INTERACT FORUM

It's a pretty complicated application (& a bit overwhelming at first), but extremely powerful if you know what you're doing.

I see...  Go through a significant inconvenience learning it and setting it up to gain the convenience of using an IR remote.  

> Go through a significant inconvenience learning it

BS has done the hard part already (if MC control is as far as you want to go).

To do Girder MC (shooting from the hip here, haven't actually done it)...
First thing would be to DL and install Girder (it's free). Then I assume you would install the Girder plug-in into MC. Girder now will interpret commands from buttons off your remote (or do the buttons still need to be associated with a particular function?).

Seems to me back around Win 3.0/3.1/WfWG their was control scripting built in (though nowhere near Girder's capabilities).

unanswered from another post > I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that ATI's AIW series comes with a remote. If so, does it operate well with Girder and MC? If not, what's everybody using?

10^-27

> Go through a significant inconvenience learning it

To do Girder MC (shooting from the hip here, haven't actually done it)...
First thing would be to DL and install Girder (it's free). Then I assume you would install the Girder plug-in into MC. Girder now will interpret commands from buttons off your remote (or do the buttons still need to be associated with a particular function?).

Actually, with MC, you don't need anything other than the default installations of MC and of Girder--no need for plugins.

You then create (or import, or download) a Girder configuration file--called a GML--which associates different "events" with different "commands". This GML is what Matt's included for MC.

An "event" can be an IR signal, a keypress, or anything else Girder understands. The command can be whatever you can make Girder do. In this case, they are Windows Messaging commands that go to MC's Media Core.

Once you have your GML imported or saved, you can assign your IR codes to the various commands via Girder's "Learn" function.

If you have a Pronto-style learning remote, you can use the CCF file included with the GML to give you a single IR code for every command in the GML.

Hope this helps!
Brad

Lisa,

I tried to e-mail you the already "learned" .gml - but the address bounced.

If you give me the address again, I'll e-mail you the file with a little explanation.

Scott-

Trying to figure out this grider works with MC9 right now.. erm...

Quick User Guide:

1) Buy an IR Remote such as IRman and install it!
2) If not, install MC9
3) If not install Girder
4) Start Girder and open the GML file included in the newest MC9 release. Read the Readme first.
5) Get any remote controller device (TV remotes, Universal remotes).
6) Tell Girder to work with the IRman Plugin (Options!)
7) There are two sets of commands in the GML file, commands driven by MC mjextman command and commands driven by Windows Send Messages, use either one or the other, whatever suits you best
8 ) Select an MMC command such as "Play" in the GML file.
9) Put your remote controller in Learning Mode
10) Click "Learn Event" in Girder
11) Press the Play Button on your Remote Control.
12) Girder will display the Code for this button.
13) Repeat steps 7-11 for every MMC command you want to have on your remote control!
14) Once Girder understands your Remote Control save the the GML  (with the events code) to a new GML file, so that you always have the empty original GML at hand

That's it! The most difficult part: Getting your IR Remote to work!
I put it down quickly, so the Girder cracks are welcomed to refine it. If we have good working instructions, they might be directly included in MC9 Help!

Quick User Guide:

1) Buy an IR Remote such as IRman and install it!

I love my new USB-UIRT! It lets me control other IR devices from Girder (ie. it receives & sends IR!).

2) If not, install MC9
3) If not install Girder
4) Start Girder and open the GML file included in the newest MC9 release. Read the Readme first.

READ THE README.TXT!

5) Get any remote controller device (TV remotes, Universal remotes).
6) Tell Girder to work with the IRman Plugin (Options!)

If you have a different IR receiver, use that IR receiver's option in Girder.

7) There are two sets of commands in the GML file, commands driven by MC mjextman command and commands driven by Windows Send Messages, use either one or the other, whatever suits you best

As noted above, to use the Windows Messages, you have to enable "Send Message" in the Girder plugin options. The only difference between the 2 sets of commands are stylistic.

8 ) Select an MMC command such as "Play" in the GML file.
9) Put your remote controller in Learning Mode

You don't need step 9. You are teaching Girder the IR code, not the remote control...

10) Click "Learn Event" in Girder
11) Press the Play Button on your Remote Control.
12) Girder will display the Code for this button.
13) Repeat steps 7-11 for every MMC command you want to have on your remote control!
14) Once Girder understands your Remote Control save the the GML  (with the events code) to a new GML file, so that you always have the empty original GML at hand

Great overview! Thanks!

Brad

So you have to tell your Remote Controller that on channel TV it should send its codes to my Sony TV, on channel VCR to my Panasonic Video Recorder and on channel AUX to IRman/Girder. On my Remote you press "Set" "Aux" and "Learn". Once Girder understood all the codes, you press OK, and then you go!

Ah... I've always called those "channels" "modes" Anyway, I see. You need to find a channel/mode on your remote that you aren't already using so you can use it to send the IR signals to Girder/MC. I've gotten so used to my Marantz that I've forgotten about my other universals.

Brad

I've got a Streamzap (www.streamzap.com) IR remote.  They do offer MediaCenter support, but it depends on the program being available in a certain mode and always brings the program to the top when any button is pressed.  Workable, but not really the best it could be.

They do offer a Girder (Streamzap.dll) plugin.

So I installed Girder and just from the short tutorial, I've got my remote calling only mjextman commands.  This is better since now mjextman commands just do what I ask, with nothing jumping to the top on my desktop.  Silent but effective.

I've got the IR receiver run (through the walls) into my living room, so all IR commands in the living room are recieved by my computer and if they are Streamzap commands, Media Center executes them.

I've got IR remote repeaters in my office, kitchen and bedroom and "Home Theater Master" universal learning remotes in the living room and office, kitchen and bedroom.

So from any room (I do leave my computer running 24/7), I can turn on my audio sytem (living room), start up MC and play the current playlist, next, prev, ff, rewind, pause.  I wake up on Saturday morning, press a macro button my remote from bed and presto, I have music all over the house.

And If I really want control, I have a PDA with a wireless connect to my computer which runs webremote, so I can select which music to play.

Am I a couch potato or what?

Just think about all those tech limited people who actually have to touch cd media to play their music....

MediaCenter is really cool.

I've got the IR receiver run (through the walls) into my living room, so all IR commands in the living room are recieved by my computer and if they are Streamzap commands, Media Center executes them.

I've got IR remote repeaters in my office, kitchen and bedroom and "Home Theater Master" universal learning remotes in the living room and office, kitchen and bedroom.

So from any room (I do leave my computer running 24/7), I can turn on my audio sytem (living room), start up MC and play the current playlist, next, prev, ff, rewind, pause.  I wake up on Saturday morning, press a macro button my remote from bed and presto, I have music all over the house.

And If I really want control, I have a PDA with a wireless connect to my computer which runs webremote, so I can select which music to play.

You system is a lot like mine, except for my added function, calling up any play list from any room. You could have that too, have a look at my webpage. Then you just memorize the most important albums (or do it the way I do - print out a list based on play list numbers) and you'll be off and running.

But why on earth do you want to use the very limited webremote? Haven't you heard about NetRemote?

Nope, I don't know about NetRemote, where do I get info on it?

Check out:

http://www.netremote.org/

Best,
Brad

Instructions are still mostly valid, except Girder now costs $20.

I am using an ATI Remote Wonder with MC & Girder.

For that, instructions are:

1) Download & install Girder
2) Install ATI Remote Wonder software
3) Switch OFF the ATI software (right click on taskbar icon, change options so it does not run on startup, exit) - you still need the drivers that are installed with it.)
4) Download and install Girder plugin for X10 (you have two options - one of them requires the ATI software to remain active.
Follow the instructions here http://membres.lycos.fr/remotew/ (Girder section) to install Girder plugins for X10 and to load the GML for mouse functions. I used Ermon's plugin, and loaded the GML from here: http://members.rogers.com/ultimatefrisbee/RemoteDownload.htm)

3) Install the WinLuaEx plugin for Girder
4) Install the AlarmTimer plugin for Girder
5) Start Girder
5) In the options dialog, turn on the SendMessage, X10 Remote, WinLuaEx and AlarmTimer plugins
6) Set Girder to load on startup
7) Set Girder to automatically load GML on startup
Open the X10 Mouse GML (All ATI remote functions should now be active)
9) Import MC10 GML (it is in Program Files\J River\Media Center\Data\Extras\Girder)
10) The X10 GML contains groups for Winamp and some other programs - turn them off if you want
11) Test Girder with MC at this point - you may find that a lot of the functions actually work correctly
12) Find the list of commands for MC in the tree, go through and assign remote commands to the ones you want
13) Save the resulting GML as default.gml or something, and set Girder to load it on startup
14) Everything should work now

Some notes:
a) If you use the SendMessage commands, any remote keys assigned to MC will always control MC, even when it is in the background.
b) See the Girder FAQ for instructions on changing remote key assignments depending on what programs are running
c) You can actually ignore the MC GML entirely, and assign simulated keypresses to the remote (Girder can generate events corresponding to the Microsoft multimedia keys). MC will respond fine, when it is the foreground window.

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Girder: on the one hand, it does things that you can't do any other way - on the other hand, it is needlessly complicated due to some poor design decisions and lack of documentation (try getting an explanation of how the Buttonmode plugin works...). Maybe now that it is payware they'll sort out some of these things.

Still waiting for my USB-UIRT.  My credit card was charged 3 days ago so I think it should show up soon.

Meanwhile...  I'm still trying to get my head around how the various parts and pieces interact.

Here's what I'm imagining will happen....

• I press a button on my IR remote
• Girder, via USB-UIRT, "reads" this button press because I have the right Girder "input plugin" loaded.
• Girder, has a mapping of inputs to actions which allows it to...
• Send a command (via an action plugin) to JRiver Media Center, based on the specific button I pressed on the remote
• MC, via a Remote Control (?) plugin, accepts and carries out the command from Girder

One thing confusing me is that, if Girder is the mediator between USB-UIRT and MC, where does the MC "remote control" USB-UIRT plugin fit into the picture?  Is this plugin intended for use w/o Girder?  If so, what do I gain or lose by using this plugin w/o Girder?

Maybe once I install Girder and poke around it's interface things will be clearer.

FWIW, I'm mostly interested in getting the "transport" buttons (pause, play, next track) on my IR remote to control MC.  Navigation would be cool too.

What I think I have do to, once my USB-UIRT arrives, is:

• Install the USB-UIRT
• Install Girder
• Have Girder "learn" the IR remote button presses I want to use
• Map those IR remote buttons to MC commands
• If nothing works, make sure all the right Girder input & action plugins are enabled.  MC Should have the right plugins by default (this based on an earlier post by "bspachman": "Actually, with MC, you don't need anything other than the default installations of MC and of Girder--no need for plugins.")

Thanks GPVillamil.

That makes things much clearer.

Now if my USB-UIRT would only get here.

Cheers!

Thanks for the info.

Sometime down the road I can see myself using the IR remote for things other than MC so I'll give Girder a go.   I'll leave the MC/USB-UIRT plugin as a fall back option.

Cheers!

I'm new to Girder/USB-UIRT so take this with a grain of salt...

The Pronto NG is a universal remote, right?  So what I think you're supposed to do is tell the Pronto you want it to send out IR codes for "device X" (where device X is a device you don't really have -- so you won't be controlling two things at once accidentally).  Then you have Girder learn those codes for controlling MC.

If you can find out what device the creator of the MC GML file used you might be able to skip the learn phase.

I just got my Girder/USB-UIRT set up working yesterday so I'll be posting a summary of that experience shortly.

Oh I get it.  The codes in the .CCF file are supposed to match the codes used in the GML file.  That's not working, eh?

I wonder if there's a way to get my Harmony 659 to read the CCF file?

For those of you that need Girder support, please visit the forum there.  I will be happy to help you out.

godavego, I was searching for Media Center in the Girder forums and found this:

 http://www.girder.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3980&highlight=media%2Acenter

Thought you might want to follow up.

Yes, the codes not matching are my problem.  Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but MC10 has a LOT of commands.  It would take me a few hours to run through all of them.

Well....

I'm not an expert in the whole thing, but as the "creator" I do know a couple of things.

The command chain goes something like this:

Pronto CCF IR code->USB-UIRT->Girder Code->Girder command.

When I've seen the problem of the CCF IR code not matching up with the ones pre-programmed into the Girder GML file, it's usually because the USB-UIRT software version doesn't match what I used to create the files initially. It's the Girder USB-UIRT driver that is responsible for translating the CCF IR code into the Girder code, so I'd guess that's where the problem lies.

The other possibility that immediately springs to mind is that loading the "old-style" CCF into a ProntoNG, changes the CCF code in some way.

If you'd like, PM me & we could start by sending me the CCF IR code for a command you see when looking at it in the ProntoNG Editor. I can compare it to what I see in my old editor.

If they match, then we can look at the raw capture from the USB-UIRT girder driver and see if they match.

After that, we might have to punt....

Brad

I think I may have found the problem.  It looks like the import didn't work.  This is surprising given that it's worked several other times for me.  Using the same Play/Pause code, I opened the original CCF using Tonto.  The IR code is:

0000 006d 0022 0000 0152 00a9 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 05f0

In my imported PCF, the same IR code is:

0000 006D 0022 0000 0155 00A9 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0039 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0013 0039 0013 00A9

As you can see, the two are different.  This is a bummer.  Now, I'm not sure how to get all these IR codes into my ProntoNG.  Is there a way to generate codes for the NG?  I supposed I could manually copy all the codes from Tonto, but that would really stink.

Has anyone got this to work with a ProntoNG??

A quick second thought (without reading the entire thread)... if your remote is send RC5 codes then there are 2 different codes for each button push.

It is my understanding that the IR codes are not RC5.  It's easy to spot the RC5 codes with Girder because the codes flip-flop between two different codes.  That doesn't happen here.  I have the RC5 issue with the GML/CCF combo supplied with TheaterTek.  Rather than make new IR codes, I had Girder learn both codes for each command.

I will check out the Remote Central forums to see if they have any insights into the CCF imports.