New way to get MCE Remote signals in EG (for Vista/Win7)

[jeff]

I have the exact same problem as jaaahaaa. The non Vista/Win7 plugin doesn't recognize any MCE commands at all coming from the remote*, and the Vista/Win7 version displays the same types of output as jaaahaaa describes -- "unknown" codes that often change with subsequent presses on the same button.

I figured this out.

With the older version of EventGhost, the MCE plugin would for some reason not see events unless it was run as Administrator.

However, with the new version of EventGhost/MCE plugin, running as Administrator causes the behavior described here. If you run it as a normal user (which is possible now since the service sends the information about button presses) then everything is normal.

Not sure why that happens, but running it as a normal user made all the button presses be correct.

[appap]

Hi guys. Great project, I've had a blast playing around and figuring things out over the past few weeks. However, I haven't quite been able to wrap my head around my current issue, regarding re-assigning the power button on my Keyspan RF WMC remote. I have been able to learn the codes for my TV and stereo receiver using the MCE Remote - Vista/Win7 plugin in EventGhost, and setup a macro to turn them on/off using the IR blaster. The macro works perfectly when exectued from within EG. My problem comes when I reboot after installing the service with MCE Remote - Vista/Win7.

If I completely uninstall the service and reboot, the remote works as normal. The big green launchess WMC, volume/channel changing works as normal, all that stuff. I'll open up EventGhost, install the service, and the macro works perfectly. With the Generic-HID plugin also loaded, the power button event from the remote triggers the macro, turning on/off the TV and receiver as expected. Perfect operation at this point (pressing the power button on the remote turns on/off the TV and receiver).

The problem comes on rebooting. After doing the above, I'll reboot, launch EG, and the remote no longer functions. There are no entries in the EG log on any remote button press. I'm not really sure what I'm doing/not doing at this point, or why the it works as intended on initial install, but stops after a reboot. Executing the macro from within EG still works just fine - the blasters send their signals and TV/receiver turn on/off. If I uninstall the service and reboot, the remote is back to normal and I can repeat the above process to get the desired functionality going again. Until reboot, that is.

So my desired outcome is to have the power button on the remote trigger the blaster to turn on/off the TV and receiver, which it does coming off a fresh install. I'm a bit lost as to why it doesn't work on reboot, or how to make it so it functions as I would like after a reboot. Any ideas as to how I could go about getting my desired functionality?

In Control Panel, under Power Options, I have the Sleep button set to 'Do Nothing'. I am running EventGhost version 0.3.7.r1486, on Windows 7 Ultimate x64, SP1

[jannypan]

I was using eg.ThreadWorker since there were already working examples. It looked like the class was a pretty thin layer between code and threading.Thread, which just simplifies starting and stopping the code from a plugin. Is there extra overhead the is harmful in this case?

[deejayadhd]

been reading through these forums all night and am just stuck so thought i might just ask for some help. i have been using eventghost (mostly for xbmc) for around a year on windows 7 x86 with no problems using the regular mce remote plugin. decided to try out windows 7 x64 and my setup no longer worked. the remote functions fine with 7 media center but eg wont pick up any events from it.

so i downloaded and installed the latest eg and noticed the new mce remote plugin for vista/7, added it, installed the service and everything seemed to go without error. here is a screenshot of my log after installing the plugin/service then manually restarting the service... seems ok i thought...



but eg will not pick up any events off the remote.

the receiver is a philips ovu412000 and the remote is an hp, pretty positive it was made for vista media center.

i have tried many combinatins of installing/restarting/rebooting eg and the alternate service but nothing seems to be working.

hopefully i just missed something, i will be upgrading my ram soon so going back to x86 7 isnt really an option. appreciate any ideas.

[deejayadhd]

i feel like such a nozzle... the one thing i didnt think tto try because the remote functioned fine in wmc was unplugging the receiver and plugging it in another usb port. works great now. not sure what the problem was.

eventghost is awesome though couldnt live without it! and thanx for a great mce remote plugin.

edit: that was with the regular mce remote plugin, uninstalled that to try out the vista/7 mce plugin and it is recognizing buttons but they are all listed as unknown with a string of numbers and letters. guess thats normal?



seeing as the regular mce plugin works and i have it all setup i will stick with it. but i do use the administrator account with uac turned off. if i understood correctly that plugin would cease to function if i used a normal user account or turned uac on?

[steppedup]

{edit}- The AlternateMceIr service kept dying on me despite the below to the point where I had to do something about - see my post 3 or 4 below. Leaving this here as it does have additional information that might be useful to others).

This is for anyone running Windows 7, x64, and they find that Eventghost stops working - and any sort of error causing AlternateMceIrService to stop working in eventvwr.exe (Start/Run). (Also can be seen in services.msc - you'll find the service not listed as "Started" which it needs to be.

Simply open up services.msc on the Start/ Run Line, then right-click and click on properties.

Choose the Recovery tab. Set 1st/ 2nd/ subsequent failures to "Restart service".

Problem solved.

<Edit> - I actually now have a 3 part system as sometimes AlternateMceIRService is simply hung.

Above is the first part.

Second is to have Application Monitor ( http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-ti ... pplication ) monitor EventGhost itself to see if the application itself dies, and restart it.

Finally, I have a VoxCommando routine set up that:
1. Uses psskill (process kill) to kill eventghost.
2. Have a batch file to "net stop AlternateMceIRService"
3. Wait 1 second.
4. Batch file to "net start AlternateMceIRService".
5. Have a batch to restart eventghost (although it tests for existence of eventghost.exe first.)

[cAlebcore]

Hi guys,

This is my first post here, and I'm a total noob about EG, never used it before. Here is the thing: I've been using my MCE remote control directly with XBMC, it works very well. Then I decided to install EG to go a bit further. The problem is that I just can't get it working. EG doesn't get any command from the remote control. I've been trying all the solutions that I could find on the internet but I doesn't get any better. Here is my config:

Asus s1-at5nm10e
Logitech Harmony One (configured with Microsoft MCE Keyboard device)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits
Logged in as Administrator
UAC Turned off
EventGhost 0.4.1.r1534, Jun 27 2011, with the Run as Administrator option
MCE Remote Plugin for Windows 7.
Alternate MceIR Service Running

In EG, the only thing under the Autostart is the MCE Remote Plugin for Windows 7 plugin. EG detects the Middle Mouse Click event, but not any command from the remote control. If I restart the Alternate MceIR Service, I see in the EG log that the connection is lost and the reactivated (Connected to MceIr pipe, started handling IR events). I also tried with or without the HID service running. No improvement. And nothing seems wrong in the Event Viewer.

What am I missing here? I've been trying for a few days now, but I can't get it working. Thank you guys in advance for your help...

[Bcsp]

Hey guys.

I had similiar problems to you guys for a while. Remote button presses were not triggering events for eventghost.
My problems were solved when I switched the IR receiver from a USB 3.0 port back to a USB 2 port.

Hope this helps someone.

[PauliusB]

My way of AlternateMceIrService handling:
I use Action "System -> Start Application"
Parameters:
Executable: cmd.exe
Command line options: /c net stop AlternateMceIrService and /c net start AlternateMceIrService
use it before any IR transmitting operation

edit: I've also added some killing of program after operation completion: /c taskkill /IM EventGhost.exe

[Evo_33]

Hello community,

I have a big problem with EventGhost. I run on Windows 64bit and I have already installed the AlternateMceIrService. EventGhost starts automatically on system start with normal (admin) rights (it´s an admin user - UAC disabled). The service and EventGhost are started after a reboot and EventGhost doesn´t receive any signals of the remotecontrol. So I tried to restart the service with a batch file:

net stop AlternateMceIrService
ping -n 10 localhost
net start AlternateMceIrService


In the first moment it works. After that I tried to start this batch on system start with the windows task scheduler. The konfig of this task is:
- User with admin rights and UAC disabled
- start with higher privileges
- 3 minutes delayed start on user logon


But it doesn´t work. When I run this batch file manually it works but with the windows task scheduler it doesn´t work. How could this be?
I have tried to run this task with another user ("SYSTEM" and "Administrator") with the windows task scheduler but also it doesn´t work.
I have spent many time in this problem but nothing what I do work. Any idea to solve this problem? I need some help please.

Sorry for my poor Englisch.

[steppedup]

Holy sheeeeeit. What an ordeal.

Windows 7, x64 bit, using the lastest stable Eventghost with XBMC, UAC turned off. Was using AlternateMCE IR driver that comes with the eventghost plugin for Vista/ Windows 7.

It stopped working: The pipe kept closing, and the AlternateMceIR service kept hanging. Went round and round - eventually getting it to the point where I was getting MceRemote.Unknown keypresses.

Went back to Intelliremote - but it does a horrible job of handling volume key pressing.

So, back to Eventghost....and this is what I did to get it running.

.5 - prep - UAC is turned off. MCE Remote IR dongle is plugged into a USB 2.0 port (not a hub, and not USB 3.0).

1. Uninstalled the MceRemote Vista/Windows 7 plugin from Eventghost (right-click, delete).
2. Went into DOS, (start, run, cmd), and deleted the AlternateMceIR service via this command: sc delete AlternateMceIR.
3. Installed the regular MCE remote plugin - make sure you uncheck: "Disable HID service for this remote (recommended). The reason for number 3 is because there is a lot of forum posts on Media Portal forums about how the default handling mechanism is better.
4. Save your Eventghost config.
5. Right-click your Eventghost shortcut icon and make sure that it's not being run as Administrator.
6. Reboot.



Everything should be working now without the AlternateMceIR service which I have found to be very flaky (my apologies) on Windows 7, x64bit.

[PauliusB]

But as I know, it doesn't understand pronto codes, so it's useless for me. Let's wait for a bugfix.

[camar0]

thank you for this info!

i finally was able to resolve my issue with built in laptop IR with an MCE remote!!!

Holy sheeeeeit. What an ordeal.

Windows 7, x64 bit, using the lastest stable Eventghost with XBMC, UAC turned off. Was using AlternateMCE IR driver that comes with the eventghost plugin for Vista/ Windows 7.

It stopped working: The pipe kept closing, and the AlternateMceIR service kept hanging. Went round and round - eventually getting it to the point where I was getting MceRemote.Unknown keypresses.

Went back to Intelliremote - but it does a horrible job of handling volume key pressing.

So, back to Eventghost....and this is what I did to get it running.

.5 - prep - UAC is turned off. MCE Remote IR dongle is plugged into a USB 2.0 port (not a hub, and not USB 3.0).

1. Uninstalled the MceRemote Vista/Windows 7 plugin from Eventghost (right-click, delete).
2. Went into DOS, (start, run, cmd), and deleted the AlternateMceIR service via this command: sc delete AlternateMceIR.
3. Installed the regular MCE remote plugin - make sure you uncheck: "Disable HID service for this remote (recommended). The reason for number 3 is because there is a lot of forum posts on Media Portal forums about how the default handling mechanism is better.
4. Save your Eventghost config.
5. Right-click your Eventghost shortcut icon and make sure that it's not being run as Administrator.
6. Reboot.



Everything should be working now without the AlternateMceIR service which I have found to be very flaky (my apologies) on Windows 7, x64bit.

[zivagolee]

Any updates on fixes for the MCE.Unknown issues?

[Mordred]

I posted in this thread almost two years ago and am still having the same issues. I finally have definitively figured out what the issue is, but I don't have a solution currently.

When I reboot my HTPC, or after the plugin crashes and restarts, everything works perfectly fine. I get no MceRemote.Unknown events at all. It seems that this is the case until I turn off the TV and wait a little bit. Then when my LCD TV is turned on I start getting background IR interference being picked up by this plugin. When I press a button on the remote, the much stronger IR signal interrupts the IR coming from the LCD and I start to get event logs like this:

MceRemote.Unknown.16AAAEEFFAFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFEFFBFFEBFFEEFEBFC

At this point I'm having to press buttons multiple times in quick succession to get an event that reads properly. What ends up happening is that I get an event which is SOOO long (probably takes about 5 minutes of continuous reading) that the plugin crashes, and needs to be restarted.

When I'm NOT sending any IR from my remote, the plugin is continuously reading one LONG string of 'F's. I've verified this by not touching the remote at all, and swiping my hand in front of the IR sensor to block the LCDs IR and seeing new events popup in EventGhost. Unfortunately the plugin doesn't crash when it's internal buffer gets to big, it crashes when it tries to send that string to EventGhost. This explains why the plugin (at least for me) never crashes unless I'm actually trying to do something with the remote.

I've looked at the source code that stottle includes, but a) I'm not entirely sure how to build/install it, and b) he doesn't include any code for his device driver which is where I assume the problem actually is.

The surface fix seems to be as simple as making the device driver just stop reading momentarily when it receives an excessively large buffer that is obviously garbage. Unfortunately that doesn't seem like it would completely eliminate the problem because of the following issues which I don't understand. Why don't I receive any background IR when the plugin first starts? Does it somehow make itself more sensitive if it's not receiving any IR input over a long length of time? Could it possibly have something to do with the harmony remote control emitting a macro as the TV is turning on and sending an initial burst of IR (I can probably test this)?