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Apologies if this was already known, I think it's a neat trick so thought i'd share.

I've just got a Harmony one and after spending a while setting it up for my V+ box I loved the favourite channels idea and the logo's you could set etc. I didn't see any reason why I couldn't do the same for XBMC so I did and here's how.

I setup my 'Watch XBMC' activity as a 'Watch TV' activity so that it included the option of setting up some favourite channels.

Once that was all configured I setup the favourite channels by having the numbers 1-4 in use.

Favourite 1 - Channel 1 = TV Shows
Favourite 2 - Channel 2 = Movies
Favourite 3 - Channel 3 = Glee (For the wife )
Favourite 4 - Channel 4 = The Office

Note - The software seems to only let you enter numbers so I believe this trick will be limited to the numbers 0-9 giving 10 favourite icons which isn't bad.


I then had to tell XBMC to translate the number 1 to activate the TV shows window etc. To do this I modified the remote.xml file so that the number 1 had the appropriate command. Extract below (three and four relate to the TV show id's, the easiest way I found to extract these was to add a TV show to your favourites then copy it straight out of favourites.xml):

Quote: <one>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,TvShowTitles)</one>
<two>ActivateWindow(VideoLibrary,MovieTitles)</two>
<three>ActivateWindow(10025,&quot;videodb://2/2/50/&quot</three>
<four>ActivateWindow(10025,&quot;videodb://2/2/9/&quot</four>

So now when I choose my 'Watch XBMC' activity it shows on my remote 4 buttons (currently but I will expand). a button for TV shows and movies and then 2 custom icons with the office logo and glee logo to take me straight to those tv shows.

Just thought i'd share, if anyone is interested in this and needs more explanation let me know and i'll write it down in more detail.

Hey PHTC, would be great if you could elaborate on how you did this as im having issues getting mine working.

Thanks

I did a different approach but will allow you to add your favorite buttons just like tv. this requires a media center or xbox remote

Add a dummy cable box in devices (one that doesnt really exist)
I used a motorola dch-6200 but you cant have that really exist
In that device menu go to learn ir commands
Do not learn the power on or off commands.. It will mess things up
Go thru each cable box command and replace them with the media center remote commands
Now go to activities and add the watch tv activity
Make sure to choose the dumby cable box as your device and select the input for your xbox. You will not add the xbox / htpc yet
When it asks is it good select yes but you want to add more controls
Add the xbox / htpc to the list
Now you can add a delay start command to auto start media center but it takes like 20 seconds or more before you can successfuly send it. Save

Add your custom favorites just like. V enjoy

This worked well with media center. I dunno about xbmc