[evilblade]

Hi, everybody!

Could you please tell me is it at all possible to control Kodi with standard media buttons on BT headset or external keyboard or whatever... when it's not in foreground? All I want is to be able to switch to next track in my randomized playlist sometimes (and to have play/pause button would be nice too) without switching to Kodi back and forth.
Just like, you know, any other player would always run as background service and react to media buttons accordingly.. and perhaps having it's own bar in notification area with some on-screen buttons, again like play/pause, next track... Is there a way to make Kodi act like that?
So far the only working solution I got is to install Yatse on the same device and connect it to running Kodi via "localhost".. but it feals like a HUGE crutch to me.. it even cannot automatically start Kodi itself if it's not running

Will be grateful for any suggestions!

[PatK]

The whole concept behind Kodi is the ultimate home theatre experience with a 10 foot interface. It does play music well and offers a nice visual presentation, and integrated library functionality. You would perverse Kodi into a mufti-tasking music player and would have full remote control in disabled or minimized mode, Yaste or AWX let's you do that. I don;t thinks it's overkill to use these add-ons. Most software when out of focus is not designed to overtake the system O/S and highjack commands.

You might be able to do something with a mulch-media keybaord/mouse that allows for pass through of specially set-up key-maps. I do note that SPMC does have an auto launcher that will put you into the player directly and offers a back to Android function in which you can use whatever you have on your system, it would seem that this road is mostly likely able to achieve what you want.

[Ned Scott]

For this kind of use case you don't want to use Kodi. It's simply the wrong program for what you are trying to do.

[evilblade]

For this kind of use case you don't want to use Kodi. It's simply the wrong program for what you are trying to do.

Well.. I guess so, but still it would be very nice to have just ONE player for everything. I mean if it could react on standard media controls being minimised in background then I'd use it for ALL purposes (video and audio). But guess I'm outta luck here

[Koying]

Well, properly handle bluetooth media keys doesn't seem absurd to me.
Are those working correctly when Kodi is in the foreground?

[evilblade]

I do note that SPMC does have an auto launcher that will put you into the player directly and offers a back to Android function in which you can use whatever you have on your system, it would seem that this road is mostly likely able to achieve what you want.

Checked out SPMC, still no dice It can react to volume buttons adequately, but not to play/pause, next track and so on..

Using Yatse connected to localhost would be OK for me if it was working stable. But as it turns out, such a connections breaks very often, especially when some relatively heavy stuff like navigation software is on in the foreground.

[PatK]

Just about anything is do-able in Kodi; nice to think of Kodi in those terms, It's just the effort and will to do it might hold one back. Then what Ned said; pretty much sums it up, you might want to investigate WinAmp with a media keybaord.

[evilblade]

Are those working correctly when Kodi is in the foreground?

yes they are