Media Center remote with Emby Theatre

[Red5ive 30]

Replacing Media center on my HTPC with Win 10 and hopefully Emby.

 

The HTPC is connected to my TV via an Xbox one with Kinect. The Xbox one has a Media Center set-top box profile so it can send commands by voice and general volume, play pause etc commands like a Media Center remote.

 

I read that Emby should support media centre remotes but apart from the volume, arrow keys, enter and back buttons not much else seems to work, no play/pause stop etc in Emby Theatre.

 

My HTPC is in a Silverstone case with built in IR. I installed the old iMon drivers and software and it seems to be reading the remote commands ok and changing the volume etc.

 

I hope to be able to utilise the Xbox changing channel, pausing etc in Emby but cant get it working with even an old MC remote yet.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

 

[Luke 38827]

Hi, are you talking about Emby Theater on the PC, or the Xbox?

[Red5ive 30]

Sorry, I didn't make that very clear! Meant control Emby Theater on the PC with a standard M.C. remote.

 

If that works on the PC side then the Xbox One can be set to use 'media center' as the set top box and the PC is then connected to the Xbox via its HDMI pass through.

Saying things like 'xbox pause' or 'xbox volume up' should then send media center remote commands to the pc via IR on the kinect sensor.

 

First thing though is to get Theater on the pc working with the standard remote. Any reason play/pause is not working?

Edited October 16, 2019 by Red5ive

[Red5ive 30]

So some more info on this, the IR sensor built in to the Silverstone case I am sure used to come up as a eHome device under win7/8.

Under win10 I see no separate ehome entries anywhere under device manager.

 

Under Human Interface Devices I have 5 'USB Input Devices' and then a

HID-compliant consumer control device, a HID-compliant system controller and a HID-compliant vendor-defined device.

 

Under keyboards I have an extra HID keyboard device.

 

Under Sound, video and game controllers I have a couple of hauppague IR decoders that got installed with the DVBs cand Quad HD TV cards.

 

I strongly suspect it is being recognized as a keyboard rather than a ehome Ir receiver, which would explain why the arrow keys, enter and back are working but nothing else.  Anyone know where to download the correct drivers?

[Guest asrequested]

You need Windows commands not IR.

[Luke 38827]

Does it work with say, windows media player?

[serpi 77]

You can use AdvancedMCERemoteMapper to remap the keys of your MC Remote to whatever you like.

 

Have a look in emby wiki for supported key strokes and map them as you wish.

 

I'm using it myself, works pretty well, you can, for example, map the Green Button to CTRL+Escape to open start menu.

 

You just have to reassign the keys every time you install a new WIndows 10 release, as the update restores the default settings, but the tool has a backup/restore function for this.

 

Fell free to ask for help, if you have problems.

 

There are different MC remotes with more or less keys, I'm using one like this (without acer logo) on one HTPC:

 

And on the other a Logitech remote with MC MCE mode on the other.

 

Ciao, Alfred

[Red5ive 30]

Thanks Serpi, will definitely check out the remote mapper.

My main problem at the moment is that windows 10 is not recognizing my HTPC's built in IR receiever as being a Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver, seemingly putting it as a generic HID keyboard device and possibly HID-compliant vendor-defined device.

 

I've tried removing the both these and re-scanning but it does not pick it up.

 

No buttons, beside the arrows, back and enter button work.  I have tried in windows media player as well as Emby, Kodi and Plex.

[Red5ive 30]

Another update, with some small progress.

After some searching around on Silverstone's website I found my case model (GD02-MT), Here's a picture of mine in case anyone was curious:

and a drivers download page here:

https://www.silverstonetek.com.tw/iMON/

The version of imon on the site is 7.77.1022, not as new as the version 8.something I had been using but crucially this silverstone package is nearly 100mb as opposed to the 50mb package I had saved and seems to include the specialist Silverstone OEM drivers.

 

I run the installer but was dismayed to see nothing had changed in device manager. No new IR device or ehome one.

The difference this time was that I could load up windows media player and the play, pause and skip/back buttons were now working!  Unfortunately it is still not working in Emby theatre or Kodi.

 

Where do I go from here?

Edited October 18, 2019 by Red5ive

[Guest asrequested]

Just buy a Harmony remote with the hub, and connect it via Bluetooth. Then use an IR blaster (if needed) for your receiver. You'll be able to do anything you want.

[Guest asrequested]

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Harmony-Companion-Control-Entertainment/dp/B00N3RFC4G/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?keywords=harmony+hub&qid=1571427930&sprefix=Harmony+hub&sr=8-9

 

https://www.amazon.com/Original-Logitech-Blaster-Emitter-Harmony/dp/B00ITEPKIG/ref=mp_s_a_1_15?keywords=harmony+hub&qid=1571428005&sprefix=Harmony+hub&sr=8-15