XBMC

[traycerb]

Just want to say got eventghost working with the xbmc plugin by way of winlirc and a harmony (520) remote.

once you get winlirc working with eventghost, it's all very straightforward. when EG is logging your remote presses, just drag the logged key to the appropriate XBMC action. Since I have a harmony, I added a completely arbitary device (a Samsung SVDVD54T, a TV/DVD/VCR combo with enough remote buttons to fill the harmony) that winlirc was able to learn easily.

The only tweaks were to the lirc plugin for EG. There were too many repeated button presses after a single press, but setting the "ignoreafter" option to 300ms fixed that. If you play around with that setting, I recommend exiting/restarting EG after each change, as changes seemed erratic until doing so. may have just been my perception though.

again, as others have mentioned, no need to install the xbmc plugin; it's prepackaged in the eventghost beta and just needs to be activated via Configuration | Add Plugin | Program Control -> XBMC. There was some shutdown issue mentioned earlier, but I had no problems accessing the shutdown menu.

The only real issue is a global EG issue, in that's there no easy way to restrict keypresses to the focused application. I know about the Task Create/Switch plugin, but that requires me to have activation/deactivation conditions for each program possible. If there was simply a "Activate if hasFocus, Deactivate if focusLost"-type condition, it would be a lot more straightforward.

that said, mad props to all involved with lirc/winlirc, EG, the xbmc plugin, and xbmc. All I needed for a smooth professional control was to build a $7 IR receiver, and these great programs.

(last thing: could someone unprotect the "Setting up your living room" wiki, at least for registered users. it could use a clarity rewrite).

[Livin]

not sure why you needed winlirc when EG works with most IR receivers?

[jinxdone]

I would guess it's because everybody doesn't have an USB-UIRT or some other similiar receiver device that works straight out of the box with existing EG plugins..

@traycerb: I'd recommend you increase the "timeout for enduring events" value in the Lirc Client plugin's config, set the value so high that you get only one continuous event in EG instead of choppy little pieces. Otherwise you wont be able to use some EG actions that use long button presses.

[traycerb]

I would guess it's because everybody doesn't have an USB-UIRT or some other similiar receiver device that works straight out of the box with existing EG plugins.

yep. built a serial ir receiver which was interesting, easy, and cheap to do. And as far as I know, EG can't communicate with the serial port without LIRC in the loop.

@traycerb: I'd recommend you increase the "timeout for enduring events" value in the Lirc Client plugin's config, set the value so high that you get only one continuous event in EG instead of choppy little pieces. Otherwise you wont be able to use some EG actions that use long button presses.

will try it out. honestly i still don't understand the difference between the two options, and it's not documented anywhere.

[jinxdone]

Well, actually you can find a short description of all the settings in the plugin description. Press the "more.." text in the top part of the plugin configuration window. It is also shown when selecting the Lirc Client from the plugins list.

If you need more help with it let's continue this discussion in the lirc-client plugin's thread..

-jinxdone

[2tonesp]

Thanks to the info in this thread, I've got my MCE remote working great with XBMC. Except one issue I can't seem to get around... Whenever I bring up the OSD during video playback, the direction keys will skip through the video as I navigate the OSD. EX: Up is Big Skip forward. How can I disable the skipping when OSD is activated and in focus. Would this be taken care of in Keymap.xml or in Event Ghost?

[champ222]

Hiya, just found this, and i think i'm nearly there..... however.

EG is running, i have dragged the remote events over to the appropriate xbmc events, i load xbmc, and it is seeing each key press as 2 key presses.... any ideas?

i have tried changeing the ignore after first event up to 300ms and it hasnt helped.

i was wondering..... before i ran EG the arrow buttons worked in xbmc already, maybe ALSO mapping them in EG causes xbmc to receive the instructions twice???

Please help...... so close..... i think

[jonib]

Hi, I have recently found out about EventGhost while browsing the XBMC forums.

Configuring EventGhost with XBMC plugin and my Hauppauge WinTV remote receiver was no problem.

But I discovered that the action based setup in the XBMC plugin was not optimal for me to control with a remote control, as I had to assign several actions to the same buttons which resulted in problems while watching a video and controlling the GUI.

But as luck has it this is opensource I figured I'd check if I could tweak the plugin, it was quite easy to change the plugin to send remote buttons instead of actions, and after some headbanging trying to figure why the buttons ware repeating after I released it, and while I waited for the activation email from this forum to ask for help, I figured a workaround for the repeating problem

As there seems other people have asked for this feature, I thought I would post my modified XBMC plugin, hopefully its OK.

To fix the repeating button problem I changed the below line in function send_button in xbmcclient.py

Code: Select all

        packet = PacketBUTTON(map_name=str(map), button_name=str(button), amount=amount)

to

Code: Select all

        packet = PacketBUTTON(map_name=str(map), button_name=str(button), amount=amount, repeat=0)

It's probably not the correct way to fix the problem but seems to work fine.

I have added all remote control buttons that XBMC supports and removed most of the actions from the plugin as I didn't need them, they are easy to put back in if wanted.

jonib

[jinxdone]

EG is running, i have dragged the remote events over to the appropriate xbmc events, i load xbmc, and it is seeing each key press as 2 key presses.... any ideas?

i have tried changeing the ignore after first event up to 300ms and it hasnt helped.

i was wondering..... before i ran EG the arrow buttons worked in xbmc already, maybe ALSO mapping them in EG causes xbmc to receive the instructions twice???

It's possible your input goes to XBMC directly and EG also catches it. The XBMC plugin has no ignoretime setting, what plugin do you use for input in EG? ? Sounds like the XBMC plugin is working as expected to me though.

Also, please find the right thread to post this issue or start a new one. This thread is for the XBMC plugin related things only and IMO it's been getting long enough even without sidetracking it.

[champ222]

I tried using the MCE plugin, but it wouldnt work, so i started using lirc, which seems be working.

Sorry for sidetracking, i assumed the problem could be with XMBC as its where the problem shows, all seem good in eventghost.

Anyway, i'll look for a probelm with the lirc plugin.

cheers

[miljbee]

Hi, I have recently found out about EventGhost while browsing the XBMC forums.

Configuring EventGhost with XBMC plugin and my Hauppauge WinTV remote receiver was no problem.

But I discovered that the action based setup in the XBMC plugin was not optimal for me to control with a remote control, as I had to assign several actions to the same buttons which resulted in problems while watching a video and controlling the GUI.

But as luck has it this is opensource I figured I'd check if I could tweak the plugin, it was quite easy to change the plugin to send remote buttons instead of actions, and after some headbanging trying to figure why the buttons ware repeating after I released it, and while I waited for the activation email from this forum to ask for help, I figured a workaround for the repeating problem

As there seems other people have asked for this feature, I thought I would post my modified XBMC plugin, hopefully its OK.

To fix the repeating button problem I changed the below line in function send_button in xbmcclient.py

Code: Select all

        packet = PacketBUTTON(map_name=str(map), button_name=str(button), amount=amount)

to

Code: Select all

        packet = PacketBUTTON(map_name=str(map), button_name=str(button), amount=amount, repeat=0)

It's probably not the correct way to fix the problem but seems to work fine.

I have added all remote control buttons that XBMC supports and removed most of the actions from the plugin as I didn't need them, they are easy to put back in if wanted.

jonib

That's really fun, because, I have worked on the same problem than you the last few days !
Guess what ? I have done exactly the same code changes you made, Except that I might have found a few more remote buttons on the wiki than you (I'm not sure, because i'm at work and don't have the code with me), and that I made a new plugin !
I have choosen to make a new plugin because I think the existing one might be usefull in some cases. I have called the new plugins XBMCTrueRemote.

So I wanted to post here, because I'm working on a New tuto for new XBMC users to help them to get XBMC working with MCE remote in just a few minutes.
The whole thing is based on eventghost which seems to me great with this modified plugin.

So the question is :
Who should I Send this new Plugin, or where should I Post it to have it included in the official eventghost setup ?

Final words : for those who are asking themselves why this new plugin might be better than the existing one : XBMC Supports some different kind of control method wich are all described in the keymap.xml. The available controls are Keyboard, Remotes, joystick, .... Each of them are tuned to be the most user friendly possible. The original plugin bypass the whole keymap.xml by sending action. What this new plugin does is sending XBMC Remote Control keypress that are interpreted and translated using Keymap.xml

[kricker]

So the question is :
Who should I Send this new Plugin, or where should I Post it to have it included in the official eventghost setup ?

Final words : for those who are asking themselves why this new plugin might be better than the existing one : XBMC Supports some different kind of control method wich are all described in the keymap.xml. The available controls are Keyboard, Remotes, joystick, .... Each of them are tuned to be the most user friendly possible. The original plugin bypass the whole keymap.xml by sending action. What this new plugin does is sending XBMC Remote Control keypress that are interpreted and translated using Keymap.xml

Contact Bitmonster to get it included. Then start a new thread for it.

So, do you still need the EventServer on in XBMC for your new plugin? I think another option is great, and I look forward to testing it, now back to the thread topic at hand.

[jonib]

That's really fun, because, I have worked on the same problem than you the last few days !
Guess what ? I have done exactly the same code changes you made, Except that I might have found a few more remote buttons on the wiki than you (I'm not sure, because i'm at work and don't have the code with me), and that I made a new plugin !
I have choosen to make a new plugin because I think the existing one might be usefull in some cases. I have called the new plugins XBMCTrueRemote.

Interesting, I also saw that Myxin on page 4 in this thread had done a similar change.

jonib

[miljbee]

So the question is :
Who should I Send this new Plugin, or where should I Post it to have it included in the official eventghost setup ?

Final words : for those who are asking themselves why this new plugin might be better than the existing one : XBMC Supports some different kind of control method wich are all described in the keymap.xml. The available controls are Keyboard, Remotes, joystick, .... Each of them are tuned to be the most user friendly possible. The original plugin bypass the whole keymap.xml by sending action. What this new plugin does is sending XBMC Remote Control keypress that are interpreted and translated using Keymap.xml

Contact Bitmonster to get it included. Then start a new thread for it.

So, do you still need the EventServer on in XBMC for your new plugin? I think another option is great, and I look forward to testing it, now back to the thread topic at hand.

It seems I don't have the right to create a new thread ...

Anyway, I will post my little work here.

So you will find attached 3 files :
XBMCTrueRemote : The New Plugin
XBMC.xml : config file to control XBMC using the new plugin
XBMCS3.xml : config file to control XBMC and put the PC into standby mode when exiting XBMC

The config files are for MCE Remote.

To use this :
Simply put the new plugin in the eventghost plugins directory (c:\Program Files\Event Ghost\Plugins)
Then, if you have a Ms MCE remote control, simply load one of the 2 xml
If you don't, load the New plugin and add event to XBMC Actions.

As explained previously, this new plugin don't directly ask XBMC to perform some actions. This plugin sends XBMC remote Keys that XBMC understand and interpret with the keymap.xml. However, you still need to have XBMC EventServer Running (in XBMC, Settings\Network\Event Server)

If all works fine, and you find this usefull, I will shortly publish a new HowTo on the xbmc forums

[jonib]

Except that I might have found a few more remote buttons on the wiki than you (I'm not sure, because i'm at work and don't have the code with me)

So where are the extra remote buttons you found?

Unfortunately you chose not to include any actions like ShutdownMenu and AudioDelayMinus that I need so I'll have to keep my version, maybe release it as another XBMC plugin also he he.

jonib