HTPC Build

A new problem I came across is that the Hauppauge remote supplied with the Satellite cards didn’t seem to control anything outside of MediaPortal (asides from the green power button, which simply loaded the Windows Media Centre software!). Clearly this would be a problem - particularly as I am using external applications such as PowerDVD or WinDVD for watching DVD, HD and BluRay disks.

The IR software that runs in the background seemed on first glance to have next to no configuration options. There was a utility to restart the software, but that was it. I started investigating other remotes, and also tried a couple of different applications that would run in the background and “take over” the remote to allow more stuff to be done with it. Unfortunately none of those seemed to work, and while the official MS MCE remote is available pretty cheaply, it didn’t seem to have the useful buttons for direct access to Pictures, Video, Music and so on.

A bit more research, and I eventually discovered that in the Windows folder, there is an “Irremote.ini” file, and this contained a lot of configuration for the IR software that came with my remote! Hurray!

I found some useful information on editing this file in the SageTV forums here and proceeded to make some alterations. Firstly, in the [Default] section, I edited the Green Power button to launch Mediaportal - bear in mind this can’t have spaces in, so you need to use the DOS version of long filenames:

GRNPOWER={run(”C:\Progra~1\TeamMe~1\MediaPortal\MediaPortal.exe”)}

Next off, I added two sections, one for Corel WinDVD, and another for Cyberlink PowerDVD:

[CyberLink PowerDVD]
OLD0={alt}y
0=0
1=1
2=2
3=3
4=4
5=5
6=6
7=7
8=8
9=9
STOP=s
PAUSE={space}
PLAY={enter}
REWIND=b
OK={enter}
FASTFWD=f

SKIPFWD=n
SKIPREV=p
GRNPOWER={alt}{f4}{mode(Default)}
MENU=l
NAVUP={up}
NAVDOWN={down}
NAVLEFT={left}
NAVRIGHT={right}

[Corel WinDVD]
OLD0={alt}y
0=0
1=1
2=2
3=3
4=4
5=5
6=6
7=7
8=8
9=9
MUTE=m
VOLUP={shift}{up}
VOLDOWN={shift}{down}
CHNLUP=c
CHNLDOWN=c
FULLSCREEN=z
STOP={end}
PAUSE={space}
PLAY={space}
REWIND=r
OK={enter}
FASTFWD={ctrl}q
SKIPFWD={pgdn}
SKIPREV={pgup}
GRNPOWER=x
MENU=q
NAVUP={up}
NAVDOWN={down}
NAVLEFT={left}
NAVRIGHT={right}

You also need to add headers for these in the [Applications] section, using the Window Title for the app to be controlled. The easiest way to do this is to launch Task Manager while the program you want to update is running, and see what it is listed as:

CyberLink PowerDVD=
Corel WinDVD=

That’s it - the way it then works is that when an IR signal is received, the IR software looks up in the .ini file to see if a section exists for the current foreground app, and if so, sends the appropriate keypress. There is quite a bit more that can be done I think, but for now, at least DVD navigation is working so we’re getting there!