Generic Vista MCE controller with XBMC

[kneighbour]

Like the other user, mogaturs, I have a generic Vista MCE controller (from china) that I use to control my HTPC (with XBMC). Like mogaturs, everything works ok in XBMC except the play/pause, etc. So the PC sees the MCE controller, and is using it ok.

I eventually want to control the HTPC with my pronto tsu9400 (via TCP/IP), but the first step is to get EG to work.

The problem is that EG does not 'see' the MCE controller. I tried the MCE plugin, but when it loads, it says it cannot find the controller.

I looked in Device Manager, and could not see any device with a name like 'MCE Controller'. All there are are generic 'Media controller' entries.

I tried using Girder, and that worked just fine. Saw my MCE controller no problems.

Any suggestions?

[stottle]

The way I understand it, the MCE IR receiver sends HID commands to the computer OS. If the registry has the keywords mentioned in the other post, the OS converts the HID commands to OS messages. Since this is all done by the OS, EG never sees the HID commands. Girder, I would guess, looks for the output messages, rather than the HID commands.

If the remote works outside of EG, I'm not sure what the device manager is going to tell you. The key to getting EG to work with the remote is still to change the registry so the remote outputs the HID commands....

Note, in this case the MCE remote may be harder to set up than the pronto if your remote using non standard registry keys or software.

Brett

[kneighbour]

The reason I mention the Device Manager is that I guess when you try to open the MCE plugin, it tries to find the MCE controller by looking in the registry (ie the Device Manager). And it does not find what it expects, so it says (erroneously) that it cannot find the controller. I was hoping for some way to make the plugin see the controller.

So you are saying to ignore the fact that EG does not 'see' my MCE controller? Basically just write my own MCE plugin - and listen for key commands sent to it from HID? Sounds workable.

[stottle]

Sorry, that wasn't what I meant. When I said it might be easier to work with the Pronto, I meant that using an MCE remote is not necessarily easier than getting a different type of device working. I think there are a bunch of MCE remote makers, with occasional differences in implementation. EG sometimes has trouble, including how each type of remote handles the registry (which is different than the device manager).

I took a look at the MCE code, and it looks for the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da

It looks like it fails with a "device not found" message if the key isn't found, which sounds like what you are seeing. Without that key and without knowing how your remote translates IR codes into HID commands, I'm not sure how to get the IR commands to EG. If it works in girder, maybe someone there knows how your particular remote uses the registry?

As the using the key commands sent from HID, I think the problem is that they look like keypresses, not ir commands, so it is difficult for EG to use them as events (especially if EG doesn't have focus).

Brett

[stottle]

Would you mind seeing if this version helps?

Thanks,
Brett

[kneighbour]

I checked my registry - there no no keys anything like that. There is not even any
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidIr key.

[stottle]

I'm not sure what to say, the MCE remotes are supposed to use those keys. So you've got a non-standard remote. If you hadn't already said the keys work outside of EG, I'd guess the drivers weren't installed. Maybe to a registry search for CodeSetNum0? If they exist, you are on your own for testing, unfortunately. Only other suggestion is to get a different MCE remote.

Let us know how it goes....

Brett