[marko-mb]

lost half of saturday googleing for xbmc and harmony.

I am using eventghost and logitech harmony, but eventghost keeps freezing so I decided to try and change things.
I managed to get harmony working as standard MCE remote.
Now I will have to play with it a lot.

but first thing I ran into was that when pressing guide button, windows MCE welcome screen opens up!!
will I avouid that only with keymap file? or must I do something else?

now using eventghost I have buttons on remote for movies, photos, youtube, cartoons, etc etc...
also I have some keymaps that I think are in eventghost.

for example I have 1 button command for opening picture slideshow (all pics in d:\pics) and at same time it starts playing mp3 randomly from all (d:/mp3) while CH+and CH- skips tracks and lefr/right slide pictures.

is it doable? is anywheere a keymap for those remotes to download ?

[TRaSH]

Why not use the register hack.
I use my harmony with a mce usb unit.
Set the harmony up as mce remote.
Applied the register hack.
And everything works

[HenryFord]

but first thing I ran into was that when pressing guide button, windows MCE welcome screen opens up!!
will I avouid that only with keymap file? or must I do something else?

Unfortunately: No, you have to use at least another program which interferes with the button-presses.
The guide-key is hardcoded by Microsoft to launch their MediaCenter (never understood why they don't simply give us the possibility to remap those things (without a registry-hack)).
However - with the help of AutoHotkey I am able to catch that button and let it launch/refocus on XBMC (if my XBMC is minimized and I press the guide button, XBMC just gets back into focus).

Everything else is mapped via the keymap.xml (using a harmony 600 with the receiver I got from speedlink).

I could post both, the keymap.xml and the autohotkey-script, once I'm at home tonight, if anyone has interest?

[zag]

Hi,

I do not wish to sound negative and I know very well what a community is (I own a forum too) but this thread by all means it should NOT be a sticky. It is one of the most confusing threads except the first post.
Part of this thread there are two or three more advanced users and the rest are newbies like myself that are rambling around to find a useful how-to about this remote. On one side, some codes and "key mappings" are posted by more advanced users but with no info where and how exactly to insert them.
On the other side, the newbies (that are doing a better job) that are sharing their findings.

Normally, as a moderator, either you guys get together this info in something that could be followed or let the advanced users know to post something that could be useful for anybody and than stick the thread, but until then, this thread by all means is not worth to be sticky.

Agreed. Now I'm a mod and harmony one user I've updated the guide. Check the first post now.

Just need to know what speed settings people are using?

[Maniac]

Is there a way we can map a single button (or custom button) to update\scan Video library?

[VBMC]

It took me the whole night to find a solution, so this should definitely be added to the OP:

By the way, you must use an RC6 receiver! This is not yet mentioned in this thread.

Problem:
The backlight of your Plasma or LCD interferes with your IR receiver.
If your TV backlight disturbs your IR receiver you will encounter the following problems:

• key presses are not detected
  
• key presses are detected one, two or many many many times
  
• the reception LED of your receiver (if present on your model) is always on or flickering all the time
  

Hint: The best way to test the remote is by using a text editor to visualize the input from your remote.

Solution:
Luckily the solution is very simple.
I wrapped the whole receiver in aluminum foil. (not pretty but effective)
Then I made a tiny hole in it and made it step wise bigger until the receiver receipted again the signal of my remote.
(May be testing other receivers is a solution too, but more expensive.)
Now it works really flawlessly. Every key press is recognized immediately.

Hope this will help some of you.

---

Original Post

Step 4 - Optimizing Remote speed

Devices >> Media Center PC >> Settings >> Adjust the Delays (speed settings)
0/1000/500

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC is responding too slowly
0

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC responds to some commands either too many times or only occasionally.
0

For me these values work:

Devices >> Media Center PC >> Settings >> Adjust the Delays (speed settings)
0/100/500 (100 and 500 are the default values)

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC is responding too slowly
100 (this is the same setting as the 100 above, it is not possible to have different values here and there)

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC responds to some commands either too many times or only occasionally.
0 (0 is definitely the right choice)

[VBMC]

Another problem many people will run into is that the keyboard layout of the MCE keyboard doesn't match the localisation settings of your system.

On my German Windows 7 I need to set up the following keys in the Harmony:

Code:

Harmony setting /  output
----------------------------------
y               /  z
|(vertical bar) /  '(single quote)

The following inputs are not possible:
[ (opensquarebracket)
] (closesquarebracket)
, (comma)

So it was necessary to alter the keyboard.xml.

Edit: Finally I decided to make EN-US my default keyboard layout. Makes the whole thing easier.
But for the comma there is a registry hack necessary. I will post later how to use e.g. "DVDMenu" as comma.

[zag]

I wrapped the whole receiver in aluminum foil. (not pretty but effective)
Then I made a tiny hole in it and made it step wise bigger until the receiver receipted again the signal of my remote.

Really interesting, thx VBMC I will try this.

Can you post a picture to show how it looks with the tin foil?

I'm still having problems with slowness in response.

[VBMC]

Really interesting, thx VBMC I will try this.

Can you post a picture to show how it looks with the tin foil?

I'm still having problems with slowness in response.

Perhaps you will also need to place it somewhere, where no light from your TV shines on.

I use now a different receiver. I don't need to wrap it in tin foil, but it must be placed at the right place.

This is my new receiver: RC6 Receiver by SMK

[Yukonhijack]

Anyone know how to make the HTPC shutdown (totally off) when the power button on the remote is pressed? The MCE remote I have uses a moon button as the power button, but it just puts the HTPC to sleep. I would like to change it to shutdown.

[zag]

Change the windows settings in power options so that when the sleep buttton is pressed it shuts down.

[Yukonhijack]

Change the windows settings in power options so that when the sleep buttton is pressed it shuts down.

I tried that but I do not get the option to shut down when the sleep is pressed. I have the option to shutdown when the power button is pressed (which I selected), but no shutdown option is available under the sleep setting. I am using Windows 8 Pro if that matters.

[hars73]

It took me the whole night to find a solution, so this should definitely be added to the OP:

By the way, you must use an RC6 receiver! This is not yet mentioned in this thread.

Problem:
The backlight of your Plasma or LCD interferes with your IR receiver.
If your TV backlight disturbs your IR receiver you will encounter the following problems:

• key presses are not detected
  
• key presses are detected one, two or many many many times
  
• the reception LED of your receiver (if present on your model) is always on or flickering all the time
  

Hint: The best way to test the remote is by using a text editor to visualize the input from your remote.

Solution:
Luckily the solution is very simple.
I wrapped the whole receiver in aluminum foil. (not pretty but effective)
Then I made a tiny hole in it and made it step wise bigger until the receiver receipted again the signal of my remote.
(May be testing other receivers is a solution too, but more expensive.)
Now it works really flawlessly. Every key press is recognized immediately.

Hope this will help some of you.

---

Original Post

Step 4 - Optimizing Remote speed

Devices >> Media Center PC >> Settings >> Adjust the Delays (speed settings)
0/1000/500

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC is responding too slowly
0

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC responds to some commands either too many times or only occasionally.
0

For me these values work:

Devices >> Media Center PC >> Settings >> Adjust the Delays (speed settings)
0/100/500 (100 and 500 are the default values)

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC is responding too slowly
100 (this is the same setting as the 100 above, it is not possible to have different values here and there)

Devices >> Media Center PC >> troubleshooting >> My Media Center PC responds to some commands either too many times or only occasionally.
0 (0 is definitely the right choice)

I have the same problem as you described. Key presses that are not detected and sometimes they are detected one time and sometimes they are executed twice.
I also see the led on my HP receiver flickers and sometimes stays on longer periods. I have got a Panasonic Plasma.

After some testing it seems the original HP remote also has the problem, but not as often as the Harmony.

Haven't been able to fix this for now, whatever I try, even when wrapping it in aluminium foil.
You mention 'Devices >> Media Center PC >> Settings >> Adjust the Delays (speed settings)' and tell 3 values. But in my Harmony software (Harmony 555) there are 4 values:
a. Power on delay
b. Inter-key delay
c. Input delay
d. Inter device delay

What are your settings for all these 4 values?

I really hope I can fix this problem, because it's not fun now to use my remote.

[oriongb]

Just orded a Harmony 600, can't wait! Love this guide too, looks good

[Smitty2k1]

I finally got myself a real Microsoft IR receiver and this guide works great with a few exceptions:

The "prev" button in the OP is assigned to "comma". It should be assigned to "backspace"

As some other users mentioned, for whatever reason the "comma" does not send a comma. In my case it sent a "less than" symbol (<). I went into the Harmony and instead set it up to send a "semi colon" and did a keymap.xml to remap it to "comma". However, I thought this should be skipping back in a video file by 30sec. Instead, it skips back to the beginning of a video file.

In addition, I took my four colored buttons *red green yellow blue" and assigned them to "sub titles on/off", "next subtitle", "teletext", and "full screen". I think I'll get some use out of those!

What is everyone else doing for useful activity specific buttons? I'm thinking an "alt tab" and "alt f4" might be nice to have. Possibly save me from reaching from the keyboard from time to time.

Thanks for the guide (and the update to the guide!)