[Henkske]

Hello All,

I made a tutorial for myself so i thought that i could also upload it. I know that there are more tuts like this so please be kind

Things i have installed:

Vista 32bit
XBMC 1.0 FINAL
Eventghost

Things you need:
Eventghost
An MCE REMOTE ( If you are not using an MCE Remote, the plugin for your specific remote may be available anyway, at step 4 below, simply look for your own remote, rather than an MCE compatible one.)

Optional:
The XBMCRepeater plugin for EventGhost (more comprehensive than the plugin built into EventGhost, but may take more time to figure out. This guide will not lay out the differences between the two.)

Ok it's time to begin.

1. Install Eventghost
   
2. Start Eventghost as Administrator
   
3. Click on Configuration and choose ADD PLUGIN.
   
4. Now choose for Microsoft MCE Remote and click on OK
   
5. You wil get an pop-up where you can adjust BUTTON TIMEOUT RELEASE (i just leave it at default.)
   
6. Make sure you checked Disable HID service for this remote
   
7. Now choose for XBMC and click on OK.
   
8. Click on OK when the pop-up menu appears
   
9. I personally prefer to disable the standard X10/Zoom Player/Winamp.
   
   
10. When i press the MENU button on my remote i want the CONTEXT MENU in XBMC to showup. So i now press MENU on my remote and on the left part of the screen you will see the following
    
11. Drag and drop the lightning icon to the corresponding XBMC key (CONTEXT MENU in this case). This is what you will get:
    
    
    
12. Now you can repeat part 11 and 12 to link the correct MCE remote buttons to the correct XBMC commands.
    
13. EventGhost must always be running in order to allow your remote to interact with XBMC.
    

Some buttons like UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT are already pre-defined by the Keyboard Emulator in the Context Folder. You do not have to add them. If you do you will get troubles in XBMC. (if you press down it will go down several times instead of 1x). You may still choose to define them, but be sure to disable the Keyboard Emulation folder.

NOTE: To more closely and comprehensively match the experience of using an old Xbox remote or to control XBMC remotely, use the XBMCRepeater plugin for EventGhost, which must be installed separately.

I hope this will help someone with setting up Eventghost.
Please be kind, i only did this to help people. Im no expert, started using eventghost today so maybe this isn't the ideal setup but im always open to learn things

Greetings,

Henk

[xanadu1979]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't "Disable HID" mean that the arrow keys aren't pre-defined anymore? I think you need to map them in EventGhost if you disable the HID. You need to reboot for it to take effect.

Edit:
By the way, this link should tell you which buttons are pre-defined:
http://www.byremote.com.au/Hip/mce_remot...0shortcuts

I find that everything works better if I just leave "Disable HID" unchecked and let the pre-defined buttons do their thing. This way, you don't need to map the number keys, arrow keys, the select button, or the exit button. I think everything else needs to be mapped.

Edit2:
This is a handy tip for remote users. People ask about this a lot in the forums:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsett...eyboard.3E

[logicalinsanity]

Thanks for making such a useful post. Although I figured out how the event mapping worked within Eventghost pretty quickly, I was horribly confused initially on how to make it actually work with XBMC.

What isn't very clear from the posts I've seen on these boards or even the Evenhost Wiki & Forums, is that:

3. Once the above has been done, you need to leave EventGhost running in the background while you use XBMC for the new remote functions to work.

EDIT: Apparently the two extra steps I had below aren't needed. I did them at some point when I couldn't get XBMC to respond to my remote and, because things started working after my next reboot, assumed they were necessary. However, after reverse engineering the steps below (removing the files I copied), XBMC still worked with my remote. I'm just leaving them in this post in case it helps anyone having problems to know what they don't have to do.


EDIT: NOT NEEDED
1. You need to copy the XBMC plugins folder within your Eventghost installation into your official XBMC plugins folder. I think this would have been an obvious step to someone more familiar with XBMC, but less so for a beginner who didn't understand the plugins logic of XBMC.

EDIT: NOT NEEDED
2. Once you've finished mapping out the keys for your remote, you need to save the xml file as 'keymap.xml' and place it in your XBMC userdata folder.

Again, I realize the above may seem obvious to some - but it wasn't for me and I spent half the day working it out. I was too afraid to ask for help because I didn't want to get yelled at, so I eventually figured it out by reading the XBMC manual, putting bits and pieces together from many different posts and a lot of trial and error.

It could be there is a post somewhere that outlines these steps clearly - but I never came across it during my searches.

[DarkHelmet]

What isn't very clear from the posts I've seen on these boards or even the Evenhost Wiki & Forums, is that:

1. You need to copy the XBMC plugins folder within your Eventghost installation into your official XBMC plugins folder. I think this would have been an obvious step to someone more familiar with XBMC, but less so for a beginner who didn't understand the plugins logic of XBMC.

2. Once you've finished mapping out the keys for your remote, you need to save the xml file as 'keymap.xml' and place it in your XBMC userdata folder.

I've done nothing like that and it works for me. It took a lot of try and error and therefore I don't remember exactly what I did to get it working the way I wanted it to, but I think I just did the same as Henske.

[logicalinsanity]

I've done nothing like that and it works for me. It took a lot of try and error and therefore I don't remember exactly what I did to get it working the way I wanted it to, but I think I just did the same as Henske.

Really!? What the heck. I spent SO much time trying to get it working just using the initial steps outlined above and elsewhere - but XBMC ultimately never responded to my remote. Copying over the plugins and keymap.xml file were just things I tried out of desperation at the last minute - at which point, it worked after my next reboot.

But you know what - to be sure - I just deleted those copied files (the ones I copied over from the Eventghost installation) - and it still works. So apparently I am an idiot and had just done something wrong initially. I had better edit that post.

Thanks for following up though. Now I know better for when I put XBMC on the other htpc in the house.

[smcnally75]

I would definitly recomend that you don't disable HID. The navigation is a whole lot smoother with that box unchecked.

[xanataus]

Hi,

How do you re-enable HID if you have already disabled it ?

Thanks in advance for your help

Cheers
x

[xanataus]

Hi,

Does anyone have Eventghost configured for XBMC and are willing to share their config.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Cheers
X

[smcnally75]

Hi,

How do you re-enable HID if you have already disabled it ?

Thanks in advance for your help

Cheers
x

Right click on the MCE Remote in the right column and select properties. When the properties window pops up you should she the box to uncheck it.

[nchall]

This may answer your question:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=303498&postcount=7

[fazzieng]

When "disable HID" option is checked and all keys are mapped properly, theres no navigation sounds at all.. How to fix it? (I would leave "disable HID" option unchecked and have my sounds back but then theres some problems with navigation in xbmc..)

[2tonesp]

I had this problem and I just created new macros under the xbmc plugin to emulate the arrow keys on the keyboard. Sound works fine now.

[xanadu1979]

When "disable HID" option is checked and all keys are mapped properly, theres no navigation sounds at all.. How to fix it? (I would leave "disable HID" option unchecked and have my sounds back but then theres some problems with navigation in xbmc..)

What navigation issues do you have with the option unchecked? Are you getting double presses? If so, be sure you DO NOT have the arrow keys mapped with the option unchecked. Don't map the select button or exit buttons either. With the option unchecked, those buttons automatically emulate the keyboard keys, which is what you want.

[fazzieng]

OK, will try that..

[xanadu1979]

Make sure you reboot when you change the HID checkbox. The changes don't take effect until you reboot.