I've read a bunch of posts on this forum about the annoyance that is MC on a tv-out setup.

The problem for me (and many others, it seems) is that you are not able to use the MCE remote control without MC being in focus (on the secondary display).  This effectively prevents MC from being a good multi-tasking solution as you can't have one person working on the computer while another is enjoying MC content on the TV.

I searched long and hard for a solution to this. I looked at Girder, HIP, IntelliRemote, replacement IR drivers, etc. but none seemed to meet the requirements in an easy to use package. You could get some functions working using windows messages, but the results I got were mixed at best.

Then I stumbled across the IR Server Suite with it's plugin for Media Portal (MP is an open-source MC type application).  The remote software worked flawlessly. MP didn't need to have focus to accept commands from the remote, most button mappings worked right away, and any changes i needed to make were simply done. My wife could finally control MP on the TV without causing me any grief while I worked away on the desktop.

Unfortunately, while this eliminated my grief - it gave a lot of it to my wife. Being an open source "work in progress", MP just isn't as easy to use or as polished in appearance/function as MC. She hated it.  And, as I'm sure many of you are aware: if the missus ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

I'm hoping that someone here will be able to take a look at how this package works and come up with a similar solution for Media Center.  I see this as a really marketable utility. Why pay $200+ for a hardware extender when you can buy a software equivalent for less? I know I'd be buying!

Thanks,

Links:

Media Portal

IR Server Suite

Hey there,

I'm the developer from over at MediaPortal who has developed IR Server Suite.

If there's anything I can do to help you get it working with Media Center I'd be happy to lend a hand.

If there is some example code for developing a Media Center plugin for a remote control then I could probably port my MediaPortal stuff so you can get the same flexibility out of your MCE remote.

I'm not a regular reader of The Green Button forums so if you'd like to contact me it's probably best you go through the MediaPortal forums.

Even though IR Server Suite is designed for MediaPortal I have no objections to making it useful for Microsoft Media Center as well.  After all, the more people that use IR Server Suite the more exposure MediaPortal get's ! :)

Cheers,

---

- Aaron.

IR Server Suite:
http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mce-replacement-plugin-165/

for those interested in following this project,  Aaron will be updating the status of the development here:


http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mce-replacement-plugin-165/ir-server-suite-media-center-35090/

hopefully soon there will be a software alternative to shelling out all that money on an "extender".

Ryan

Hey and-81

I used to use HIP with MCE, but since I've recently change to VMC, I can no longer get HIP to work really well, I think the secret with MCE2005 was with Bruno's replacement IR driver.

When I try it with Visa Media Center, a lot of the keys don't scan and I loose the triple tap, etc.

I'm really missing the functionality to blast commands with MCE Transceiver and Serially (although I could continue to use COMController for that).

One thing that always bugged me with HIP was that it was external to the Media Center interface, and that it was less than intuitive to set up.

I could write you a big long list of "wants" for IR Control under VMC, but first - is there any documentation available?

 

Well, for anyone else's benefit, I downloaded IR Server Suite, and it installed and works great.

 

i still have triple tap and the MCE keyboard works a treat.