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I'd like to add my experiences on getting the Cyberlink cheap remote (£5.99 Play.com) set up for use with XBMC using EventGhost.

Initially I found the idea of Eventghost quite confusing but after installing and playing with it it's very simple and I'm now using it for various other things on my HTPC.

I used this site for the basics and added 3 Mouse HID device plugins in XBMC giving them separate prefixes of 1, 2 and 3. 1 of these can be ommited if you don't need to detect the power button although worth adding at the start (can be removed later). You'll also notice that some keys eg up, down, left, right are already detected as keyboard commands and will work "out of the box" in XBMC.

It's now worth going through every button on the remote and seeing what event it triggers in Eventghost so you'll have a nice list on the left which can be dragged to wherever you like when creating actions. I jotted down the corresponding event on the chart from the site above.

Initially I used the XBMC plugin to create events in XBMC however this seemed to remove the nice click sounds associated with remote presses and be slightly erratic (although some of the extra functionality is handy). I then grabbed the key list for XBMC and added those that I required to my chart mapping a remote button to a keyboard command - simple.

In Eventghost it was then just a matter of adding a macro to catch a remote keypress (drag the event across from the left) and emulating a keystroke eg the Play button on the remote is detected as "2.Button.1" which should emulate a "p" key for use in XBMC. This was repeated for each button that wasn't seen as a keypress - only 12 buttons for my setup. I made a folder called "Remote" in the "Context Folder" to house all this to keep it neat. The XML export is below

<Folder Name="Remote" Expanded="True">
<Macro Name="Play">
<Event Name="2.Button.1" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'p', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Pause">
<Event Name="2.Button.0" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'{Space}', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Stop">
<Event Name="Keyboard.MediaStop" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'x', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Fast Forward">
<Event Name="2.Button.4" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'f', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Rewind">
<Event Name="2.Button.5" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'r', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Previous Menu">
<Event Name="2.Button.13" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'{Escape}', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Context Menu">
<Event Name="3.Button.5" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'{Apps}', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Info">
<Event Name="2.Button.6" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'i', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Aspect Ratio">
<Event Name="3.Button.7" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'z', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Parent Dir">
<Event Name="3.Button.1" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'{Backspace}', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Show Subtitles" Enabled="False">
<Event Name="3.Button.4" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u's', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Page Up">
<Event Name="2.Button.15" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'{PageUp}', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
<Macro Name="Page Down">
<Event Name="2.Button.14" />
<Action>
Window.SendKeys(u'{PageDown}', False)
</Action>
</Macro>
</Folder>

That's pretty much it. I only have a basic setup currently matching my old XBOX version and £5.99 was a good price for the remote and USB receiver. I've learnt the remote commands on my multi-remote so the original can now sit in a drawer. I'm also using Eventghost to start/stop things on the HTPC when I remote desktop to it and to monitor folders for new downloads - so it's a very worthy addition to any HTPC for the remote and other applications.

Hope this helps someone get into EventGhost which can seem quite daunting at first and utilise cheap remote hardware.

I would like to add an update to stetford's post on this subject as it is quite well written\indexed and I was unable to find a guide encompassing the advances in EventGhost since this post, which have made the process even simpler. My steps were as follows:

1. Install latest version of EventGhost with default options which at this moment in time is v. 0.4.1.r1572

2. On the right hand pane of EventGhost delete everything below the Start logo

3. Go to Configuration > Add Plugin > Remote Receiver > Cyberlink Universal Remote Control (let Windows update the driver)

4. Go to Configuration > Add Plugin > Program Control > XBMC2

5. Under the XBMC2 folder on the right hand pane expand the Buttons > Remote folder

6. Now press the required buttons on your remote one at a time to bring up the command on the left pane

7. Drag and drop the command from the left pane to the relevant function under the expanded right pane folder

8. Repeat steps 6-7 for all required buttons on your remote (I got to around 20 buttons)

9. Save the final configuration to an XML filename of your choice

10. Go to File > Options and select Autostart EventGhost to system startup

11. Launch XBMC > System > Network > Remote Control and select Allow programs on this system to control XBMC

12. Disable Windows Media Centre as this seems to interfere with some of the remote commands - Start > Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off > Media Features > Windows Media Center (uncheck)

13. You may add even further remote functionality under the EventGhost XBMC2 Actions folder, which I cannot remember the detail of right now. Feel free to PM me if you need further guidance on this area