Login at Kodi Home

jhsrennie · 2009-11-03, 17:30

This will probably only be of interest to a few people, but I've finally got around to making a custom build of XBMC v9.04 for Windows that supports the MCE remote natively i.e. without needing EventGhost or IR Server Suite. It's available at http://www.ratsauce.plus.com/XBMCv9.zip (NB the case matters in this link).

I've removed my similar custom build of v8.10, but I can put it back on the web server if anyone wants.

JR

**natethomas** · 2009-11-03, 18:04

Have you considered submitting the code for this support to TRAC? Also, is the source code available within that link?

**spiff** · 2009-11-03, 18:32

archive contains the modified file.

this is cool for you windows users.

jhsrennie · 2009-11-03, 19:17

@natethomas: we discussed this modification when v8 was released, and the general view is that this hack is contrary to the spirit of XBMC because it builds in reliance on particular hardware. If we go down this road we'll end up with hacks to support every flavour of Windows remote control and things will get messy. It's such a simple modification that I'm happy to do it as a special build whenever a new version of XBMC is released.

As spiff says, the modified code is included in the zip if you fancy doing any changes yourself.

If we were going to change XBMC to support the MCE remote the most elegant way (but more work!) would be to enhance the keymap.xml file so it supported control and shift key modifiers e.g. as well as:

<keyboard>
<p>Play</p>

you could have:

<keyboard>
<control-shift-p>Play</control-shift-p>

The MCE remote just sends keystrokes, e.g. control shift P when the play button is pressed, so enhancing the keymap would allow it to be supported without any changes needed to XBMC itself. How much enthusiasm there'd be for this from the developers I don't know :-)

JR

**spiff** · 2009-11-03, 19:44

seeing we already have a patch; http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/7442 chances are much higher than if we had to actually do it ourself Tongue

jhsrennie · 2009-11-04, 09:55

Cool :-)

I'll have a play with incorporating this patch to see how well it works. I note that as it stands the patch doesn't process the shift key so it wouldn't support the MCE remote.

JR

petermarshall15 · 2009-11-04, 13:53

I agree that making the keymap.xml support "control-shift-p" would be the most elegant solution. The windows MCE remote is plug and play on Windows Vista/7 and XP Pro (not home) as the drivers are part of windows making it an easy solution for new users of XBMC who want to try the program quickly.

When using the MCE remote with the microsoft driver only, the arrow keys are very responsive in xbmc. However holding the arrow keys down makes xbmc scroll far too fast through menus/lists of films etc. This issue also presents itself when using the arrow keys on a normal keyboard.

@jhsrennie

Are you looking at changing/slowing down the repeat rate for the arrow keys in the Keymap as part of your Custom Build. Am I missing something obvious here?

jhsrennie · 2009-11-04, 17:01

Hi Peter,

The fast repeat rate isn't, or isn't solely, a problem with Windows. I have both v8.10 and v9.04.1 installed on my development PC, and the arrow key repeat is a sensible speed in v8.10 and too fast in v9.04 (with both the keyboard and remote). Therefore the problem was caused by a change between the two versions.

I am currently playing with the latest build from the SVN, and the key repeat seems fine in that, so the problem should be fixed when the next version is released. Incidentally I have managed to add my hacks to support the MCE remote to the current SVN build, so I'll make them available for the next release.

JR

howyalikdemapls · 2009-11-04, 17:16

Thanks! I'll give this a try tonight. I hope this works as flawlessly as it seems like it will Nod

howyalikdemapls · (This post was last modified: 2009-11-21, 01:35 by howyalikdemapls.)

So I finally got around to giving it a try, and no dice. It seems to work ok for a bit, but then it stops working. I'm not sure if it's because I'm pressing buttons too fast, or what, but it just stops working. After a minute it starts to work again, but it's too inconsistent. It must be my remote or something though, because I noticed it happens even when I'm not using XBMC. Oh well, back to the Xbox remote for now. At least I was able to add some of the functions I want to eventghost.