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[RussellS]

Hi, I am having an issue whereby my MCE remote intermittently stops working when playing a video due to the focus being lost. If I click in the display with the mouse then the remote once again functions correctly.

However, it is not all the buttons which stop working. The left, right, up & down buttons still work but play, pause, stop, back etc all stop working. I never really noticed this happening when the MC machine was working on it's own but seems to have started happening now I'm using a library server and this machine is a client. This may not be the case though as it wasn't running stand alone for long.

In case it makes any difference I am using the client exclusively in Theater View mode.

Is there anything I can do to stop this behaviour or can I assign a spare remote button to reset the focus on the video display. I have seen reference to 'core commands' and that it may be an answer to my problems but, after having a look at the wiki, it all looks rather complicated so I thought I would check if there was a simpler solution before embarking on a steep learning curve.


Thanks

[locust]

The same is happening to me. I used to have "Use full screen exclusive mode for drawing" enabled, and it never lost focus before. Although I kept getting direct x errors when entering theatre view and had to disable it.

[RussellS]

The same is happening to me. I used to have "Use full screen exclusive mode for drawing" enabled, and it never lost focus before. Although I kept getting direct x errors when entering theatre view and had to disable it.

I tried enabling "Use full screen exclusive mode for drawing" for Theater View but as soon as I try to start a video MC just quits back to the desktop with no errors which, looking in the windows event log, seems to be dirextX errors as you said.

It reports:
Faulting module name: d3d9.dll_unloaded

So, I've either got to fix this problem or find another solution for the remote focus problem.

[RussellS]

User toodooleedoo posted this in the MC17 section of the forum because he went on to discuss some specific MC17 issues. However, I've reposted the MC18 relevant section here as I think it may help with the remote focus issues I am experiencing.

I noticed the beta release of MC18 contains new logic in the release notes to obtain focus when sending a Keyboard event so I loaded up the new version enabled the secondary hid device and MCE remote and taught it to send an up keystroke on top of the standard actions and this works with no issues

I'm running MC18 so I'm very interested in this as I'm having some real issues with the MCE remote losing focus when playing videos in Theater View. Unfortunately I can't find any reference to it so I must be looking in the wrong place. I've checked the history in the MC18 pinned thread but could not find anything about it. Where can I find the MC18 release notes you refer to.

How would I go about getting it to send the up keystroke on top of the standard action as you describe.

Any help you could offer would be very welcome as this focus issue is driving me crazy.

Thanks

[RussellS]

Is nobody else having these issues where the video screen looses focus and the MCE remote control no longer functions correctly. If this is the case then I must really be doing something wrong or have something set incorrectly in the options.

Can anyone offer any advice on this please as it's driving me mad and it is really effecting the wife acceptance factor.

So, just to summarise, when playing a video in Theater View mode the video screen will sometimes loose focus meaning that the MCE remote control will no longer function. I have to use the mouse to click in the display to bring focus back and then the remote will work correctly again.

If anyone can offer any advice either where I'm going wrong or a viable workaround I would be grateful.


Many thanks

[kensn]

I have had my remote (Logitech) stop controlling MC. I do not know enough about the reason to post anything usefull. The next time it happens I will delve into it a bit more to bring something to the table...

[RussellS]

I think I have got to the bottom of my problem.

It turns out that if I enter Theater View mode by going to 'View --> Theater View' using the mouse then the remote will function ok using the arrow keys in the menus but the Play/Pause/Stop buttons will not function when playing a movie until I set the focus on the video screen using the mouse. Also, the same thing happens if I enter Theater View mode by pressing 'Ctrl+4'.

However if I enter Theater View by pressing the green button on the MCE remote or have MC set to start up in Theater View mode then the remote functions correctly and there is no issue.

Normally I will only be using MC in Theater View mode and would have it start up in that mode so there wouldn't normally be an issue. It was only because I was sertting up the client/server mode and wanted to check the library and settings that I temporarily had it in Standard View mode.


Regards

[polemides]

Almost posted a new thread until I saw this. I thought I was the only one having this issue...apparently not!

My solution was just to program a Green Button press into the activity sequence for the Harmony 900. This seems to have fixed my issues...

Now if only I could make the Skip and Replay buttons bump 30s forward / 10s back during TV playback without affecting their function during movie playback I'd be even happier with MC18...

[h8maintenance]

My solution has been to program on my remote a button for Standard View and Display View (and also Theater View). Whenever I have a focus issue while watching video (in Display View), I just input Standard View then Display View (or Theater View, depending on which view I want to be in) with my remote (Harmony 890) to regain focus.

My monitors setup:
Standard View = monitor #1 / main monitor (hotkey Ctrl + 1)
Standard View on main monitor with detached display on monitor #3 (hotkey Ctrl + 6)
Mini View = main monitor (hotkey Ctrl + 2)
Display View = monitor #3 (hotkey Ctrl + 3)
Theater View = monitor #3 (hotkey Ctrl + 4)

Hope this helps.

[locust]

thanks will give this a try as soon as I get a chance.

cheers

[The Mastermind]

My remote too stops working from time to time. No idea why, but it's a recent phenomenon.

[Z0001]

I have had a similar thing with my wireless keyboard. It's built in mouse or keystrokes will not get me out of the screensaver. I have to hit the Windows key. not just a MC issue maybe? Anyone else?

[RussellS]

Well, it turns out that my earlier statement that I had solved this issue on my system was slightly premature as I am still getting focus issues albeit not as frequently. In view of this I am removing the 'SOLVED' tag from the thread title.

My solution has been to program on my remote a button for Standard View and Display View (and also Theater View). Whenever I have a focus issue while watching video (in Display View), I just input Standard View then Display View (or Theater View, depending on which view I want to be in) with my remote (Harmony 890) to regain focus.

I have tried your approach and programmed buttons on my MCE remote for display view & theater View etc. However, the problem is that if MC is no longer in focus then the remote commands do not get recognised. It would appear that MC will only accept remote commands if the program is currently in focus.

Also, I can't figure out what exactly is stealing the focus. I've turned off all the Windows notifications and there are no other programs running. This is really starting to drive me nuts.

[raym]

I've turned off all the Windows notifications and there are no other programs running. This is really starting to drive me nuts.

It's probably the start button. Well, at least it was in my case when I first encountered this issue.

I use this to disable it: http://www.tordex.com/startkiller/index.html

Worked for me.

[RussellS]

Thanks raym, I havn't tried your solution yet because before I saw your post I came across another potential solution which seems to be working so far and doesn't require any other software installed.

So I will outline my solution here but also keep your suggestion in mind 'just in case'.

Basically there is a setting in the Windows 7 control panel to bring a window into focus just by hovering the mouse over the window. What I have found is that by activating this setting then the Theater View display will always be in focus as it is full screen and the mouse will always be 'over it' to bring it into focus even though the mouse cursor is invisible/hidden. Even if another process steals the focus away from MC then focus will be returned to MC very quickly by having this setting turned on.

To turn this setting on goto 'Windows Control Panel --> Ease of Access Center --> Make the mouse easier to use'
Turn on the setting 'Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse'



So far this seems to be working as I'd hoped and even where before I could purposely cause MC to loose focus it is now automatically returned back to MC.

Time will tell but hopefully this will work as well for others as it seems to be for me.


Russell

[h8maintenance]

Very good point Russell. I forgot I had the option you mentioned by default in my Windows configuration.

The thing is, I would like JRiver to be able to execute the basic keyboard media player functions (Play/Pause, Stop, Back, Forward) from the remote even if it is not focused. I think this would be a real plus for us who have multi-monitors systems.

[locust]

I've stumbled across another solution that looks promising
LM Remote Keymap
http://www.lmgestion.net/@en-us/4/22/60/article.asp

It allows you to map any key on an mce remote. I've got two commands assigned to all mce buttons, first it searches for the theatre view  Window class and then brings it into focus. I have got it working, but seems to slow down the command responsiveness within theatre view.
I'll have to see if I can get it to work better. I just hope it isn't messing with the custom commands set within MC

Wish something like this was built into Mc, I only use the mce remote to control theatre view and it loosing focus is not so good.

[locust]

I've changed the get window class and application activate commands from all buttons to just the info button. It seems faster.
It works just make sure that it isn't set to exclusive mode and that to delete the commands that are preassigned to every other button.

This would be a great MC core command