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

[jitterjames]

now i will have to change all of them to the corresponding mcevista

some ideas for you

BitMonster showed you how to change the eventname by editing the plugin with a single line of code, if you want. Or you can use notepad to open the xml macro file and just do a find and replace, changing all your mceremote to mcevista. (backup the xml file first I guess)

You can also remove the prefix (the part before the '.')from all your macro event triggers, as long as that won't cause a conflict with other events you are using. For example I have an event called Play so if an event is logged as either Hid.Play or MceRemote.Play or Broadcast.Play will all trigger it. But I don't use it for everything... just play stop up down etc. that way different remotes can still do different things without confusion, but they share some common events.

[rexian]

Example of what i get:
MCE_Vista.Unknown.1C
MCE_Vista.Unknown.7FFFFC
MCE_Vista.Unknown.1FFFC

....

I noticed it too last night. I pressed the BLUE button of MCE remote once and EG logged 3 events starting with Vista.Unknown. I press it again, it logs as MCE.Blue and next several presses remained that way. But sometimes it shows up as multiple unknown events in the log. I dismissed it thinking my Harmony remote was acting up and sent a signal for a different device and now that EG picks up everything, it's showing up that way.

BTW, my plasma was on during the entire process.

[jitterjames]

I find if I don't get a good clean signal it sometimes shows up as something else. I guess it doesn't know how to filter out weak signals?

Are you trying to send a signal from the harmony to the MCE receiver? Because it will react to every remote afaik.

[predatorftp]

now i will have to change all of them to the corresponding mcevista

some ideas for you

BitMonster showed you how to change the eventname by editing the plugin with a single line of code, if you want. Or you can use notepad to open the xml macro file and just do a find and replace, changing all your mceremote to mcevista. (backup the xml file first I guess)

You can also remove the prefix (the part before the '.')from all your macro event triggers, as long as that won't cause a conflict with other events you are using. For example I have an event called Play so if an event is logged as either Hid.Play or MceRemote.Play or Broadcast.Play will all trigger it. But I don't use it for everything... just play stop up down etc. that way different remotes can still do different things without confusion, but they share some common events.

Well thanks for the ideas i will try it later on and report
where exactly am i supposed to put the peace of code monster showed us ?

@Brett,

Since MCE and MCE_Vista can not live together, wouldn't it be easier to have the same class name but a simple check that doesn't let you install them both at the same time. this way no confusions !

@rexian
About the random picking signals, well i have the same problem as you rexian, but as i mentioned above when the LCD TV is on the blaster is picking up allot of "noise".
This I can't believe that my TV is emitting IR signals, so it most be electrostatic noise that is translated into IR interference in the MCE receiver.

@monster
any ideas regarding the noise subject ?

[predatorftp]

Example of what i get:
MCE_Vista.Unknown.1C
MCE_Vista.Unknown.7FFFFC
MCE_Vista.Unknown.1FFFC

....

I noticed it too last night. I pressed the BLUE button of MCE remote once and EG logged 3 events starting with Vista.Unknown. I press it again, it logs as MCE.Blue and next several presses remained that way. But sometimes it shows up as multiple unknown events in the log. I dismissed it thinking my Harmony remote was acting up and sent a signal for a different device and now that EG picks up everything, it's showing up that way.

BTW, my plasma was on during the entire process.

Please try it with the TV off and tell me if the receiver still goes nuts ?!

[Ronny]

Hello,

I'm new here.
I'm using EG for 2 months now, with a Philips MCE remote and the OVU4120000/0 receiver/sender.

It works like a charm! Thank for that.

Now I'm wondering, like the rest here. Is it possible to send IR codes to other devices?

Then I saw this topic and started testing.
Now the incoming IR codes from other remotes are in the log.
The problem is, when I press one button, I get several codes.

Like this:

Code: Select all

MCE_Vista.Unknown.177D7F5B8
MCE_Vista.Unknown.57D66BAAFB8
MCE_Vista.Unknown.17AABEEB77D7F5B8
MCE_Vista.Unknown.5D7F7FAABF8

When I press a button on my MCE remote, the button isn't recognized any more!
For example, this is what I get when I press "1" on my MCE remote:

Code: Select all

MCE_Vista.Unknown.27FFFFFF2A7AFD7C
MCE_Vista.Unknown.13FFFFFF96FD7EBFFFFF87ACB70

Is there something I do wrong, or isn't there a fix for this problem (yet)?

I very appreciate for what you do! Thanks a lot!!

Can this maybe help you?

[mazmaz]

Does the service or the plugin disable default HID capability? Any way to bring them back and use them along with this plugin?

After a few restarts now I can see the commands in EG log but the application on focus doesn't receive them, nor can I put the computer to sleep using remote. All the commands that are configured within EG works, but not others like 7MC, Explorer etc.

I'm using this recently developed (beta) plugin:

http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1838

to control Win7MC, along with ZoomPlayer. Works fine! Full marks to stottle, the developer.

[stottle]

All,

I'm guessing each of you has 5-10 different remotes by the HTPC. Each of those sends out a different set of codes. Also, IR signals emit over a wide area, so you don't need to point directly at the device you want to control. The signals also bounce off was and everything else. The point is, there's lots of extra noise (including, I guess, some LCD TVs). The way devices handle this, they look for specific patterns and ignore everything else, even though a lot of the "everything else" is still detected. Also note that the everything else can degrade a "good" signal, so it isn't recognized.

The way around this is the have the remotes repeat, by sending codes multiple times. Having a button (like VolumeUp) keep increasing the volume while it is held works the same way - codes keep getting sent while the button is held. So while EG will emit one event for the VolumeUp button, it is really getting a series of codes. EG just internally keeps track, which allows for things like the AutoRepeat action, or JumpIfLongPress. So EG actually needs me to break up the codes. If you hold down the VolumeUp key, you want the volume to start changing immediately, not wait until you release the button before anything happens.

End result? I think you are all seeing expected behaviour. There are a couple of things:
1) The learn function needs to be adjusted to not break codes up so easily, as several "chunks" should be included in the learned code. I'm looking in to this.
2) Signals in noise won't always match perfectly, so some amount of MceRemote_Vista.Unknown is expected from real MCE button presses. But I also think the device's measurements are a little shorted than other devices (I can receive a code from both my Mce receiver and my usb-uirt, and the uirt on times are a little longer). This could mean that the IrDecoder tolerances (how much noise is allowed before a code is recognized vs. becoming Unknown) might need to be adjusted. Again, remotes will repeat signals to try to mitigate these effects.
3) I can certainly throw out short signals, so they aren't processed by the IrDecoder. I haven't done this yet, as some of this helps with development. But that will happen at some point, so as not to confuse users.

It is still possible there's a bug in the software, certainly. But at the moment, I'm ready to say that all of the MceRemote_Vista.Unknown posts recently are expected behavior. If you are convinced you've got a real problem and not just symptoms of the above affects, convince me. Fair?

Can this maybe help you?

Yup, I've seen that. Thanks, though.

I'm using this recently developed (beta) plugin:

http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1838

to control Win7MC, along with ZoomPlayer. Works fine! Full marks to stottle, the developer.

Thanks!

Brett

[rexian]

Please try it with the TV off and tell me if the receiver still goes nuts ?!

It's intermittent and happens after many tries even with the TV on and with the TV off, I tried all the configured MCE buttons on the remote and they were all recognized.

[rexian]

...
It is still possible there's a bug in the software, certainly. But at the moment, I'm ready to say that all of the MceRemote_Vista.Unknown posts recently are expected behavior. If you are convinced you've got a real problem and not just symptoms of the above affects, convince me. Fair?

Brett

Nah, I am not convinced. It's so intermittent (for me at least) that I feel may be I pressed the wrong button especially because I use a Harmony 880 and each activity controls several devices. Before this plugin, EG could never capture the "unknown" IR codes. So, we used to try again if there was no response from the PC.

So I'd say, it's working as expected and especially for me, GREAT, with HID enabled. Thanks again.

[topix]

Amazing news !
when my LCD TV is on the Receiver is going completely nuts ! receiving all sorts of strange signals, once i turn the tv off the receiver stops picking up this signals, what can cause this since when a tv is emitting IR signals ?
thanks

Some TVs send Infrared-signals for automatic brightness control. So you could check if your TV has such a function and, if possible, deactivate it (for testing).

[jitterjames]

just wondering. What is the orientation of your receiver relative to the TV. Is it pointed away from the TV?

[predatorftp]

just wondering. What is the orientation of your receiver relative to the TV. Is it pointed away from the TV?

The Receiver is less than 1m on the same axe from the TV .

[predatorftp]

Please try it with the TV off and tell me if the receiver still goes nuts ?!

It's intermittent and happens after many tries even with the TV on and with the TV off, I tried all the configured MCE buttons on the remote and they were all recognized.

It happens to me too, same thing the log is full of actions, even though the TV is off and nothing visible is emitting signals.

[stottle]

Ok, I'm still plugging away at this. I've found some more info, and I'm trying to get everything into the service/plugin.

First off, it looks like the MCE device doesn't provide enough information to allow you to pick which transmitter to use. You can get a mask which says which ports are populated, but nothing that says which ports exist. Given that, I'm going to just transmit to all ports. This should be fine, as devices are supposed to ignore codes they don't understand.

Second, there are two receivers in devices with blaster capability. One is the normal one, but there is also a "learn" port, which is able to "see" a larger frequency range (I think 30-60 kHz) but work at about 2-3 inches. I've tested this a bit, and combined with some adjustments to the plugin, I've been getting better results with the transmit last code function. But now I have to iron out switching into and out of this mode.

The learn capability is supposed to output the detected frequency, but all I get from my device is zero. I'm not sure if I just have a device that doesn't support that, or what. Still looking in to that.

Finally, I've had some trouble uninstalling the driver. It looks like the uninstall goes fine, but the service is staying in memory. So I can't replace the service exe without restarting the machine. That's another loose end I'm trying to tie up.

I'll get another version out when I can.

Brett