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Author Topic: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?  (Read 4410 times)

dhiggins

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Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« on: April 24, 2007, 01:37:50 pm »

Hi
I had an observation and a comment/possible bug report.

I have microsoft "comfort curve" media keboard 2000 v1.0.

It comes with a nifty keyboard driver that allows you to assign what happens when you press any of the "media keys" at the top of the keyboard.

MC12 works GREAT with the play/pause, increase/decrease volume keys and the mute key.

BUT when I assigned the Skip to next/prev track to the forward and back buttons, nothing happens IF MC12 doesn't have focus. If it does, they work perfectly.

Keep in mind, the other keys (volume, play pause, etc) all work REGARDLESS of whether MC has the focus.

Anyway. Any thoughts? Do I need to assign the key functions differently maybe, or is this just not supported?

Thanks
Darin
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Matt

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Re: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2007, 01:42:46 pm »

You could try switching the media key handling mode in MC > Options > General > Advanced.

However, some of this is up to the driver.  If the key shows as a standard multimedia next / previous, our media key handler can catch it.  If the driver makes the key not show as a regular key, it may only forward the command to the active program.

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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

lalittle

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Re: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2007, 01:44:27 pm »

How did you assign the skip keys -- i.e. what was the process for doing this?  I'm not familiar with the way your keyboard works, but I know that this "type" of thing can be tricky since you need to tell the device the key AND the program that you want to control.

Thanks,

Larry
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Matt

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Re: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2007, 01:50:46 pm »

I should add that you could also simply configure it to run a batch / command line program:

MC12.exe /Command Next
MC12.exe /Command Previous
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

jgreen

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Re: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2007, 01:56:54 pm »

I believe I owned that keyboard for a couple years--haven't used it in a year or so.  All the assorted options under "advanced" that Matt mentioned should get you good.  One further option, try uninstalling the MSFT drivers and see if that helps.

IMO, MSFT makes great hardware (I know they source it out).  Simple, functional, well-designed and reasonably priced--all adjectives that I've never applied to their software  offerings.  Perhaps they should try sourcing out their software dev--perhaps to jriver. 
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dhiggins

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Re: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2007, 11:00:48 am »

Just for everyone's info

I set media Key to APP COMMANDS and the media keys work perfect, even across apps now. No idea why I didn't see that before, but thanks to everyone for the comments!

Darin

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dhiggins

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Re: Microsoft Media Keyboard and Media center?
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2007, 11:38:31 am »

Oops, spoke too soon. Doesn't actually work, but this I didn't notice before.

The next/prev track keys don't work ONLY if media center is shrunk into the system tray.

The keys DO work if MC isn't shrunk to the tray. and they DO work regardless of whether MC is in the foreground or background, as long as it's not shrunk to the tray.

Interestingly, if I TURN OFF the minimize to system tray option, THEN the next prev track keys work fine when MC in minimized.

So, it would seem there's something amiss, just not sure what.

However, I tried the MC12.exe /Command Next and previous options and they work perfectly, regardless of whether MC in minimized to the systray or not.

So, seems like a perfectly fine workaround to me.

But it would be nice to see the Command line documented in the help file. I search for COMMAND and got just a few hits, none related to the command line.


Not a big deal, just thought I'd mention it.

Darin
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