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Author Topic: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]  (Read 11777 times)

HTPC4ME

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we have a htpc that has the imon software built into (thermaltake case - http://thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1319&ID=1878 )
and i'm using your guys jriver HP media center remote/extender

every time we shut down the tv and receiver (HTPC is always left on), and then wait a few hours/sometimes instantly and use our logitech harmony remote to select htpc (which then turns the tv and receiver on and selects there inputs) jriver's theaterview always goes to audio and starts playing songs (for the last 2 months it's always been this sesame street cd) then on logitech remote i hit stop. it stops jriver from playing that song. then the left/right/up/down arrows are locked up.. the only way to move anywhere in theaterview is by clicking videos/music on harmony remote.. but after doing that the left/right/up/down arrows are still locked up.  

So then to get control again is to grab our iomega wireless keyboard/mouse (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823176018 ) when grabbing the keyboard the  left/right/up/down arrows are locked up... we have to hit the left click button on the keyboard then move the mouse wheel around... then we can grab the HTPC logitech harmony remote and use the  left/right/up/down arrows throughout the whole time of entertaining. Until... we shut down the whole system Tv/Receiver.. then once we try the activity of HTPC on harmony remote.. we are back to seasame street/audio playing, and harmony remote/iomega being locked up.

Any ideas on where to start troubleshooting this mess?

things i've thought it could be....
htpc... windows/jriver
htpc imons software (which i've updated many times since buying the unit/over a year ago.. yes ive had this issue for over a year)
htpc original remote which was learned to harmony
could be harmony remote sending unknown commands to jriver/windows locking it up when we shut it down, or switch activities/inputs (going from HTPC to Satellite)
could be our wireless iomega keyboard falling sleep? ( i tried usb suspend mode that ddint fix the issue)
could be jriver media center remote
Or jriver remote settings.

I have no clue how to tackle this?

thanks for assistance
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dean70

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I have the Silverstone case with the same iMon setup. What I have found is the iMon remote software does not always see the key release code from the remote, so that it keeps repeating the keypress code until you press the same offending key on the remote to "unstick" it.

What I have found its to set the delay and key repeat rate in Windows control panel to the longest/slowest, which helps regain control again. Generally have not had much luck using learning remotes with some of the keys (esp direction keys), for example rather than moving the cursor, somehow ended up with the Add printer dialog??, so I mainly use the iMon remote.
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HTPC4ME

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is there a quick fix for us?

can we somehow ditch Imon.. and use what other htpc users use  with no problems in there cases?
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Z0001

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Ah! We have a very similar problem using an OrigenAE case fitted with the iMon VFD/IR receiver and the iMon remote.  Arrow keys on the iMon remote don't work. And using our Shintaro wireless keyboard we often find the arrow keys lock up or when I hit return I get sent back several arrow clicks, so I then revert to the mouse.  And often to get the mouse to work on teh keyboard i need to hit a key first.  This has been a reason we have only just started to use Theatre View since navigating around it has been impossible and unreliable.  I plan to buy the MC remote and IR receiver. Then I will set the iMon Manager to "iMon Pad" so theh MC remote does not interfere with it and as a second step put some tape over the IR recover inside the case, just to be sure!

Then I hope we get perfect results with the MC remote.
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HTPC4ME

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addition to post 1....mine is set to imon pad. not mce.

if i switch to mce.. then in theaterview my left/right/up/down double move per press.

works great except when shutting down tv/receiver, or when ever one switches from HTPC activity to satellite activity. you can see theaterview for a split second stop and leave the screen it was on when the input switches to satellite.. so i'm thinking there is a command being sent from either imon, logitech harmony, wireless keyboard/mouse combo.

But yet to figure out what the cause is
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Scolex

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Is the connection between the htpc and TV and/or receiver HDMI?
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Sean

HTPC4ME

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no... old school yet
htpc audio to receiver toslink
htpc video to hdtv component

satellite audio to receiver rca
satelite video to receiver svideo

receiver video to hdtv monitor out via s-video
playstation 3 audio toslink to receiver
playstation 3 video to hdtv component

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dean70

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found a solution with Harmony Remote - setup remote for Microsoft Media Center SE and switch iMon to Media Center mode. Remote functions now work first time, every time. Seems there are issue in "iMon mode" & it isnt an IR receiver issue as I first thought.  :D
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HTPC4ME

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Dean, when you switch yours to media center mode does your theaterview skip 2 spots on ever up/down/left/right press with your harmony remote?

if i have it selected as media center mode every time i click the arrow keys on harmony remote then it jumps two spots... not allowing me to select the appropriate item...basically making the remote useless in theaterview.
Thanks
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Sandy B Ridge

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Dean, when you switch yours to media center mode does your theaterview skip 2 spots on ever up/down/left/right press with your harmony remote?

if i have it selected as media center mode every time i click the arrow keys on harmony remote then it jumps two spots... not allowing me to select the appropriate item...basically making the remote useless in theaterview.
Thanks
Paradoxically, my arrow keys are OK, but the OK key gets a 'double press' so things start playing when they are not supposed to. Very annoying. There's a tweak in the harmony app to help with this. Go to the media Center device and 'troubleshoot'. One of the options is to make it less sensitive. I have mine on position 1 of the scale and it is better, but not perfect. Now I have to do the opposite and press the arrow keys twice for a single jump.  :-\

SBR
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HTPC4ME

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can we just uninstall imon manager completely, and just use the hp Ir from jriver and solve all these problems?
I would be willing to uninstall and not have a display on the front of my HTPC in order to just make this work.

or if i need to buy extra parts. what parts do you guys suggest?

there has to be away to stop these lock ups... after all, many others here are using theaterview and have htpc boxes.

dad's now pushing me into jriver and a htpc box for himself... but there is no way i'm going to set him up with this mess i have... every time he switches from sat. to HTPC/JRiver i can be expecting a phone call, it's just not worth the frustration... everything else works great it's just these harmony/keyboard lockups.

is there any chance i could install team viewer on the HTPC, then turn the htpc/system on and switch from satellite/htpc and be able to see/read the commands that are being pushed to the htpc via harmony on my laptop or other pc?
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HTPC4ME

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dean70

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Dean, when you switch yours to media center mode does your theaterview skip 2 spots on ever up/down/left/right press with your harmony remote?

if i have it selected as media center mode every time i click the arrow keys on harmony remote then it jumps two spots... not allowing me to select the appropriate item...basically making the remote useless in theaterview.
Thanks

No I dont have this issue. I do have the Windows Control Panel Keyboard settings set to longest delay/slowest repeat setting, which may help. I have noticed with the Harmony, if you hold down the button, eg: volume, it will stop when you release, but if you repeatably press a button it will keep sending the same number of presses after you stop, eg: in the case with volume it is easy to overshoot the desired volume (I found out the hard way lol) - I think this is also connected to the keyboard repeat/delay setting in Windows.

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Jong

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I just have my iMon (came with a Silverstone LC20) acting in its normal, default, iMon mode and my Harmony 900 is set to emulate it. All works perfectly and you have all the many many keys on the iMon remote which you can use for any special functions on the LCD you desire. I did have some challenges getting a working Harmony emulation of the iMon 6 years ago, but that was quickly sorted. If MCE emulation works for you, great, but If anyone is not getting what they want out of the iMon just shout.
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Sandy B Ridge

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Re: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2013, 03:22:15 pm »

I just have my iMon (came with a Silverstone LC20) acting in its normal, default, iMon mode and my Harmony 900 is set to emulate it. All works perfectly and you have all the many many keys on the iMon remote which you can use for any special functions on the LCD you desire. I did have some challenges getting a working Harmony emulation of the iMon 6 years ago, but that was quickly sorted. If MCE emulation works for you, great, but If anyone is not getting what they want out of the iMon just shout.
Old thread, but I'm having 'issues' with getting the harmony to play nice with iMon.

Could you post your settings to get it to work?

The problem I'm having is a discrepancy in how responsive the arrow keys are versus the OK key.

With the settings I have tried, I either get the OK firing twice and the arrow keys working fine, or I get the ok key firing correctly and the arrow keys need to be pressed twice in order to work. I suspect it's the choice of device I've made or the inter key delay or that odd tweak thingy with a scale of 0-5. Dunno, I'm stuck.

Thanks in advance.

SBR
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Jong

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Re: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2013, 04:07:17 pm »

Yep. I'll remind myself of all this tomorrow and post. I also did some work with the harmony team customising a couple of things and in the past people have been able to transfer my custom iMon device config over to their account. Not done that for a few years though. Anyway, I'll post more tomorrow.
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Sandy B Ridge

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Re: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2013, 04:25:46 pm »

Yep. I'll remind myself of all this tomorrow and post. I also did some work with the harmony team customising a couple of things and in the past people have been able to transfer my custom iMon device config over to their account. Not done that for a few years though. Anyway, I'll post more tomorrow.

Cool. Cheers mate. I'll send you a beer token!

SBR
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Jong

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Re: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]
« Reply #17 on: January 16, 2013, 04:43:01 am »

So in iMon Manager I have the repeat delay set to the second tab from the left and the repeat rate to to the 6th tab from the left.

In the Harmony software I am using the "Silverstone LC-20M" device. I am honestly not sure if this is still the device that the harmony team hand crafted for me or if it is more "off the shelf". I definitely had a custom device for my Harmony 895, but I cant remember if we moved it over when I got my Harmony 900, or if i was able to stick with the then current off-the-shelf device. I will PM you my Harmony account ID and if you want you should be able to call them and get them to copy my device to your setup. They have done that in the past.

Anyway, either way, I can see that I have learnt a few custom keys - a few random keys that seemed to be missing but, most importantly the arrow keys. If you do get my config the arrow keys I am using are named "Direction up/Down/Left/Right" and they are custom, but "Analysed" (not RAW). I remember from 6 years ago when I first got my iMon the arrow keys ARE tricky. Because the pad duplicates as a mouse they seem to send a stream of coordinates, rather than normal keystrokes and it is the iMon software that interprets them. This means if you learn the arrow keys, unless you are very careful when you press them you will get something like "up a bit, up a bit, up a bit, left a bit, up a bit,right a bit"......!! it might be worth trying to relearn the arrow keys a few times, with quick presses, as accurately in the middle of the direction you wish to learn as possible (or just get my config transferred over!).

Other settings are:

Power on delay: 2000ms
Inter-key delay: 0ms
Inter device delay: 50ms

Repeat setting: 2 (advanced troubleshooting)

I hope this helps. It was a bit of a pig getting this working some years ago. The iMon Manager seems to work better on W7 than it did on XP (less lag). But I promise all is working great here now.
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Sandy B Ridge

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Re: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2013, 04:51:40 pm »

Thanks for your help.

I got your setup transferred to mine as a test device, but it still behaved the same unfortunately.

Still getting a 'double tap' for OK and single tap for arrow keys which makes controlling theaterview a pain. I may have fixed it by a kludge though. I changed the OK button on the harmony to do something totally different (Volume down in this case because I never use the PC volume). And then did a custom action for MC in iMon for Vol- to hit the key 'Enter'. Seems more controllable now. I'll give it a whirl for a few days and see if it plays up again!

Thanks for your help anyway.

SBR
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Jong

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Re: jriver media center remote hooked up to imon HTPC... lock ups [Solved]
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2013, 04:57:49 pm »

How weird! Doesn't behave that way here I promise! I'll take a look again tomorrow at how I have "OK" set up.
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