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[jachin99]

I don't think JR21 is seeing my green button press on my Win10 HTPC.  Is there a way to fix this, or get the button to start or stop the program or open a link within JR? thanks.

[RoderickGI]

Have you tried to program lots of IR commands in MC? Because if you are using a standard MCE remote, MC works out of the box. No need to program any IR commands, unless you need to use an IR Blaster, in which case you just program the Blaster. Generally I advise people who have tried to program all the MCE commands in MC to reset the IR commands and start again from that point.

I see you have a Microsoft Ehome IR transceiver and a Gyration remote control. Is that a standard MCE remote? Some people who have tried to use MCE remotes with extended functionality have run into trouble because the remote isn't standard, and in at least one case didn't even use the standard MCE IR codes. I think there was a fair bit of discussion around this over at The Green Button.

So, bottom line, on a standard MCE remote the Green Button works out of the box. It uses the "Media Center" MCE command, and MC understands that.

[jachin99]

Every other button on the remote works  so for instance, channel up changes the channel, the arrow keys work, pause, play record etc. all work. The remote itself uses RF to pass MCE commands, and I have gotten it to launch WMC, which is no longer installed.  I cannot think of any other programs that would steal commands from my green button press.  To be more clear, I would like the green button to either launch JRiver itself, or another program while running jriver so that for instance, I could leave the screen off, press the green button, and have jriver launch a music player such as Spotify. 

The Ehome driver is strictly for external IR control as far as I can tell.  The remote came with an IR attatchment, and I can unplug it and the remote works fine.  Right now I have the IR extender connected to my stereo, and tv, and I have programmed the # and * keys on the remote to start each.  When I programmed JRiver using the remote wizard within the program to have the green button turn on both, I would press OK, and the power would quickly cycle on my stereo without JRiver seeing my OK button press.  When I tried other MCE buttons, such as TV guide to perform the same function, I would get the same result.  After I moved the power commands for the stereo and tv to a normal keyboard-like button on the remote, My OK button presses performed as expected. 

[RoderickGI]

To be more clear, I would like the green button to either launch JRiver itself

There may be something broken in the latest versions. Nothing broken. Just interfering software.

My understanding is that the Green Button will launch MC if at least the MC Media Server is running in the background. The User Interface doesn't need to be running though. The Media Center Service handles IR commands, but I don't think it will launch MC if both the User Interface and Media Server have been closed.

So if Media Sever and the Service is running, but the User Interface has been closed, pressing the Guide button should open MC. That isn't happening on the latest version which I am using. I'm sure it worked previously.

You only need to run the Remote Wizard (by pressing the Next button on the Options>Remote Control dialogue) if you are setting up an IR Blaster (IR Extender), which you seem to have done. If you do that properly, powering up our HTPC should also be able to power up your TV and Stereo. I'm not sure you should be programing the Green Button to power devices on. It is intended I think to launch MC, and to toggle through a few MC screens when MC is active. I guess if you active Media Center using the Green Button, you want the TV and Stereo to power up at the same time, and that should be able to be done using the IR Blaster. But I am spoiled by my Logitech remote, which powers everything up and sets all devices correctly when I click the "HTPC" button, so I haven't had to do what you are trying to do.

I would suggest that you turn on the flag at Options>Theatre View>Behaviour>Disable Windows Media Center, even though you don't have WMC installed. Unless you have never had it installed on that PC.

I think everything else you mention comes down to your programing of your Gyration remote control. Although maybe how you set up the blaster has had some negative effect.

[JimH]

The Green Button was working for me this evening.

[thecrow]

My understanding is for the Green Button to start MC you need to have the MC server running:

Tools>Options>Startup>Windows Startup>Run on Windows startup:Media Server

And the remote enabled in:

Tools>Options>Remote Control>Devices & Options>Selected Input Devices:Microsoft MCE

This works for me with MC21.0.50

[jachin99]

I run MC server on startup, and I do have an external IR blaster hooked up to the computer.  

I have the blaster plugged into my stereo, and my TV.  

I have disabled windows media center in the behavior menu for theater view, and I tried with it enabled as well.  

The green button does not do anything for either.

I would like to have different capabilities from this remote.  I would like to be able to have JRiver play music with one button press, which requires powering on my stereo, and I want to have a different button press turn on the stereo, TV and start JRiver, so I have a configuration where I can easily play music around the house or watch tv, kind of like two different macros.  I have not programmed the remote itself to control any other devices with the exception of the * and # buttons to turn on the TV, and Stereo separately.  I would leave the stereo running all day but I want to keep my power bill as low as possible from all of my media center equipment so that isn't really an option.  

When I configured these two buttons to turn on each device, I did so at the beginning of the remote setup wizard, where it asks you to program power buttons, mute, and volume.  Beyond this, I did not make any changes.  One other issue I am having is that I can only use the * and # buttons to turn each device on when jriver itself is running, and not when the server program is running by itself.  Is there a way to configure the server side of the program to listen for these keypresses, and execute the desired action?  
I am not on the newest build put up yesterday.

[RoderickGI]

Okay, the Green Button isn't broken. I had some interfering software.

I could do what you are asking for with my Logitech remote, but I have no idea how to do it with your Gyration remote control.

You may want to look at some of the IR command management/automation applications that are mentioned around the forum, like EventGhost and Girder. But I suspect that you already have similar functionality in the software provided with your remote.

Note that when MC Standard View is minimised, when you press Play on a remote the contents of Playing Now will be played. Also under "Options>Startup>Startup Actions" you can set MC to start playing the current Playlist. So there are some things you can do in MC.

But most of what you want must be done using your remote and some automation software.

Disclaimer: I don't use an IR Blaster, and I do use a Logitech remote which shields me from some of your issues, so I may be wrong on some of the above.

[jachin99]

I have played around with EG but it requires some weird setup to get it working right with this remote.  My remote came with software but I think it mostly enables the LCD screen to read my windows media library.  When I run the JR remote setup, JR sees my green button keypress when I program it under tools>options>commands as button press for the IR blaster so for instance I could program the green button to tell my stereo or tv play, volume up, etc.  I just now programmed the green button for TV within theater view, and it works. I think JR sees the keypress but does not know what to do with it.  This might end up being my solution.

[RoderickGI]

If you have added an action for the Green Button (MCE Media Center command) under Tools>Options>Remote control>Commands, you have overridden the default behaviour for the Green Button. That is why the Green Button isn't working for you.

You will notice that under Tools>Options>Remote control>Commands there is no pre-defined item in the list for the Green Button. That is because it is basic to MC functionality, in the same way it is basic to WMC functionality. You should not program anything against the Green Button in the remote control commands. You should delete that record, and the Green Button will revert to its default behaviour and start working again. In fact, while I have tried modifying a few of those commands, I have reverted all but one, and added one other, using the extended buttons available through the Logitech remote setup. When people are having trouble with their MCE remote I usually advise them to reset all remote commands back to the default, unless they really know what they are doing. You do not have to train IR Commands for all MC functions. The functions listed under Tools>Options>Remote control>Commands are already linked to default MCE IR commands. You only make changes in that section when you want to change the behaviour of default MCE commands, or add new commands linked to new IR command codes.

Basically, the functionality in MC for IR commands is a bit limited, which is partly why people use EventGhost and other tools to gain additional functionality.

MC sees all MCE IR commands, including the Green Button. But it doesn't see much in the way of other IR commands. Therefore, there aren't many "spare IR commands" that you can associated other functions to. However, if you look under Tools>Options>Remote control>Devices & Options, you will see that you can pick other devices that MC can respond to. You should have both "Microsoft MCE" and "Remote, keyboard, gamepad or other HID" selected, and both should be active, and that will give you some more choices.

For example, if your Gyration remote control can send keyboard commands, then the "Remote, keyboard, gamepad or other HID" MC device will be able to detect those commands. In my case that has been of limited use, as my Logitech only supports keyboard commands that are mostly already used by Windows, so if I use them for MC I lose the default Windows functionality.

There may be others who can provide better advice, but I think you need to look to your Gyration remote control setup, if you wish to keep using that remote. I suspect that the answer is there, because quite a few people really love those remotes.

[jachin99]

The green button didn't work before I programmed it for another command.  I usually leave JRiver running in the background anyway so at least this way, I can bring up my TV guide with one button press.  I even tried wiping my JR install, uninstalling any other program that might use the button press, cleaning the registry, and reinstalling JR with the stock configuration, and still nothing happened when I pressed the green button.  After all of that, I broke down, and programmed the green button to bring up the guide while JRiver is running minimized.

[JimH]

If you have a true MC Remote, the green button will work.

You could probably find out where the problem is by

Buying an MC Remote

Trying on another machine

Switching the IR receiver

Trying with WMC (if available)

MC works the same way WMC works, with the same settings.

I assume you found the setting in MC that disables WMC while MC is used.

I assume you're running MC's Media Server on Windows startup (an MC setting).

[jachin99]

I can unplug the IR sensor, and the remote works, I don't even have to be in the same room to use the remote.  The remote I am using originally came bundled with the Dell M2010 Laptop, which was purpose built for Windows Media Center.  I have ran windows media center on this machine in windows ten, and If I remember correctly, pressing the green button would launch that program but I may have had to press it twice.  I don't really fault JRiver for this not working because I have installed so many programs that tweak my remote settings, including some registry changes.  I would like a stock version of the windows registry keys as they pertain to functionality of this remote to upload into the OS but I don't know if that would make things a little better, or way worse.  Maybe I should backup JRiver MC, reinstall windows from a stock image, and troubleshoot from there.  I can try installing JR on my laptop as well later.  If it works, then maybe I could find the appropriate registry values, and copy them from that machine to my current machine, and test.

[RoderickGI]

After all of that, I broke down, and programmed the green button to bring up the guide while JRiver is running minimized.

  At least you are maintaining a sense of humour about all this.  

I am sure that I have read about other Gyration remote users having trouble with standard IR commands, and particularly the Green Button. It could be to do with the Gyration remote using RF and then converting to IR commands on the PC. But more likely, Gyration has done something specific and non-standard with their remotes. This is even more likely as the remote came with a Dell laptop specifically set up for WMC. If you did have to press the Green Button twice with WMC on the Dell, I suspect that it might be doing something to wake the Dell, such as sending Wake On LAN packets, and then sending the IR command. So the first press woke the Dell, and the second activated WMC.

As you are running Media Server at Windows startup, and usually leaving MC running in the background, one thing you could do is program the Green Button through MC to run one of the MC Core Commands to open Theatre View. But you would be losing some of the capabilities of the Green Button by doing so. It wouldn't toggle between Display View, the Theatre View menu, and whatever page you were sitting on when you started... or maybe it would still do that...

MCC Command number 22001 has as one of its parameters a "Toggle" function. I haven't tested what that actually does, but it may do what the standard Green Button does. I suggest you try programing the Green Button to send that command. The command to Run on pressing the Green Button would be "MC21.exe /MCC 22001,0"

If you just wanted to launch Theatre View using the Green Button, you could try using the MC command line Mode switch. i.e. "MC21.exe /Mode Theatre".

PS: Based on my experience, Window registry keys pertaining to IR commands are esoteric, incomprehensible, confusing, and designed to obfuscate their meaning and functionality. Best to stay away from them if at all possible. I believe MC does have registry keys for the IR commands it uses, but you need to be a cryptologist to decipher them. Probably the same with the Gyration remote and its software.

PPS: Which Gyration remote model do you have? There seem to be a few variations.

[jachin99]

Thanks for all of the suggestions, and I will try them soon.  Just for fun, I tried installing MC, and the dell software suite for the remote on my laptop, and got the same result.  The remote I use is a Dell branded Gyration remote.  The RF receiver for it is non standard, so the remote will not work with a gyration receiver.  As I recall, the dell uses a cypress chipset that was built into the laptop but later the receiver was made as a usb attachment as a replacement part, but other than that I don't know of any differences.   I'm happy with MC, and the remote overall but I am really picky at times, and if one thing is off it just kind of nags at me.

[jachin99]

Thanks again for the help.  My final solution (for the time being) is to use the green button to power on the stereo and TV.  I do this because there are other programs I need to run outside of jriver like hulu, and powerdvd, so the presentation of my media center will have to start with windows itself.  With jriver running in the background, I can just press TV guide, and go straight to live TV, and with HULU, I can pin the shows I like to a full screen start menu.  For Powerdvd, I use external programs to make my own live tile.  Since I started this thread, I have deleted the dell remote software on the PC, and the remote works fine with however, the remote's LCD screen cannot read my music library.  I was having issues with the play button starting megadeth in the middle of my tv shows anyway.  I'm kinda sad the screen is gone but everything else works pretty good

[RoderickGI]

Shame about losing the two way communication with the remote, and hence the loss of the LCD screen info. But at least now you have a working solution.

Some of your issues are why I like the Logitech (actually, Harmony) approach of activity based programmable buttons. But all remotes, and integrations, have their limitations.

Now just enjoy MC.  

[jachin99]

I ordered an old MCE IR keyboard from amazon the other day, and the green button on that works fine with jriver.  The gyration green buttons must be different for whatever reason.

[RoderickGI]

The gyration green buttons must be different for whatever reason.

Yep.

[jachin99]

Its possible to get the gyration green button working with event ghost by using the generic HID plugin.  With generic HID, there are eight different gyration remotes available in the plugin's setup.  I just selected all of them, and turned them off one at a time to see what they each do.  One of them gave me my gyration green button back.  I just figured I'd put this up for anyone else who comes across the same problem.

[isu1992]

I've been using a dell windows media center remote on both my entertainment desktops and everything was working fine until the latest upgrade of MC...now the remote doesn't work at all...nothing else has changed....any advice?   Thanks!

[RoderickGI]

My Harmony IR remote stops working sometimes for no obvious reason. I think it is because I have been mucking around with settings, but I'm not sure. It could be to do with Windows 10 updates.

Anyway, I just reboot the HTPC and its working again. Have you tried that? Reboot twice if in doubt, so that all updates complete successfully.