[THRobinson]

I just unwrapped a new remote for my system and testing it out and had a few questions.

I have
- Win7 64bit with XBMC 10.1
- 2 screens, my PC screen which I'll use while watching movies on #2, and my TV set connected via HDMI though an ATI 5670 (XBMC opens in screen 2 only)
- HP Remote (HP P/N: 5069-8344)
- HP Receiver (HP P/N: 5188-1667)

Questions are

SOLVED 1) How do I shut off Media Player from seeing the remote? Sometimes I hit the wrong button and my computer switches to a Media Player screen.
UNSOLVED 2) Can I get the remote to work in XBMC without having to have my mouse pointer clicked into that window? If I have my mouse on my PC screen, the remote does nothing.
SOLVED 3) What's the easiest way to remap? example the 'More' button I want to show movie info/details, and the 4 buttons along the top I want mapped to
Videos, TV Shows, Music and Pictures.

I did read the sticky, and they have a download link for some auto installer 1.1.99, but I don't want to install it yet and find out I just made things harder for myself. Figured best to ask first since I'm not even 100% sure what all that installer does entirely. Hoping it fixes all 3 of my probs.

Anyone?
:confused2:

[THRobinson]

K... found under control panel, a way to disable Windows Media Center which is great.

Also, in XBMC found a plugin called MCERemote... will try that I suppose. Heard of a few different programs and no idea which is best to use, EventGhost, the link in my OP, or the plugin...

Still haven't found anything about keeping the remote active in the XBMC screen while the mouse is used elswhere on my PC screen.

[THRobinson]

Another one down, the MCERemote Plugin works great so far.


Still having the issue where I can't use the remote unless the mouse is clicked into that window. Any way around that?

[jhsrennie]

Still having the issue where I can't use the remote unless the mouse is clicked into that window. Any way around that?

In Windows, remotes are normally configured to emulate a keyboard. See http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi...in_Windows for all the gory details (including what the MCERemote add-on does). That explains why the remote doesn't work unless XBMC has the focus, because unless it has the focus XBMC doesn't receive keyboard input.

The easiest fix is to use Eventghost. This is an app that sits in the background and intercepts signals from the remote. You can configure Eventghost to direct remote signals to XBMC even when it doesn't have the focus. Eventghost isn't the easiest app to configure, but many people hereabouts use it, so help should be available.

But, I have to say that running XBMC alongside other apps isn't the best way to use it. Really you want a separate HTPC connected to your PC and used just for XBMC.

JR

[THRobinson]

Thanks for the info

HTPC and PC wise though... if I could afford 2 computers I would probably do that. For now though the TV is 4 feet from my computer so just hooked it up to test XBMC with, and works great.

Even when I had a 1080p MKV playing on the TV, I was at the computer ripping movies to my drive while surfing and on MSN chatting and very rare there was ever even a stutter. And that's on a dual core 3.4Ghz with only 2GB ram.

Recently between jobs, when working again I'll likely (finally) upgrade my system, when I do I plan to take the old parts out and make a standalone HTPC. No point in overkill building a Core i5 for an HTPC given how this system is running XBMC perfectly fine.

So, Eventghost... does this mean I'll have to uninstall the MCERemote Plugin and start over again?

[jhsrennie]

So, Eventghost... does this mean I'll have to uninstall the MCERemote Plugin and start over again?

No. The MCERemote add-on doesn't do anything most of the time. In fact you can uninstall it without affecting the remote. The MCERemote add-on just updates a registry settings that controls how the remote works, and it does this only when you open the add-on and select the "Apply current settings to remote" option.

Just install Eventghost and play. Good luck :-)

JR