Hello from Amazon land Harroun!
From doing other searches I see that control JR-MC from a Harmony controller via IR works nicely. However I am not finding some details. Unterstand that I must add a IR receiver to my computer (PC), have a FLIRC USB (2nd Generation) Universal Remote on order which is advertised to interface with media centers.
Yes. But it's kinda complicated. A regular IR receiver works one way. A FLIRC works in a totally different way. Regular IR receivers are special devices that Windows recognizes (with a driver). MC can talk directly to those devices and you can configure some stuff in MC's Remote Control section. I don't have any real world experience with this; I have not used it. I just know that's how it works.
But the FLIRC, as I said, is totally different. The FLRIC acts just like a keyboard. Windows see's that little IR box as a new keyboard device! The way the FLIRC should be used is as follows:
Program the FLIRC to listen for a button press on your remote. This can be any button from any kind of remote. When the FLIRC "sees" that button press, it is programmed to output a keyboard key. That keyboard key needs to be something that MC can recognize.
In essence, you are emulating key presses on the keyboard. Anything you can do at the keyboard, you can program the FLIRC to do for you, when it sees button presses on your remote control. Here's an example:
In MC control-P will do Play/Pause whenever you press it. Using the FLRIC program, you can program the FLIRC so that when it sees the Play key on your remote pressed, it sends out control-P . Then MC will see that control-P and do Play/Pause.
You do this key by key on your remote control. The programming is done using FLIRC's own custom programming application (free download from FLIRC's web site).
Honestly, this whole process isn't nearly as easy as just buying a Media Center remote and corresponding IR receiver. However, I *think* the FLIRC is more flexible in it's programming. For example, I have mine set up with custom remote keys that do things like:
Go directly to Theater View mode
Go directly to Playing Now inside of Theater View
Go to Standard View
Go to Display View
I'm not sure if you can program MC and a Media Center Remote to do those things.
Which brings me to why *I* use the FLRIC: I use MC on a Mac. MC for Mac does NOT have a Remote Control option at all. So I had to use the FLIRC to work around this. It works really well!
I'm not sure if FLIRC is the right choice for you or not. But you can certainly make it work. I did.
Good luck!
Brian.