Kodi Community Forum

Hi all,

I'm attempting to sort out a thorny issue with regard to my remote controls' interaction with XBMC Gotham. I use a Harmony 659 to control my system, and it's working well. For the HTPC part of the equation, I have an ORtek VRC-1100 receiver/remote, which for the most part works OK (its commands are mapped to the Harmony software and remote), but there are still some problems.

I would like to be able to map custom keys and I just can't figure out how to do it. Specifically, T (Subtitles), W (Watched), M (Player control), I (Info) and C (Context menu).

I have colour buttons on the original remote which I have attempted to re-map in Harmony software but I think they're hard-coded in Windows to something else.

First off, is there any way to see what commands are actually being received by the HTPC/Windows when I press a button on either the ORtek or the Harmony, and second, how can I go about programming my Harmony (or re-mapping the ORtek) to invoke the above keypresses?

Thanks in advance, folks. I'm very grateful for all the terrific advice so far!

If you turn on debug in settings you will see what xbmc sees when a button is pressed in xbmc.log Create a file named hama.xml in userdata/keymaps and paste this into it this should be pretty much self explanatory, edit/add to it as needed. One thing about the hama/ortek remotes is they put out 3 to 5 different key combinations when a button is pressed, just pick/use one key combo when ading a button to the .xml file. Also the Info key is hard wired to the right mouse button so if you redefine it the remote mouse won't work correctly

I strongly suggest you map remote control keys to xbmc functions using the keymap editor program addon, which definitely makes life much easier.

Within the addon, you select an action area (e.g global, home screen, full screen video etc.) then select an action (e.g. zoom, info, audio offset) that you'll like to map to a key to when in that area of xbmc, then press the button of your choice on the remote.

If xbmc detects the button press all is well. If not, you can learn the code from the original remote and assign it to your harmony or you'll need to mess around with remote.conf type files and scan codes.

Hi Dilligaf,
This is the furthest thing from "pretty much self explanatory" as I can get. Can you please simplify this so that this old school retired projectionist (who isn't a computer guru) can understand it?

I'm not concerned about volume controls--my Harmony directly controls my AV Receiver. It's just adding those aforementioned keyboard shortcuts that I need to do and nothing else. I have a button mapped to launch XBMC (PREV on my Harmony remote) and a button to close XBMC (CLOSE from the ORtek). It's just keyboard T, W, M, I, C that I need to set.

I don't particularly care about the mouse buttons or direction pad. I have no intention of ever using the original Ortek remote. Everything has to go through my Harmony 659. No keyboard or mouse will be connected to the HTPC once setup is complete.

---

bobones, as I also requested from Dilligaf, could you break this down into something a non-tech-guru could maybe grasp? Sorry for being so dense, but "newbie" barely covers my status when it comes to understanding any of this technology.

In XBMC, go to program addons and install the "keymap editor" addon from the XBMC repository. From there, play with the addon, it's pretty straightforward.

I cannot find a keymap editor add-on. Where is the XBMC repository?

I have a Harmony remote but never use it as I hate it. I believe on the Harmony the Hama/Ortek remote is known as a Chinavision remote. After putting XBMC in debug mode (settings>system>enable debug) if you press a key on the Ortek then look at the debug log you will see a line that says OnKey then lists 3 or 4 key combinations. For example if you press the Hash key you will see alt+numpad5 as well as a couple other key combos. As per above:

<numpadfive mod="alt">ContextMenu</numpadfive> <!--hash key -->

the key combo is then linked to the action you want it to do, in the above it opens ContextMenu. A list of possible actions can be found here https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master...slator.cpp See this page for a complete explanation http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO:Modify_keyboard.xml

I generally use Linux so I just tail the xbmc.log the above page recommends http://xbmcmce.sourceforge.net/ for Windows you'll have to see how this works, showkey.exe I assume will show the key combinations when a button on the remote is pressed. It's not as simple as just remapping TWMI and C buttons as you need to link the desired action to the key combo the remote outputs

Guys, you are still insanely over my head here....it's like me giving grad-school concepts to a junior high freshman. Step-by-step would be great, seriously.

I may not love my Harmony but I'm used to it, and more importantly, my wife is used to it, thus it must and will be the only device used to interact with XBMC.

I found ShowKey and it generates some useful info, but only useful if one understands what to do with it. Here's where I get absolutely and completely lost. This will take a bit of writing on my part to try and convey the problem, so please be patient <grin>.

-->, remember that I've told the Harmony software that my Media Center PC is an ORtek VRC-1100, and they do have a mapping for that.
-->I told Harmony to map the yellow button on the HAMA/ORtek to the RECORD button on my Harmony remote. This, in turn, I wanted to map to the T key, with no modifiers, to toggle subtitles. I would likewise like to map the BLUE to MENU, to invoke "C," with no modifiers, to bring up the contextual menu, RED to a cutsom button, invoking W (with no modifiers) for "Watched." and so on.

But there's a problem. When I press what Harmony software thinks is "Yellow" it sends something else as it turns out. Ditto for green, blue and red.
For example, when I invoke what should be yellow according to how I have the Harmony set, ShowKey says it's receiving Control+Shift+T (<t mod="ctrl,shift">Notification(Key, t, 3)</t>). Blue is Control+C (<t mod="ctrl,shift">Notification(Key, t, 3)</t>.

I also downloaded the keymap editor and installed it, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to start it, let alone use it! So this is where I am now. I have ordered a FLIRC dongle from Amazon based on another user's recommendation--would that do what I expect it to? I think a big part of the problem on this end is that ORtek' colour buttons don't send the commands that the PC is expecting...but maybe I'm not fully understanding things.

Remember, though -- please, guys, I really need step-by-step instructions as much as possible, or at least when you say "go get this" or "open that" or "change something" you tell me the steps needed to find it, open it or change it. I can probably go from there

Again, thank you all so much. It's a lot easier to learn this stuff when you're in your teens, 20s and 30s than when you're in your 50s and learning whole new concepts wholesale.

OK, so the mapping for the yellow button would be

<t mod="ctrl,shift">Record</t> <!--yellow -->

Blue would be (based on Ctrl+C)

<c mod="ctrl">ContextMenu</c> <!--blue -->

So you would add the above lines to userdata/keymaps/hama.xml Seeing as the Ortek has a record button I don't know why you wouldn't make that record, you would do this by editing to note that anything inside <!-- and --> is simply a comment and is NOT needed but it makes it easier to change later

Sigh.
Still not enough info. Where is this file userdata/keypaps/hama.xml? Do I need a special program to edit it or will Notepad work? I don't understand HTML, let alone XML and I couldn't write a line of code with a gun to my head.

I think you may have the desired end-result a little backwards (or maybe I don't understand your reply, which is likely the case)...but it's not about getting a certain yellow blue coloured key on the physical remote to send "yellow" or "blue" commands--that was just an example. It's about when I press some key, and in this case it's the Record, Guide, Menu, Info, yellow or blue or green or red buttons on my Harmony remote, instead of whatever it sends now, I want it to send the single keyboard commands necessary to do the specific functions mentioned above.

As for why I would want a record button to actually record, there is no incoming source to record. My xbmc is only for playing back movie and TV shows ripped or downloaded. I have no ATSC tuners or cable cards in my computer.

The keymap editor creates keymap.xml files like Dilligaf is showing you, but you don't need to see the internals of the file: just pick the area within xbmc (e.g full screen video), find the action you want to assign (e.g change aspect ratio) then press the key on your remote you want to assign that action to. It doesn't really matter what code is being sent as long as the remote is sending something. You'll find the keymap editor in Program Addons, but if it's not there, press "Get More" and it should be listed for install.

Another approach is to add a computer to your harmony device list with the type Microsoft MCE Keyboard or similar and map keys from that device to your activities. See here for one discussion among many http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=187289

Just to add, I opened the userdata folder, finally, but the keymaps folder is empty. There is no file in there called hama.xml.

bobones, this is kinda backwards from what I'd like to do. I would like the existing shortcut (T) to remain valid to invoke subtitles. Using Keymap Editor, if I press the button on the Harmony that I want to use for "Show Subtitles" it changes from T to 127184. I have NO idea what a 127184 is, or how I would tell the Harmony what the 127184 key is.

According to Harmony, that yellow coloured button should = Yellow. Instead, according to HAMA/ORtek, it's "MyTv", and the computer receives CTRL+SHIFT+T.
It seems to me this is a 4-way translation error. Original Remote says one thing, Harmony says another, the computer receives something and XBMC accepts it and acts on it.

I'm trying to get the Harmony to conform to XBMC, not get XBMC to conform to the ORtek original, since I cannot figure out how to map toe correct assignments from the ORtek to the Harmony. I've even tried learning the IR commands in the Harmony software and it doesn't work (nor can I revert to original, so it's completely baffed). I am SO confused, frustrated and angry at this point it defies words.

If you can't map the harmony buttons to the equivalent on the Ortek by learning the keys then you'll need to try a different approach. As far as I can tell, your Ortek is an MCE compatible remote therefore you should be able to tell harmony that you have 2 devices: an MCE Keyboard and a Windows Media Center SE (Brand Microsoft). You should then have full keyboard keys to be able to map to your harmony buttons with the harmony software so you'll directly be able to map the letter "t" to yellow etc.

So how could I do that? Remove the ORtek device as a media center PC then add two more "media center PCs" and map them both to "Watch a movie" action?