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Author Topic: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?  (Read 25944 times)

JimH

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Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« on: February 16, 2009, 12:32:00 pm »

Now that we've wrestled Theater View to the ground, we're thinking about remotes and it would be good to hear your experiences.

Over the weekend, I hooked up a new machine to our TV at home and pulled a remote off the shelf to try it.  These kinds of trials have not often gone well, but this one did.  Nearly everything worked.  It's made by SIIG and called the Vista MCE Remote.  It doesn't work on XP.  I tried it.

If you're using anything similar that you like, please post a link and comments.

Thanks,

Jim



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JimH

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2009, 12:34:16 pm »

One more comment on the setup.  I had to disable Vista Media Center to get MC to work.  I ended up renaming the \Windows\ehome directory.  There is a little app running in the background that also had to be killed.  It's called ehtray.  I disabled the ehtray service, but I believe that renaming the directory and rebooting is enough.
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IlPadrino

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2009, 01:10:38 pm »

I'd think getting the Logitech Harmony to work well would be the holy grail!  Mine still doesn't work like I'd want it to...  but it may be a problem with the secondary display, window focus, and the USB-UIRT I'm using to receive the remote signals from the Harmony.  Odd, though, because the pause/play button always works (good thing!) even if the others don't.

Or maybe the USB-UIRT doesn't work as well as some other receivers...
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nuke2000

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2009, 01:31:59 pm »

I am using the imon pad. Only up, down, left right, backspace and enter work out of the box although all functions work out of box with VMC. It cannot be configured via MC interface. It can be conigured with keyboard shortcuts / macros so as long as all MC commands have these shortcuts it is good to go with some time spent tinkering. The only thing i cannot seem to get to function are the dedicated buttons to Videos, Music, TV, Pictures. I also cannot get the DVD navigation to function at all but this may well be because i haven't got it set up correctly - advice would be appreciated

Cheers

[edit by JimH -- see http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Remote/imon_vfd.asp for info on imon]

ps - I am really liking the theatre view impovements and think it is on the verge of pee peeing all over VMC. Considering a re-install, putting XP back on with MC on my HTPC - Anything i may loose out on if i do this?
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JimH

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2009, 01:51:40 pm »

MC13 is the same on XP or Vista.

Thanks for the info above.
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benn600

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2009, 01:54:40 pm »

I'm using the Keyspan remotes.  They are about $30 for remote & IR receiver.  I have created a special mapping file that makes all the buttons Start MC if it isn't running.  If it is running, they use the keyboard shortcuts for MC.  A better way would be to run the command line options to control MC but my method works great and creating a complete file that you can reuse is the key.  I just copy and paste it to the C: drive and the folder structure allows it to add just the right file.
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AoXoMoXoA

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2009, 01:56:45 pm »

It's made by SIIG and called the Vista MCE Remote.  It doesn't work on XP.  I tried it.

dammit   >:(
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marko

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2009, 02:48:08 pm »

I'm hoping to see some replies from members from the UK.
One thing I have noticed in all 'remote' threads is that while most remotes appear to work, they all seem to work, except for some critical button or two that the user cannot get to function no matter what they try.
It's made me kind of nervous about splashing out cash I can ill afford on a remote then finding out that it's a nightmare to set up and that half the buttons will never function!

-marko

JimH

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2009, 02:50:12 pm »

One thing I have noticed in all 'remote' threads is that while most remotes appear to work, they all seem to work, except for some critical button or two that the user cannot get to function no matter what they try.

There are too many remotes to choose from!  I'm hoping that we can find some pattern in what people use, and then tweak MC to work better with a limited set of remotes.
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gappie

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2009, 03:07:08 pm »

i use a streamzap for a long time now. it never 'worked' with mc, though i must say that did not test it since 13 came out. so when anything changed there, maybe im wrong. then again, its a remote which works great with girder, and girder works great with mc. so i use it all the time for my mc.. 8)

 :)
gab
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rpalmer68

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2009, 03:32:02 pm »

I'm using Netremote on one of my systems as this allows me to browse my audio library without having to ue a screen, and also allows me to control multiple zones from anywhere in the house.

On my other system, I just purchased a cheap Media Center remote off ebay with the combination of buttons I needed and use it with the USBUIRT I have connected to that machine.

In both cases I use Girder to run scripts triggered by the remotes to switch on screens and jump to specific Theater View views etc, but with the Media Center remote the USBUIRT support within MC should be enought for most people who don't want/nedd to do anything fancy.

Richard

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Mr ChriZ

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2009, 04:09:59 pm »

I've seen a few people using there IPhone/ITouch as a remote for ITunes, and it looks pretty funky, but on the other hand quite expensive.
I was thinking it would be nice to create something for the Cowon S9 using Bluetooth to do the same.
If the S9 came with external SDxc storage I'd be there like a shot... but at present I can't justify the expense.

TXgary

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2009, 04:33:50 pm »

Jim, this is great, the remote is the key to getting from the office to the media room without moving the pc...  I am somewhat technical, but nothing like the girder, netremote guys.  I tried netremote early on with mc10, but it was just too premature a product to have a set way to use with MC. 
Hopefully  this will change shortly with your help.  I started with MC 7.something and am still here.  Great product...
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MrHaugen

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2009, 05:10:54 pm »

I would recommend Gyration remote for sure. It's RF based, and therefor have good range and no path of vision problems. The mouse gyro works really well, and there are shortcut buttons on the remote that work vell. As an example the back button, and the switch view button (TV, Std View, Display View). A few of the media buttons don't work though. And as it's RF it might be hard to reprogram the remote. On the possitive side it's programmable to learn a couple of other devices, and then uses IR offcourse...

Logitec Mini is a good device, but it's a bit expensive. It uses Bluetooth, wich has it's advantages. But is not programmable. The mouse pad is rather effectiv, though not at good as the gryration. A major plus that the Mini is actually a keyboard, so you can write stuff.
Most often I use my Gyration, but grabs the Mini every time I'll write something. So it all depends on how much you really need that keyboard.

Harmony One. If you have a lot of equipment, this baby will do the work. You'll have to use the remote with the keys only, as it has no mouse functions. If theater view is you're thing and you don't need a keyboard, and have a lot of equipment; this is a good choise for a IR remote.

I do NOT recommend iMon Pads. They feel cheep, and they are cheap. It's a reason they don't work that well. And mouse control? No good.
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imugli

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2009, 05:50:27 pm »

I use USBUIRT with a Harmony One. Works perfect now I've ironed out the one bug I had (Damed auto play option).

One thing I would love to see is a one press Send-pc-to-hibernate button in the remote setup menu, as opposed to simply the escape button (which lets you hibernate after 5 clicks) or Shutdown (which is pretty useless IMO seeing as I can't wake from shutdown with USBUIRT).

EDIT: Bug ironed out.

rick.ca

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2009, 06:55:53 pm »

Quote
Now that we've wrestled Theater View to the ground, we're thinking about remotes and it would be good to hear your experiences.

After doing a brilliant job making Theater View work with just arrow keys (so just about any remote will work), you must be thinking of how remotes work with MC generally...

I'm very pleased with my RF Firefly. The software it comes with is rather limited, so I replaced it with LM Remote KeyMap. It's very "light weight" compared to Girder, but it gets the job done—without hurting my brain.

In programming a profile for MC, I think I had some problems finding keyboard hot-keys (shortcuts) for all the commands I wanted to use. I now realize I could use Core Commands instead, but haven't got around to trying that. I can say the easiest application for me to build a profile for is the one that offers a configurable keyboard shortcut facility. I can then decide what function I want to map, assign a shortcut to it, and then use the same shortcut in the remote profile.

In my situation, the biggest limiting factor in this is me. I have to decide what commands mapped to which keys will be the most intuitive and useful—to me. MC presents a big challenge because there are so many things that might be controlled using a remote. So anything that helps me deal with that would be helpful. That's why configurable keyboard shortcut facility comes to mind. It's not just the configurability, but that all available commands would be set out in some logical fashion—which would be helpful in deciding which commands to map.
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Two Wire

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #16 on: February 16, 2009, 07:36:44 pm »

I use Snapstream's Firefly remote (X10 Based) along with Intelliremote. I use it to navigate in theater mode and the combination can do all that I have set it up to do.
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jmone

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #17 on: February 16, 2009, 09:27:23 pm »

Over the weekend, I hooked up a new machine to our TV at home and pulled a remote off the shelf to try it.  These kinds of trials have not often gone well, but this one did.  Nearly everything worked.  It's made by SIIG and called the Vista MCE RemoteIt doesn't work on XP.  I tried it.

dammit   >:(

Ahhh but did you try installing the MCE Drivers for XP as outlined in the Wiki?  Works great with the normal MCE!  Note: the "Debounce" feature that you may want to turn off if you use your MCE to program a Universal Remote....

Nathan

Edit - helps to put the link in! http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Supported_Remote_Control_Devices
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maxxsid

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #18 on: February 16, 2009, 11:07:17 pm »

I use a Harmony One as well - brilliant remote! (I used a couple of older harmonies as well - those worked in the same way but the One has much better ergonomics)
via USB-UIRT and Girder. 
I also use NetRemote from Dell Axim PDA
Also have an X10 RF remote (Niveus) and use it occasionally - this one also works.
My primary remote for my living room is the Harmony - controls everything - HTPC, TV, receiver, DVD player, etc.

I use USBUIRT with a Harmony One. There's one bug I'm yet to iron out (don't THINK it's MC) but, for the most part, it works really well.

One thing I would love to see is a one press Send-pc-to-hibernate button in the remote setup menu, as opposed to simply the escape button (which lets you hibernate after 5 clicks) or Shutdown (which is pretty useless IMO seeing as I can't wake from shutdown with USBUIRT.


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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2009, 12:12:25 am »

I use the logitech dinovo mini as my remote. I like that it works great as a remote in theaterview with keypad modus that has the pad, ok button and back button lit. As an added benefit I still have a mouse and keyboard as backup if needed.

I have had some focus issues when setting up mc13 recently. But they where mostly related to filters stealing focus. Not much mc can do about that. By changing filters and adjusting filters it now seems pretty stable.

I think changing from a mce like remote to the dinovo mini was a great move it gives me added flexibility and I loose nothing really from my previous mce style remote. And its not even bigger then your average multipurpose remote...I would even say is pretty cute ;)

peter
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danrien

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2009, 03:52:03 am »

I use a standard MCE remote similar to this one (except mine is gray):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144019

It works really nicely, the channel buttons, arrow buttons, playback buttons all work.  Just the shortcut buttons, i.e. pictures, videos, etc. don't work.  Also, I'm searching for a way (if anybody knows, it would be much appreciated) to make the "Windows" button (that otherwise brings up MCE :/) just automatically switch between Theater View/Standard View......
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glynor

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2009, 09:31:50 am »

Snapstream Firefly, controlled via Girder.  I love it and it works well (except that Girder crashes sometimes, but that's Girder not the remote).

I have three of them.
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steveklein

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #22 on: February 17, 2009, 09:59:11 am »

i have a Philips ProntoPro TSU 7000 that I use in conjunction with USB-UIRT. I haven't configured it do everything on MC, but it could be done.

I love the iPhone program that runs on my home network. I believe it is called xpTunes? It controls the music side of MC like a dream.
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raldo

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #23 on: February 17, 2009, 12:12:17 pm »

Logitech Harmony with USBUIRT.

Stable, easy to program and pretty responsive when used with theaterview.

I'm currently using the MC plugin. I've tried using Girder inbetween but the setup was rather unstable. Mostly because of Girder. The downside with my current setup, of course, is that MC "steals" all the codes.
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newsposter

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #24 on: February 17, 2009, 02:35:02 pm »

I'm currently in love with the Nokia 8xx internet handhelds.  Not strictly a eremote control but their Opera web browser, built-in WiFi, and scripting/programming capabilities open the doors for a lot of tinkering around.

Maybe (and I apologize if this has been tried in the past) JR could sponsor some kind of competetion for custom remote control layouts for those remotes that support programming.  The 'best' get included/integrated with future releases of MC.

Devices like the new Harmonys, Prontos, MIDs like the Nokia, etc, etc.
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JimH

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #25 on: February 17, 2009, 03:09:51 pm »

I use a standard MCE remote similar to this one (except mine is gray):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144019

It works really nicely, the channel buttons, arrow buttons, playback buttons all work.  Just the shortcut buttons, i.e. pictures, videos, etc. don't work.  Also, I'm searching for a way (if anybody knows, it would be much appreciated) to make the "Windows" button (that otherwise brings up MCE :/) just automatically switch between Theater View/Standard View......
This build should work for the green button:
ftp://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/MC13/MediaCenter130124.exe

Edit for newer build -- ftp://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/MC13/MediaCenter130126.exe

Changes are described here.
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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #26 on: February 17, 2009, 03:46:06 pm »

I'm currently in love with the Nokia 8xx internet handhelds.  Not strictly a eremote control but their Opera web browser, built-in WiFi, and scripting/programming capabilities open the doors for a lot of tinkering around.


If you have bluetooth on the mc pc this works great with the n8xx and mc:
http://www.valeriovalerio.org/?page_id=174

peter
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galahad1974

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #27 on: February 18, 2009, 04:27:20 am »

I use the same siig vista remote you are speaking of, and i also use the logitech dinovo, for any tagging or keyboard needs. both work great  and have fore quite a while (since release of mc 13). native support for the green button will be nice as i now have a tray program that has to be run to do the same thing.
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IlPadrino

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #28 on: February 21, 2009, 12:50:33 pm »

Logitech Harmony with USBUIRT.

Stable, easy to program and pretty responsive when used with theaterview.

I'm currently using the MC plugin. I've tried using Girder inbetween but the setup was rather unstable. Mostly because of Girder. The downside with my current setup, of course, is that MC "steals" all the codes.

How did you set up the Harmony?  What device did you assign?  I tried the USBUIRT device, but it didn't have any keys automatically programmed.  Instead, I picked a random device and "learned" MC.

What is the MC plugin?  I would *LOVE* for MC to steal all the codes regardless of what I'm doing... as I'm set up now, MC is on the secondary display and if I'm doing other things on the primary, MC doesn't pick up the remote presses (except for play/pause!).
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danrien

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #29 on: February 21, 2009, 03:51:35 pm »

This build should work for the green button:
ftp://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/MC13/MediaCenter130126.exe

Changes are described here.

Awesome! Thank you!
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imugli

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #30 on: February 21, 2009, 04:41:07 pm »

How did you set up the Harmony?  What device did you assign?  I tried the USBUIRT device, but it didn't have any keys automatically programmed.  Instead, I picked a random device and "learned" MC.

Computer > Media Center PC > JRiver > Media Center 13.

It will then ask you to teach the Harmony the codes from your current remote. If it recognises the codes, it will automatically load a key mapping. Otherwise you can teach it.

Great Remote. Works fantastic. 

jmone

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #31 on: February 22, 2009, 12:11:25 am »

I got all excited and went out and purchased a Harmony One today as a new universial remote for all my AV Equipment including the HTPC using my existing MCE IR Receiver.  All works very well (great setup utility with the Harmony One).
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raldo

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #32 on: February 22, 2009, 04:10:42 am »

How did you set up the Harmony?  What device did you assign?  I tried the USBUIRT device, but it didn't have any keys automatically programmed.  Instead, I picked a random device and "learned" MC.

What is the MC plugin?  I would *LOVE* for MC to steal all the codes regardless of what I'm doing... as I'm set up now, MC is on the secondary display and if I'm doing other things on the primary, MC doesn't pick up the remote presses (except for play/pause!).

I've just assigned some random DVD player for the harmony MC setup, and then taught MC. It sounds like the way you've done it. (I'm talking about the IR plugin in my post, not "MC plugin".

By MC "Stealing" all my codes, I mean: When MC is in focus, all the codes are picked up by mc and no other application can act upon the codes. That is excactly the reason why I used Girder; I wanted my remote to be able to control many PC applications simultaneously. But Girder was unstable so I just dropped the whole setup..

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park

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #33 on: February 22, 2009, 04:56:34 am »

when clicking on an item in Theater view which brings up a menu, it would be cool if the "back" button on the remote would "cancel"
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raldo

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #34 on: February 22, 2009, 05:10:08 am »

when clicking on an item in Theater view which brings up a menu, it would be cool if the "back" button on the remote would "cancel"
+1
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IlPadrino

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #35 on: February 22, 2009, 06:10:08 am »

Computer > Media Center PC > JRiver > Media Center 13.

It will then ask you to teach the Harmony the codes from your current remote. If it recognises the codes, it will automatically load a key mapping. Otherwise you can teach it.

Great Remote. Works fantastic. 

So I'd have to teach the Harmony codes for a remote I don't have (it *is* my current remote) and then teach MC these remote codes?  My complaint with the setup using USBUIRT as the device was it didn't program the remote to do anything.

Thanks for the feedback - I didn't know Harmony had MC13 as a device...  I'll have to check it out.
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IlPadrino

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #36 on: February 22, 2009, 06:11:29 am »

I got all excited and went out and purchased a Harmony One today as a new universial remote for all my AV Equipment including the HTPC using my existing MCE IR Receiver.  All works very well (great setup utility with the Harmony One).

Maybe that's what I should do if JRiver is going to support the MCE remote...  buy one just for the IR receiver.

Any plans to support an RF receiver?
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IlPadrino

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #37 on: February 22, 2009, 07:33:20 am »

Maybe that's what I should do if JRiver is going to support the MCE remote...  buy one just for the IR receiver.

Will all MCE IR Receivers be supported the same? [Probably not!]  I see there are lots out there...  Jim got one from SIIG, Microsoft has one, Dell has one...  which one should I buy?
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JimH

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #38 on: February 22, 2009, 08:20:35 am »

The Vista MC remote from SIIG is the only certain choice right now, but others may work.  Microsoft's old XP MCE remote does.  They're usually $40 or less.  We will know more in a week or two.
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IlPadrino

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #39 on: February 22, 2009, 10:20:11 am »

We will know more in a week or two.

I'll wait then...  and I'll just be buying it for the receiver (I'll keep using the awesome Harmony!) - maybe I could find something on ebay or craigslist for under $20.
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nuke2000

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #40 on: February 22, 2009, 11:50:52 am »

Any chance you could post the keyboard shortcuts for the remote theatre view specific functions and DVD Menu? I need to map them to my imon pad as it cannot be setup in the regular fashion to use MC. Once i have everthing mapped i can then share an imon JRMC13 config file for anyone who wants it which will save other imon users the trouble.

Cheers   :)
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benn600

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #41 on: February 23, 2009, 11:42:17 am »

Are there many other shortcuts?  I've found the critical ones easily.  I did always wonder if there was a "Menu" button for DVDs.  Instead, the OSD has to be used to get to it.
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Alban

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #42 on: February 24, 2009, 07:24:43 am »

Well I just grabbed an old remote that was lying about on my shelf and it works a treat.  It's an ATI Remote Wonder 1 (RF) that came with an old graphics card (you can buy them though) and it pretty much worked OOB.  It's completely programmable although I did tinker with a few of the key-settings, but it completely transformed my living room / MC / Theatre view experience.  I could probably tweak it some more, but TBH it works fine as it is.  My TV is connected to a netbook running xp which is streaming the library from my server 2 floors away over WiFi.  My only complaint is that the little netbook is not quite powerful-enough to run some of the visualizations - but that's not MCs fault.  BTW, I only use it for audio and pictures - I would need to beef up the h/w if I wanted to run video on it.

But on the whole I'm totally pleased with it (and in response to Marko earlier, I am in the UK if it helps)  8)
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kewe65

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #43 on: February 24, 2009, 12:38:44 pm »


I use a MCE a basic remote that came with the OrigenAE HTPC case works fine with Vista and XP MCE, and would like the buttons on it to apply as similarly as possible with MC.  I haven't tried out toggling between the two yet as I'm in the process of upgrading components of the PC, but that's my plan.  I assume that the basics on these standard remotes work just fine with MC, though.

There are too many remotes to choose from!  I'm hoping that we can find some pattern in what people use, and then tweak MC to work better with a limited set of remotes.
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DiiPii

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #44 on: February 24, 2009, 01:20:58 pm »

I use Firefly with Girder. It's awesome (even more so now that I can assign a button to my favorite music feature PlayRadio - MCC 10047, thanks Matt.)  ;D

I also have NetRemote (another Proximis app) but this get's used much less now I have the FireFly's (WAF is the biggest influence here)
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jmone

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #45 on: February 24, 2009, 02:41:03 pm »

All branded MCE compatible remotes "should" behave the same.  MS has defined the Required and Optional remote control buttons (and there handling) here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa468225.aspx

Given the recent (and continuing) enhancements in MC13 for MCE based remotes you will find a high level of familiarity between all apps that support MCE and the compatible remotes / IR receivers that you can either buy seperatly or come bundled with many DTV devices etc.

Thanks
Nathan
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Bonex

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #46 on: February 24, 2009, 02:53:13 pm »

I'm using an iMon Pad remote. Soundgraph makes the module linked in replay #3, but there are also some htpc cases from Silverstone, Thermaltake or Zalman that use custom built-in versions of it and so use this remote. My htpc case, for example, is a Thermaltake DH-104.

My only problem, so far, with this remote is that I can't map any function to the numeric keys using its driver alone. Better, the driver lets you map any key combination even to the numeric keys, but then they don't work. The application receives a simple number, like you were typing it on the keyboard (in fact I believe Windows sees the remote as a HID keyboard). There aren't enough keys on the remote to map every function I need, so I have to use the numbers too :P. This really seems to be a limitation or a bug of the driver, so I hope they'll fix it.
Fortunately with this thread I discovered LM Remote KeyMap, so after some struggle I have now a good workaround.
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zirum

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #47 on: February 26, 2009, 02:27:46 am »

I use Imon as well, and have also set one up for my brother. Works ok, but had to make quite a lot of macros.

The two things that are a bit annoying for me is:
#1: that I cannot use the select button that I have on my remote in Theater View. Instead I have to use the keypad on the remote to navigate to select.

#2: Have not been able to assign aspect ratio toggle successfully with macros.

I't would help a lot if more of the commands where shortcuttet in MC...
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Marty3d

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #48 on: February 26, 2009, 03:51:55 am »

Also using the Logitech diNovo Mini. Works excellent, just waiting to be able to use the MCE dedicated keys for MC stuff instead. Also like not having to use IR :)

#...by pressing down a special key, it plays a little melody#
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nuke2000

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Re: Remotes for JRiver Media Center -- Your suggestions?
« Reply #49 on: February 26, 2009, 11:42:39 am »

I't would help a lot if more of the commands where shortcuttet in MC...

Agreed, most of them are but i cannot assign the dvd menu, or specific theatre view remote functions as they don't have keyboard shortcuts. If we could have keyboard shortcuts for these functions all would be cool. We can map all the functions and provided other imon pad users with a .imo file to save them the bother.
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