[Rakeesh]

I want to make use of the MCE remote colored buttions (red green yellow blue) and they don't seem to actually do anything in XBMC. I found the default mappings here:

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/c68ef0...remote.xml

They appear to be configured e.g. <green> <red> etc, but they don't actually do anything when pressed. I am trying to remap my remote as follows:

Code:

%APPDATA%\XBMC\userdata\keymaps\remote.xml

<keymap>
  <global>
    <remote>
    <skipplus>StepForward</skipplus>
    <skipminus>SmallStepBack</skipminus>
    <red>ShowSubtitles</red>
    <green>XBMC.Shutdown()</green>
    <blue>FullScreen</blue>
    </remote>
  </global>
</keymap>

But the color button mappings don't work. In fact, the default mappings in the XML file in git don't work either.

BTW, I want to do this without remapping the remote keys in the registry to keyboard shortcuts (e.g. with mceremote plugin) because that has some side effects that I don't like.

Any help?

[jhsrennie]

I assume you're using Windows. If so, there is no way to get the coloured buttons to do anything unless you use a helper app like EventGhost.

If you use the MCERemote add-on you don't need to reconfigure all the buttons. You could just set the coloured buttons to send keystrokes. Open MCERemote and select the "Configure MCERemote settings" option. If you set a button mapping to "mce" (without the quotes) that tells MCERemote to leave that button at the Windows default. It's a bit tedious, but you just have to go through the mappings and set them all to mce except for the coloured buttons.

NB due to a bug in MCERemote, setting the Windows button to "mce" will cause an error. Instead of setting it to "mce" just leave it blank.

JR

[Rakeesh]

I assume you're using Windows. If so, there is no way to get the coloured buttons to do anything unless you use a helper app like EventGhost.

If you use the MCERemote add-on you don't need to reconfigure all the buttons. You could just set the coloured buttons to send keystrokes. Open MCERemote and select the "Configure MCERemote settings" option. If you set a button mapping to "mce" (without the quotes) that tells MCERemote to leave that button at the Windows default. It's a bit tedious, but you just have to go through the mappings and set them all to mce except for the coloured buttons.

NB due to a bug in MCERemote, setting the Windows button to "mce" will cause an error. Instead of setting it to "mce" just leave it blank.

JR

Why are the colored buttons defined in remote.xml on git then?

[jhsrennie]

Why are the colored buttons defined in remote.xml on git then?

In Linux and OSX the remote is handled though an interface called LIRC. This uses the mappings in remote.xml. In Windows remotes are generally configured to emulate keyboards so they are mapped through keyboard.xml. See http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi..._with_XBMC for background info.

JR

[Rakeesh]

I can't seem to be able to change the binding of the skip back and skip forward buttons. XBMC detects them just fine but when I try changing their configuration in keyboard.xml nothing changes.

In the debug logging I get this:

Code:

19:02:58 T:4176   DEBUG: WinEventsWin32.cpp: APPCOMMAND 11
19:02:58 T:4176   DEBUG: CApplication::OnAppCommand: appcommand 11, trying action SkipNext
19:02:58 T:4176   DEBUG: SDLKeyboard: scancode: 00, sym: 0000, unicode: 0000, modifier: 0
19:02:58 T:4176   DEBUG: CApplication::OnKey: 0 (f200) pressed, action is

19:03:00 T:4176   DEBUG: WinEventsWin32.cpp: APPCOMMAND 12
19:03:00 T:4176   DEBUG: CApplication::OnAppCommand: appcommand 12, trying action SkipPrevious
19:03:00 T:4176   DEBUG: SDLKeyboard: scancode: 00, sym: 0000, unicode: 0000, modifier: 0
19:03:00 T:4176   DEBUG: CApplication::OnKey: 0 (f200) pressed, action is

Tried making keyboard.xml look like this:

Code:

<keymap>
  <global>
    <keyboard>
      <next_track>StepForward</next_track>
      <prev_track>StepBack</prev_track>
      <SkipPrevious>StepBack</SkipPrevious>
      <SkipNext>StepForward</SkipNext>
    </keyboard>
  </global>
</keymap>

And they stay bound as SkipBack and SkipForward rather than StepBack and StepForward.

It does work if I make mceremote re-bind those buttons to ctrl-alt f and ctrl-alt b, and then set those bindings in the keyboard.xml respectively, but when I do that, these buttons no longer work in windows media center.

Any help?

[jhsrennie]

Remind me what model remote you are using. Is it one of the remotes listed in http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Remote_Control_Reviews and does it use the eHome driver (see http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi...in_Windows for how to tell)?

From the log it looks as if the remote is sending the APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_NEXTTRACK and APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PREVIOUSTRACK APPCOMMAND messages, and XBMC is correctly handling these. However what might be confusing you is that if you're watching video the "SkipNext" action means "skip to the next item in the current playlist" and likewise for "SkipPrevious". If you select and play a single video XBMC creates a playlist with just one item: the video you're playing. That means next and previous won't do anything because there is no next or previous video.

To use Next and Previous when watching videos, either queue up the videos you want before you start playing the first video, or press Play on the folder and XBMC will create a playlist containing all the videos in the folder.

JR

[Rakeesh]

Remind me what model remote you are using. Is it one of the remotes listed in http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Remote_Control_Reviews and does it use the eHome driver (see http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi...in_Windows for how to tell)?

From the log it looks as if the remote is sending the APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_NEXTTRACK and APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PREVIOUSTRACK APPCOMMAND messages, and XBMC is correctly handling these. However what might be confusing you is that if you're watching video the "SkipNext" action means "skip to the next item in the current playlist" and likewise for "SkipPrevious". If you select and play a single video XBMC creates a playlist with just one item: the video you're playing. That means next and previous won't do anything because there is no next or previous video.

To use Next and Previous when watching videos, either queue up the videos you want before you start playing the first video, or press Play on the folder and XBMC will create a playlist containing all the videos in the folder.

JR

I'm using a Logitech Harmony remote with an eHome IR receiver, so it uses the eHome driver. What I want is for the |<< button to jump backwards 8 seconds and >>| to jump forwards 30 seconds ideally.

[jhsrennie]

You have two options:

1. use the MCERemote add-on or EliteGamer360s scripts to reconfigure the eHome receiver to send MCE keystrokes. This will configure Next to send ctrl-F and previous to send ctrl-B. Then you can add keyboard mappings for these keystrokes to do whatever you want.

2. wait for Eden to be released. Eden allows you to map actions to the appcommand messages so you can configure APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_NEXTTRACK and APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PREVIOUSTRACK APPCOMMAND to do whatever actions you want.

See http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsett...3Cvideo.3E for how to configure the jump size.

JR

[Rakeesh]

2. wait for Eden to be released. Eden allows you to map actions to the appcommand messages so you can configure APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_NEXTTRACK and APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PREVIOUSTRACK APPCOMMAND to do whatever actions you want.

I'm actually using an eden nightly right now. How would I configure it to receive these messages?

See http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsett...3Cvideo.3E for how to configure the jump size.

JR

I looked at that earlier, but it only seems to allow you to configure smallstepback, but not stepback or stepforward (which another page indicates as being fixed at 1% of the total video length, whereas it used to be in terms of seconds.) I remember during the xbox days being able to configure it based on seconds, not sure what has happened since then.

[jhsrennie]

I'm actually using an eden nightly right now. How would I configure it to receive these messages?

You need to create a file called appcommand.xml in your userdata\keymaps folder containing:

Code:

<keymap>
  <global>
    <appcommand>
      <next_track>SkipNext</next_track>
      <prev_track>SkipPrevious</prev_track>
    </appcommand>
  </global>
</keymap>

Then replace SkipNext and SkipPrevious with whatever actions you want.

JR

[Rakeesh]

You need to create a file called appcommand.xml in your userdata\keymaps folder containing:

Code:

<keymap>
  <global>
    <appcommand>
      <next_track>SkipNext</next_track>
      <prev_track>SkipPrevious</prev_track>
    </appcommand>
  </global>
</keymap>

Then replace SkipNext and SkipPrevious with whatever actions you want.

JR

Thanks. Any way possible I can adjust the stepforward seconds or is it stuck as a percentage?

[jhsrennie]

Thanks. Any way possible I can adjust the stepforward seconds or is it stuck as a percentage?

Yes, see http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsett...3Cvideo.3E. You can set the jump sizes as seconds or as a percentage.

JR