Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Harroun4]

I am delighted to see the problem with editing of complex Unicode fonts has been repaired, but now when editing in the main window and selecting the next track the editing mode is closed and we are forced back to Tag pane. This is a problem when editing all the tracks in a CD album. More on this later.

May I suggest implementing using standard off the shelf remotes such as Pronto, Logitech Harmony, and many others that send IR commands. So that by adding an IR receiver to a computer the basic operations can be sent via a single control system. These could then be submitted to the manufacturer. For most of us simple users trying to program this is a very daunting task. I have failed after several years. The goal is to have only one remote hand held controller. [commands should be the normal transport controls and selecting car radio buttons, I am sure others would have more to add.]

An outstanding request to give an option to "resume playback" when changing smart lists or car radio buttons, etc. Those of use with large music collections (in the thousands of albums) the last place we want to start playback is the beginning of the list, the most likely is the last track listened to. A possible simple implantation the option to search the tag field "last played" for the most recent date and start playback there. Make sure this is an option. I have many playlist that are intended for editing purposes, not playback.

The CD data base is our only currently available back up CDText data and the art work. This needs to be made secure or separate from the standard libraries. Or make add a user data base. When disaster strikes and re-ripping is necessary it can be a very tedious job.  Currently I have some smart lists that combine the "main" and "CD" data bases allowing me to keep the two synchronized. Of my 7000 or so CD's when the CD is inserted the up to date and correct art work is loaded. Should I wish to change the format of the ripped files it can be very much easier.

In the future the Main and CD data should be locked together so edits apply to both. I am sure all of us appreciate the importance of backing up our work.

When inserting a new CD in a drive MC automatically loads artwork from somewhere, I can not figure out where, but is unrelated to the current album. I had been using the program for several years and discovered that automatic upload of the artwork was taking place. When I when back to the online data base I find my wrong albums there. So  now there are probably thousand of wrong ones. At one time I thought this was loading the last scanned image, but I don't think so. For a manual operation when working with multiply disc box sets, using the last scanned image is a nice touch.

Tag files specifications already have a field for album back cover. Please implement this and make the display image active and by touching the image display the back. This is needed when checking for errors in the text during playback.

I know you have volume leveling software installed, but I have tried it and noticed a deterioration in audio quality, so do not use. My previous playback system consisted of banks of CD changers and Creston system. Simple programing detected changes in the volume level setting and saving in the data for each album. during the next playback the level control is changed to that setting. Once the collection has been played the volume control is not touched again. This would most simple to incorporate in MC as long as one only used the MC volume control.

Your program and most all other programs are written with more modern juke box systems in mind. But for the senior citizens who still listen to albums instead of playlists we have problems. If I get a response to this message, I can pass more information to make a simplified "Music Play View".

Am praying that I can take a active participation in improving MC.

Thanks and regards, Harroun

[jmone]

FYI - I use Harmony RC's with MC and for me they work out of the box with both IR and BT receivers without any need to config MC at all.

[Harroun4]

Question: I have not looked for a while, but does Harmony have a listing for MC? When I looked last time JRiver is listed, but no commands.

At the time I ended up with a "FLIRC" IR thing but had to generate my own codes. Then if MC was not the active window it would not work. Big pain in the back side.

Regards, Harroun

[jmone]

MC responds to std MCE codes.  In the Harmony, I just added the HTPC as a Windows PC.

[Harroun4]

Sir, I seem to be stumbling around here.

I have a USB IR receiver. When plugged in Device manager shows "Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver". In MC under Devices & Options it now shows Microsoft MCE (Active). Then under Commands there is a nice long list, it looks like I need to teach these?? Seems like this is some progress.

I take a look at Harmony and can add a PC as a windows device. I don't think that is what I need use as a device. What did you do?

I greatly appreciate your time. Of recent I am not fairing well my PC's and getting gun shy to experiment too much. Recently I updated a driver and my computer would not boot up. Had to remove and discard the new card to make things work again.

Best regards from Thailand, Harroun

[JimH]

I take a look at Harmony and can add a PC as a windows device. I don't think that is what I need use as a device. What did you do?

That will probably work.

If your remote emulates a Microsoft Media Center Remote, then it should work with MC, without any changes.

There is a board on Remotes here.  You could read more there.

Rather than a list of problems, choose one or two and start a topic with an appropriate subject.  You're much more likely to get good help.

[JimH]

These instructions might also help:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Center_Remote_Instructions

[Harroun4]

OK. Progress has been made. But I basically have the same problem or complaint with using the FLIRC above. The MC window has to be open to respond to the commands.

Now there are some commands that are always active, like power toggle which shuts down the computer, there is one for MC which will bring up the Theater View ( which I don't use) (just standard view). But the commands I really need from the Harmony is the basic transport operation, stop, play skip, back, etc.

Is there a way set the transport commands as active always??

My past control programing goals are "only one remote control" and only "one button push".

Regards, Harroun

[JimH]

MC Tools > Options > Startup

Set to run Media Server on Windows Start.

[Harroun4]

Thank you kindly. I will give it a go, but I think I have another serious compatibility problem. I had been only testing to the point that the IR receiver was working and MC would respond. Not testing with several operations on the Harmony.

But, I noticed after sending some commands to MC the language on my computer was changed from ENG to FRA when sending the preloaded MCE command for Play/Pause. With some further testing, many strange things happen to the computer, like "Lock" or rebooting. This even applied to commands not related to MC.

Also I am using your 25.0.108 (64-bit) version.

My computer is a rather powerful SuperMicro workstation, dual Zeon multi core processors and MS Windows Pro 10 for workstation. Of course 64 bit version.

After sending the previous message I was trying to add a command using "Add Run" and then learning a code. The IR receiver indicated it was receiving the code, MC not learning. Then I tried to add this Add Run to the existing Play/Pause command using both MC25.exe and Media Center 25.exe with /MCC 1000.0. Nothing happened.

Right now I need a little break and some thinking. It is sort of looking like I better start learning programing in C++

Regards, Harroun

[RoderickGI]

But, I noticed after sending some commands to MC the language on my computer was changed from ENG to FRA when sending the preloaded MCE command for Play/Pause. With some further testing, many strange things happen to the computer, like "Lock" or rebooting. This even applied to commands not related to MC.

I highly doubt MC changed the computer language unless you have set up some IR Codes/Commands in MC that correspond to such a Windows action. In which case, fix that Windows issue.

After sending the previous message I was trying to add a command using "Add Run" and then learning a code. The IR receiver indicated it was receiving the code, MC not learning. Then I tried to add this Add Run to the existing Play/Pause command using both MC25.exe and Media Center 25.exe with /MCC 1000.0. Nothing happened.

MC already knows all about all the MCE commands. It doesn't need to learn any of those commands. Everything listed in the IR Command section of MC Options, where the heading says "Learned Trigger Codes" and shows a "?" against each line, MC already knows the IR Codes. If you have gone through and had MC learn all the IR Codes for those functions, Restore the Default List and just use them.

You don't need to add a command for Play/Pause. Use what is there. If you were just doing this for testing running a program based on an IR Command, always use mc25.exe, not "Media Center 25.exe".

In a Harmony setup, select either the MCE Profile, or the "Media Center SE" Profile, which is just the MCE Profile with some extended Codes.

The MC Remote Control functionality will only learn MCE Codes, and a few of the extended MCE Codes. Nothing else. It will not see any other Codes, and hence can't learn them. It can learn additional codes in the Blaster setup area, but not in the standard IR Commands area. This has been an ongoing frustration for many users.

Right now I need a little break and some thinking. It is sort of looking like I better start learning programing in C++

Don't do that. The C++ programming I mean. It could only make matters worse.


Apparently the FLIRC fixes all IR issues when working with MC. I don't use one, but I would find it very surprising that the FLIRC software window needed to be open to respond to commands. That wouldn't be logical, given what a FLIRC is and does. If you wish more flexibility than MC provides with IR Commands, investigate how to get the FLIRC working without the window being open. There is probably a Service or something that needs to start with Windows. The FLIRC applications should only need to be open for setup.

User "blgentry" uses a FLIRC I believe. You could ask him to assist, or search for posts about the FLIRC.

[JimH]

The "strange things" part must be the IR being broken somewhere.  Wrong keystrokes are being transmitted.

Please install MC 25.0.113.  It's on the Download Page.

[blgentry]

One of Harroun's big complaints here is that he wants to control MC, with an IR remote, when it is NOT IN FOCUS.  Presumably he wants to browse the web, or play video games, or check the weather, or whatever *and* change tracks in MC at the same time.  Apparently MC's IR remote support is not capturing IR commands when MC is not in focus.

This behavior would be identical with FLIRC.  FLIRC is active all the time, just like a keyboard (it emulates a keyboard).  So it will send keyboard commands any time it sees the correct IR signal.  But if MC is not in focus, then those keyboard commands don't get received by MC, so they "don't work".

I'm unfamiliar with MC's ability, or lack of ability, to operate on keyboard or IR input when MC is not the focused program in windows.

Brian.

[JimH]

Apparently MC's IR remote support is not capturing IR commands when MC is not in focus.

It does and has done so for years. 

[Harroun4]

First I was not implying that MC was changing the language, I am fairly sure this due to some leakage of data (not sure of correct term is. This with play command.Also there is another command that will cause the computer to reboot. Is almost midnight here in Thailand, in the morning I will make a fresh start and attempt to get better data. Need a little time to clear my brain up and make a new approach to testing.

Have already updated to new version. No change.

Now I think I understand the term in focus. When MC is in focus and so far all the MCE commands work. But also the anomaly above takes place. When not in focus so far the only command that works switches to Theater view mode and the program is in focus.

Now as a quick test I tried both powershell and run and issued "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 25\MC25.exe /MCC 1000,0" and nothing happened. Of course when doing this MC can not be in focus.

In the morning with a fresh start I can to more testing and also try a different computer. Sometime in the middle of the night I wake up with new ideas that can be helpful.

Thanks and regards, Harroun

Thanks and regards, Harroun

[Harroun4]

Good morning from Thailand.

Have some solid information for you I think. Did testing on a second and much smaller computer here. Did many, many test with different MCC Code commands. Concentrating on ones necessary for basic control of MC. The play/pause command works only when MC is IN FOCUS mode. When not in IN FOCUS mode all other relevant commands work, but no Play/Pause. Volume control, stop, fwd, rev, skip fwd and skip rev, mute, curser keys, OK and what not fully functional.

Can I check with you, in RUN box should the format of this command work?? C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 25\MC25.exe /MCC 1000,0  This should be play/pause if I understand the instructions. If I can start making some of these advanced things work, I probably could do some nice things.

In the testing on different computer it no appears the changing of language is computer specific. Did not happen on the standard computer.

Concerning FLIRC, the way I have set it up as a "keyboard" requires MC to be in focus to work. Have been using it to send single character commands to MC. P for play etc. per the posted instructions. I think I need to take another look at FLIRC controllers available.

Regards, Harroun

[JimH]

Are you running Media Server on Windows Start?  It's in the options for MC > Startup.

[Harroun4]

Yes sir. Basically I have noticed no change. Tomorrow I plan to work with FLIRC as I see some possibilities there. Unless I run into the same problem.

My apologies, in the start up message I am wrong in two things. For the editing in main screen and jumping to Tag, turns out this was because the Tag screen was open, if closed no problem.

An for resume playback, I said "date of last play" that does not exist, should be "date last Opened". In a way now I am using this to filter out what have been recently played so I can play the next ones. I filter for this field as MT. But this is not a very flexible way to do this. I pray some progress can be made on this. If you have ever experiences having this feature, you will not want to do without.

Regards, Harroun

[Harroun4]

Shocking discovery for me anyway. If my efforts to try to understand I am trying many things.

I had thought that is I changed the Play/Pause command to a different IR code perhaps this would make a difference. So I go to options, remote, and commands then change the Mute code to send to Play/Pause. There was no change at all. The mute worked as normal. Next restore defaults. And then Delete the Play/Pause command. Expecting that the Play/Pause command would not work now. Wrong big time. It still works.

This makes me believe that these items have no effect with the transmission of MCC Codes.

Now I will take another look at FLRIC and see what happens when I change from the "keyboard" mode. I keep my fingers crossed.

Regards, Harroun

[RoderickGI]

Did you restart MC or reboot the PC after you deleted the Play/Pause command? I suspect that you would need to. I think the IR Command set would be read once when MC started, unless being updated (overwritten), so a deletion may not take effect until a restart. But I don't know that for sure.

Otherwise, that is an interesting discovery. However, I have changed functionality for standard MCE commands using the MC functionality, and it worked. So I think those settings do work.

Try changing the Play/Pause command to Toggle Theatre View, and see what happens.

[Harroun4]

I just re-ran the test to be sure. In the Options, Remote Control, Commands, I deleted the "transport and general commands", I tried all delete and that can not be done. It restores all automatically. Anway, I restart MC, and check that the commands are still deleted, is good on that. ON the computer device manage shows the MS eHome Infrared Transceiver. When I send commands the IR receive lights flashes. So according to this as now there is no "Play, Stop, mute, etc.

I can still do all the basic operations to MC, Play, stop, volume up and down, mute. Now reboot the computer and do all the checking above to be sure nothing changed, but I can still control MC.

My basic problem which brought this discussion on is, if MC is "In Focus" (active) all the commands work. If MC is not "In Focus" the Play/Pause command will not work. All others do work.

One more check, we are talking about the "Remote Control Setup under Commands" where the changes you made were done?

If you are in a position where you can run MC (I have lastest 25 release) and select some other program and try sending the Play/Pause command via IR transmitter. To use the term in earlier messages not "In Focus". I would be most interested to know. I try on two very different computers here with same results.

Regards, Harroun


PS: thanks for your response and time.

[Harroun4]

Some favorable news, sort of. Reprogramed my FLIRC using Computer Media Keys. This works but is slow. An now I have a small inconvenience. When using the Play/Pause on my workstation computer, (I rally an not jerking you guys around) it switches the input language from ENG to FRA. Testing before on my small computer did not happen.

At least I can control MC when is not is not "In Focus". So now when I finish using the computer and relax in my bed with the Harmony remote I can do basic controls of MC.

I would be most interesting to get to the bottom of the problems we talked about.

Can you answer a question for me. I tried sending the command C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 25\MC25.exe /MCC 1000,0 via both Run and Windows PowerShell (Admin) and nothing happened to MC. The instructions seemed to indicate this would work. If I can be confident I can send and receive from MC I will pursue my C++ studies and see if I can do some good. I have no experience programing a PC, but many other systems am OK with.

Regards, Harroun

[RoderickGI]

I did a little more testing.

In my setup I have Media Center and Media Server start with Windows. I also use the "Minimise to system tray" option. I'm currently running MC25.0.98 on my HTPC, which is the only system I have an IR receiver installed in.

After rebooting my HTPC so that testing started "clean", I filled Playing Now with tracks and then minimised MC to the system tray. Play didn't do anything.

I started playback in MC Standard View and then minimised MC again. Pause didn't do anything.

I tried the above with MC maximised but with Chrome in focus. Didn't work.

What did work was Stop, Skip Forward, Skip Back, and the Green Button (or in terms of MCE commands on the Harmony, Media Center), which opens MC to the TV Guide. Some of the other standard MCE Buttons/functions such as Live TV worked as well. I tested with both my Harmony set up as an MCE extended command set remote and with a separate standard MCE remote. Both worked the same.

So I have to say that IR Commands are very spotty when MC is minimised, or not in focus.

In testing, when pressing remote buttons multiple times, I managed to make MC unresponsive altogether. i.e. After selecting Live TV I tried to stop playback, but could not. None of the remote Stop, OSD Stop, menu Stop, etc. would work. Live TV wasn't actually playing, but MC said it was. I had to reboot the HTPC twice to get it back to a working condition.

IR Commands did used to work when the Media Server was running. A search of the forum will find lots of such discussions.


I think IR Commands in MC are broken. Well, I actually think IR Commands in MC have always been broken, except for the basic commands. But something extra seems broken now. I don't remember any fixes ever being applied to Remote Control capability in MC, except perhaps for the IR Blaster setup, which on my system won't learn anything at all. But I don't have a Blaster plugged in, so that could be why.


PS:
Note that you have left a "0" off the MCC command. It should be MCC 10000 for Play/Pause. Also, you don't need to add the full path to the mc25.exe program. There are copies of the program in the "C:\Windows\System23" and "C:\Windows\SysWOW64" directories, so Windows will find and execute the command without the full path. But let me just test something else...

PPS:
Okay, I have a solution for you. I don't like it. Or more correctly, I don't like what MC is doing.

I picked a Remote Control button that I know MC sees, being the "DVD Menu" button. I reprogrammed it to send the /MCC 10000 command. That didn't work. In fact, MC still acted as though I had pressed the "DVD Menu" button, as though I had not reprogrammed the button at all. This is what you noted previously.

Given that MC appeared to be responding to default MCE IR Codes with default MCE commands, even though the associated command should have changed, I decided to learn the "DVD Menu" IR Code against the "DVD Menu" option in MC settings. With that done MC responded by Playing/Pausing tracks in Playing Now, whether MC was in focus or not.

So I went back and learned the IR Code for Play/Pause using the Play button on the remote. MC then responded to the Play button on the remote by Playing/Pausing tracks in Playing Now, whether MC was in focus or not.

Note that when you learn an IR Code against a standard MCE command, MC will warn you that you may end up with duplicates. Ignore the message and go ahead anyway. However, watch out for duplicate commands being sent to your PC. i.e. The standard MCE command that seems to be built into MC, and the command programmed through options. It is possible one button press could send two commands, but I haven't checked that. I have seen problems with learning standard MCE commands that MC already knows about in the past though.


So for your situation, probably all that you need to do is learn the commands that you want to work when MC is not in focus, and they should work. This is against the advice I have received, and which I repeated above. I think the IR Commands functionality in MC is broken. But this workaround seems to work.

Good luck.

[Harroun4]

Wow. I will study your comments over carefully. Especially for the programing bit. Should I get ambitious it will be handy.

More progress here. As in the last message the FLIRC is working, but slow and with many commands quickly NG. Actually I find the same when working with my phone. So for the time being I think best to just stick with what is working with the FLIRC.

I agree with you on the IR commands and a few other things. Nuf said.

One more thing now understood. My comments of changing the language with the Play/Pause command. When I got the FLIRC going, sometimes the language would change and others not. Turns out if no program or window is In Focus this will happen. Like just the blank Windows screen. So outside of slowness, all is working well enough for me.

I am a retired ship's engineer, My schooling seems to have been good and in time acquired a reputation for trouble shooting many things. That is a very long story. But recently with some of the 200 series and last of OPPO players under certain conditions it is possible to disable the main HDMI output, but not the audio only one. Spent a couple of months chatting with OPPO on this. Turns out is a condition that probably most users would not run into. And turns out the fix follows the KISS principle.

Well, I just brought home (here in Bangkok) a new A3 large format scanner, so can fun for the rest of the day setting it up.

Thanks again, maybe we can share ideas later. Regards,Harroun

[Hendrik]

I never had any luck with FLIRC, and I mostly blame the receiver for that. I always quickly went back to the special MCE receiver I got with one of my earlier remotes, that works flawlessly with MC all the time, using a Harmony as well.
Its important to note that IR receivers are not "generic", unless you want to go through the trouble of learning every single remote command.

MCE receivers will translate the default buttons to global media keys, ie. like those found in keyboards, and those work just fine.

If you don't use a proper MCE receiver, or somehow managed to get FLIRC into proper MCE mode (which I never managed), you might need to learn remote commands in MC.

[Harroun4]

Thanks for the help. I must have gotten lucky now. Without even trying the FLIRC first I loaded up 10 commands and was OK. Before I got to that point new software and firmware downloaded. I had been using it before in a different mode and was not hard to do.

To me it looks like JRiver needs to give this second of the program a going over. From my experience as above the entire Remote options does nothing. I would think they should have this stuff preloaded and word with the few remote suppliers to have JRiver as a device that works.

So, thanks again, time to move on to other things now.

Regards, Harroun