MCE Remote ultimate eventghost setup?

[gregsmith]

I setup my MCE remote a while ago according to the thread here (http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=3816)

Since then I figured we'd have an update within Boxee to natively support it so didn't bother improving on the eventghost setup.

What's the current situation? We seem to have an ir server in the latest Windows Boxee but is it working?

The main issues as far as I'm concerned are:

1. Window Focus
If the program doesn't have focus in windows I cannot get it to focus using the remote so have to go over to the pc, select boxee with the mouse, then I can function with the remote. Even more ideally Boxee shouldn't actually require focus for the remote to work, but I don't know if this is possible.

2. Multiple key presses
If a key is held it should auto-repeat to allow fast navigation of lists in Boxee, just as the standard keyboard input does.

3. Starting Boxee
If Boxee isn't running it should be launchable with the remote. If it is running it should be given focus when the same button is pressed.

Does anyone have these issues nailed with eventghost yet? I think we need an 'ultimate eventghost setup' for MCE remotes (and other remotes probably!)

[gregsmith]

OK, I assume the answer is no so I've had a bit more of an experiment myself. I've attached my current xml file if anyone wants to give it a try. Here's my results for those that are interested:

1. Window Focus
Using 'Find Window' in eventghost turned out to not be enough for some of the key press emulations. I've added the 'Bring to front' action right after it for every macro. This may not be the behaviour all users want but it does mean that every keypress is successful until we get a proper event server built in.

2. Multiple Key Presses
I added the 'Autorepeat current macro' to the up and down key macros. I've used these timings 0.50, 0.05, 1.00, 0.01 and it's not bad. Main issue is that it's repeating the entire macro (find window, bring to front, emulate keypress) rather than just the keypress so it's nowhere near as quick as just holding down the key would be. Can anyone suggest a better way to deal with this?

3. Starting Boxee
This was already sorted from a remote point of view in the other thread. The issue I have is that Boxee can't start in full screen on the secondary monitor yet but this is a known issue and has nothing to do with remotes.

So there we go. I'm pretty happy with the remote functionality and not having to go to the computer just to select the Boxee window every time I want to use the remote.

I'm sure my setup is far from 'ultimate' so please let me know of any improvements you've made.

[Visigothwarrior]

I just noticed your post after setting up Eventghost for the first time this past weekend with a Harmony 880 Remote. It took a little testing to see what would work well combining Boxee and the Windows desktop functions, but eventually got them well integrated.

The problems I had with Boxee were the same as what you had listed here previously, plus i integrated a few more solutions for use with/around Boxee.

The biggest remote control key functions that I added above and beyond what you had mentioned were:

1) keyboard " \ " signal, which allows toggling of the Boxee window so I can get to other desktop functions (websites, other software, etc)

2) all windows behavior (maximize window, close window, bring window to front).

(haven't looked at the previous plug-in/file that was posted, so they might already be there) :)

[FraKtus]

Thanks for posting this, I had problems with the up and down key not auto repeating. I just downloaded your setup and applied it and now everything is fine!

Thanks for sharing this! :)

[mrsmegz]

Thank you, this works damn hear 100% w/ my boxee HTPC right now. The only issue I am running into is that the auto-repeat on up and down, does not accelerate the way it used to with the ehome driver. In other words, the longer I held the down arrow down, the faster it would scroll. This was very useful in my music dir where I have over 3k folders. Any suggestion on how to make that, acceleration function work?

[gregsmith]

Thank you, this works damn hear 100% w/ my boxee HTPC right now. The only issue I am running into is that the auto-repeat on up and down, does not accelerate the way it used to with the ehome driver. In other words, the longer I held the down arrow down, the faster it would scroll. This was very useful in my music dir where I have over 3k folders. Any suggestion on how to make that, acceleration function work?

I'd love to know that too. I'm not sure there's a way with eventghost - I've been waiting for official remote support to land in Boxee

[the-ninth]

Is my understanding correct that those additional software like eventghost or Intelliremote are only necessary to program advanced functions or macros into the remote?

I have Boxee installed on Windows XP SP3 and no kind of remote control software like eventghost or Intelliremote. I bought an IR receiver from HP, uploaded the Microsoft Windows Media Center setup to my Logitech Harmony One and everything works just fine. I can use the navigation keys and the OK and back button of my remote in Boxee without any additional software.

Cheers, Robert

[sixstorm]

I'm a little late to this thread, but I wanted to ask a question about the EventGhost config posted above. Everytime I make a single click on any button (Harmony 550), it takes it as two clicks. Any way to change this?

Other than that, the config above works great!

Rather have official support from Boxee though . . .

[the-ninth]

Everytime I make a single click on any button (Harmony 550), it takes it as two clicks. Any way to change this?

I had the same issue with Intelliremote and it was because both Windows and Intelliremote were processing the clicks. Here is the guide from the Intelliremote forum on how to prevent Windows from processing the clicks. I think there is a good chance that this will work for Eventghost as well.

http://forum.melloware.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6130&sid=69a4ca320d97d929e10e9dfff76a6fbf

Cheers, Robert

[sixstorm]

I had the same issue with Intelliremote and it was because both Windows and Intelliremote were processing the clicks. Here is the guide from the Intelliremote forum on how to prevent Windows from processing the clicks. I think there is a good chance that this will work for Eventghost as well.

http://forum.melloware.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6130&sid=69a4ca320d97d929e10e9dfff76a6fbf

Cheers, Robert

Thanks! I'll give it a try.

[islanddreamer]

@gregsmith, thanks so much for this configuration file. I never would have been able to sort this out myself!

On my remote, pressing Media starts up boxee, is this your intended function? I ask because that function simultaneously launches Media Center as well. Is there a way to keep Media Center from loading.

If I disable HID on the MCE remote, the pc doesn't recognize any input.

I'm also not able to get EventGhost to startup automatically, despite ticking the Autostart on system startup box.

I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium. Any thoughts?

[gregsmith]

@gregsmith, thanks so much for this configuration file. I never would have been able to sort this out myself!

On my remote, pressing Media starts up boxee, is this your intended function? I ask because that function simultaneously launches Media Center as well. Is there a way to keep Media Center from loading.

If I disable HID on the MCE remote, the pc doesn't recognize any input.

I'm also not able to get EventGhost to startup automatically, despite ticking the Autostart on system startup box.

I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium. Any thoughts?

If memory serves I got an alternative driver for the remote which stopped this happening. I think it was from here http://www.eventghost.org/wiki/MCE_Remote_FAQ which looks like it's been updated since with better info.

Whilst I'm here, those on the beta will have to change the configuration in eventghost to target just the main boxee.exe window. The sdl_app one doesn't appear anymore. It doesn't seem to work all the time as well.

I'm trying to find out if remote support has changed in the beta but haven't had a response to my post yet.

[islanddreamer]

Are you using Windows 7? All the drivers that link refers to seem to be aimed at XP.

I haven't used the remote for very long periods with the boxee beta, but it seems to work consistently. I'd just like to avoid Media Center loading. When I shut MCE down, the boxee app loses focus. What key did you configure to alternate focus?

[gregsmith]

Are you using Windows 7? All the drivers that link refers to seem to be aimed at XP.

I haven't used the remote for very long periods with the boxee beta, but it seems to work consistently. I'd just like to avoid Media Center loading. When I shut MCE down, the boxee app loses focus. What key did you configure to alternate focus?

I'm on vista 32bit. In my config every command brings the boxee window the focus if it isn't already. Ideally I want the remote server to work so that boxee doesn't have to be in focus to be controlled. One day ;)

[bartonkt]

Greg - any luck getting this eventghost setup to work on Win 7 + Boxee Beta? I have a winMCE remote as well, and I can only get the direction buttons & OK button to work for now. I'm using my iPhone boxee remote for now so I can get a damn "back" button :)

I've got the "remote emulates keyboard presses" and the "IR software" checked as well, and I uninstalled eventghost so its just running off a stock Win7 install. Back button works ok on the old Boxee Alpha, but not on the Beta. Was hoping that the MCE remote would be better supported by the Beta, and we wouldn't have to run EventGhost.

[gregsmith]

I don't have windows 7 at all so haven't had any chance to test it on there. I'd suspect it's the replacement driver that is the issue for you but that's a stab in the dark.

Did you try modifying the setup to only find the Boxee.exe window rather than the sdl_app handle, as I mentioned in an earlier post? I've attached an updated xml file for this in case you don't know what I'm talking about.

Apart from this I don't know what to suggest.

I'm assuming remote support hasn't changed since the alpha, because we've had no official word at all. Personally I think it's a hugely important part of boxee's developement, being as it's aimed at the 10ft experience.

[bartonkt]

I'll give your latest XML a try w/ eventghost tonight and let you know Greg.

The beta is giving my machine problems as it is, just playing back movies that previously worked on the Alpha. The image doesn't look near as crisp as it should and the playback stutters...almost like its having a codec issue.

[skiboy21488]

I have been running Windows 7 with boxee beta and am using a Win MCE remote as well. If you get the IRserver suite you can set up all the commands you need using it's translator app. To change windows focus I am just setting one of the buttons on my remote to do alt+F4. It's been working pretty well thus far.

It's kind a of a pain, but I mapped the buttons I wanted to use on the remote to the keyboard buttons in the keyboard.xml file in the maps folder in boxee.

[islanddreamer]

I broke down and bought the diNovo Mini from Logitech. It's not as convenient as a one-handed remote, but it's great having a full keyboard and trackpad. And the best part is that I didn't have to do any configuration. Just installed the latest Setpoint driver and it worked as advertised.

[astyler]

Thanks Greg for all your work!

A useful modification to this that helped me was at the end of the OK macro, add two actions:
Wait: (0.20 seconds)
Clear Pending Events

This prevented the Double OK from happening which was a problem with my remote. Also, the constant Window Focusing caused a flicker for me with each button press. For my system boxee will always have focus, so disabling these in each macro was not a problem.

Also, I was exploring trying to get the Home button to go to the home screen and also clear any current dialog (for example if you have an episode info open, ready to play and hit Home, it just changes in the background). I couldn't figure out a way to automate this correctly, if anyone knows please speak up.

[bartonkt]

Thanks for the file Greg - works great. I did as the other guy above me, removed all the windows focusing stuff...was causing a lot of screen flicker.

I'm still having issues running the beta on Windows 7, the alpha runs better on my system still. But thats for the windows thread :)

[muckster]

I have a very simple problem: my MCE remote works great in Boxee EXCEPT the back button. I have no way to ESC/menu up anywhere. The green button and some of the DVD buttons still start up MediaCenter (I'm on Vista.)

Any ideas? I'm not running eventghost. THanks.

[NomadDNA]

I have a very simple problem: my MCE remote works great in Boxee EXCEPT the back button. I have no way to ESC/menu up anywhere. The green button and some of the DVD buttons still start up MediaCenter (I'm on Vista.)

Any ideas? I'm not running eventghost. THanks.

@muckster:

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=13408&highlight=MCE+back+button

[muckster]

Thanks! Somehow that was too obvious for me today. Merry merry!