[WINDOWS] Can't Hide Menu with Remote
#1
Hello. I tried XBMC yesterday for the first time and it seems really great. This is a vast improvement from a few years ago when I couldn't find one media center app that would do everything I wanted. XBMC seems to fit the bill perfectly.

Except…

I have an Ortek VRV-1100 remote. I just bought it recently when I thought I'd be using Windows 7 Media Center. And of course it works perfectly fine with WMC. However it has a very, very annoying problem with XBMC and I'd like to see if we could come up with a solution.

If I'm playing any video media, and I bring up the menu, I can't get rid of it unless I use the mouse control on the remote, move the cursor off any menu elements on to the video, and click. Every other media center I've tried either has a place to move the cursor or focus to the video (using the menu keys) and press OK to dismiss the menu, or the menu times out after a period of non-use.

I have tried to Google for this and have not found anything relevant. I do understand that since this is a free open-source project, the responsibility lies with me to make the changes necessary to make it work for me, but I would appreciate a push in the right direction.

But I have looked for remote config files and the information is confusing. The information I find on your forums says to replace "keyboard.xml" in the XBMC directory. But there is no keyboard.xml in the XBMC directory. There is a keyboard.xml in Program Files\XBMC\system\keymaps, but there's also a "remote.xml" in there (and 10 other files), and this is a remote. Further, while the ready-made config files may be nice, I have not been able to determine if there is a "hide menu" function I can assign to a remote button.

Also, I have found that while playing a video, I can only access the OSD, and the "audio options" and "video options" by using the mouse control on the remote. Is there a way to get to this with remote buttons?

Thanks for any help you can provide.
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#2
I'm not familiar with your remote, but on my Harmony I have a custom item mapped to "clear" that solves that problem.
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#3
Could you tell me how you mapped it, please?
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#4
The Ortek has a button labelled "Clear" (in the middle of the bottom row) that sends an "Escape" keypress. This should close the menu.

JR
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#5
Pressing the "Clear" button backs me out of the inner menus back to the main menu with a "whoosh" sound. Upon getting to the main menu, pressing the "Clear" button again makes the "whoosh" sound but does not clear the menu. Is this a difference in the latest version?
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#6
FuzzplugJones Wrote:Pressing the "Clear" button backs me out of the inner menus back to the main menu with a "whoosh" sound. Upon getting to the main menu, pressing the "Clear" button again makes the "whoosh" sound but does not clear the menu. Is this a difference in the latest version?

I'm not sure I understand. What you've described is exactly what pressing Escape on the keyboard does. Once you're back at the main menu there isn't anything to clear so Escape does nothing. Unless you're using a different skin to me (I use Confluence).

JR
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#7
Short answer is, yes, there are ways to do what you are asking, particularly with the OSD menus. The other requires a bit of clarification.

What button on your remote are you using to bring up the menu? There are two types of menus that I can think would come up in fullscreen video. The OSD and a the home menu. I'm assuming that you're talking about the home menu because the OSD should toggle with the same remote button used to open it and you've mentioned the OSD.

On a keyboard, the tab button toggles the home menu while in fullscreen video. Hit the tab again and it returns to fullscreen and the home menu zips off.

So, if this is it, then what you need is a button to assigned to this action (fullscreen). The remote.xml already has fullscreen tagged with enter, syo you need to map a remote key to enter if it isn't already. That I can't help you with because I use Linux for XBMC and haven't set up a remote in Windows yet.

If that's not it then, sorry to waste your time and forum space.
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#8
jhsrennie Wrote:I'm not sure I understand. What you've described is exactly what pressing Escape on the keyboard does. Once you're back at the main menu there isn't anything to clear so Escape does nothing. Unless you're using a different skin to me (I use Confluence).

JR

There is in fact something to clear - the Main Menu. I described a situation where I am watching a video, and need to look at something in a menu. When I am done, I can get all the way back to the Main Menu, but then I cannot clear it. I sit here wondering if all XBMC users watch just the right 2/3s of their program with the Main Menu overlaid until the end.

toddwv Wrote:So, if this is it, then what you need is a button to assigned to this action (fullscreen). The remote.xml already has fullscreen tagged with enter, syo you need to map a remote key to enter if it isn't already. That I can't help you with because I use Linux for XBMC and haven't set up a remote in Windows yet.

Yes, this is exactly what I need. However I can't seem to find enough information as to what the actual functions are for what I need to do and what the buttons on my remote are named so that I can edit remote.xml - and there was some question as to whether I should be editing remote.xml or keyboard.xml.
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#9
FuzzplugJones Wrote:There is in fact something to clear - the Main Menu. I described a situation where I am watching a video, and need to look at something in a menu. When I am done, I can get all the way back to the Main Menu, but then I cannot clear it. I sit here wondering if all XBMC users watch just the right 2/3s of their program with the Main Menu overlaid until the end.



Yes, this is exactly what I need. However I can't seem to find enough information as to what the actual functions are for what I need to do and what the buttons on my remote are named so that I can edit remote.xml - and there was some question as to whether I should be editing remote.xml or keyboard.xml.

Apparently that remote is a bit of a strange duck and sends two kinds of signals. Looks like you do edit keyboard.xml...

Sorry, I can't be of much help in this case. Remote mapping is usually pretty easy ONCE you figure out the constituent parts but can be a bit frustrating at first. So first you have to figure out what codes the buttons do when pressed which can usually be found with a code trapping program of some sort. Then those button presses are mapped in your remote's button map (keyboard.xml?). Those button presses are then mapped to xbmc actions.

Here are some links that might nudge you in the right direction:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=38579

Try this tutorial:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...hlight=mce

This one is specifically a tutorial for setting up MCE remotes in XBMC but it is from 2008:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Rem...s#VRC-1100
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=80831
http://forum.melloware.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7926
http://forum.melloware.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6287
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#10
FuzzplugJones Wrote:There is in fact something to clear - the Main Menu. I described a situation where I am watching a video, and need to look at something in a menu. When I am done, I can get all the way back to the Main Menu, but then I cannot clear it. I sit here wondering if all XBMC users watch just the right 2/3s of their program with the Main Menu overlaid until the end.

Ah, the "I am watching a video" is the bit I'd missed. Now I read your original posting properly I see you did say that; sorry :-(

You switch back to the video by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard, but I don't think there is a button on the VRC-1100 that sends a tab character so you'll need to add a keyboard mapping to do it from a different button. Since you're using Windows the easiest way is to grab my keymap editor from http://xbmcmce.sourceforge.net/. Run the keymap editor, select "global" in the list then from the Keymap menu choose Detect keypress and press whatever button you want. This should open the "Append detected key" dialog. Set the Action to Fullscreen and click OK. From the File menu choose Save as and just click OK. Then start XBMC and your selected button should now switch from the mani menu back to a playing video.

JR
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