to the newest version of the plugin? I see the original source in the original post but was wondering if there was a newer source?

Edit: Nevermind, there appears to be a file missing from the source anyway. MceIrMessages.h is nowhere to be found.

Sorry, i should have been clearer.

The checkbox is unchecked, and it's nothing to do with Media Center. It's not an issue of me not seeing the event's, it's more an issue of the service either not intercepting the IR commands from the receiver, or not reporting them to EG. I am more inclined to believe it is the first scenario, because I can interact with the service by asking about the receivers capabilities and it reports them correctly.

If anyone has any technical debugging ideas or solutions I'm all ears. Down to messing with the C++ source of the service.

Edit: My situation is almost identical to this post: viewtopic.php?p=20253#p20253 In regards to the home theater PC. And have previously fixed the issue with a reinstall of Windows. Though again I only want to do so in a last case scenario.

[Sem;colon]

Hi everyone,

I made a little modification to this plugin I'd like to share with you!
Changes:
-Fixed a bug: EvenGhost was crashing sometimes when learning a new IR code. (added a short delay before automatically closing the Learn IR Code window)
-Added a "Learn Counter" to the "Transmit IR" function. (When learning a button you have to push it x times where x is the Learn Counter; The often you have to press the button, the better your learned code will be)

Sem;colon

[blaher]

Hi everyone,

I made a little modification to this plugin I'd like to share with you!
Changes:
-Fixed a bug: EvenGhost was crashing sometimes when learning a new IR code. (added a short delay before automatically closing the Learn IR Code window)
-Added a "Learn Counter" to the "Transmit IR" function. (When learning a button you have to push it x times where x is the Learn Counter; The often you have to press the button, the better your learned code will be)

Sem;colon

Thanks, Sem;colon. It's working well for me.