[mythtvnz] Lirc & MCE Remote

[Robin Gilks]

> Hi,
>
> I've joined this list ages ago, when I first started using Mythtv. I've
> been
> a non-stop myth user since then (2006ish) and it's been absolutely
> rocksolid
> for me most of the time (apart from HW failure :). However, it's time to
> switch from DVB-S to DVB-T so I bought myself some new hardware and got it
> mostly up and running. I've also acquired a Microsoft MCE Remote (with
> it's
> USB receiver) and have been trying to get it to work with Myth, with
> success
> but not completely.
>
> I've found that some keys, like the navigation keys l/r/u/d and the volume
> worked out of the box. Even with LIRC not running. I suspect it must have
> identified itself as a HID device. After some extensive searching I've
> managed to get the remote control, and just the non-keyboard keys of the
> keyboard to work. I'd thought I'd share my experience as some things I
> don't
> understand and are odd.
>
> 1: I can only get it to work using the "devinput" driver. I can't get it
> to
> work with the on many forums suggested "mceusb" driver.
> 2: Also, I have to point the "device" to
> /dev/input/by-id/usb-Philips_eHome_Infrared_Transiever....event-if00
> device.
> /dev/lirc0 does not work.
>
> Using this I also can get irrecord to work to generate my lircd.conf file.
> (some from the net work too).
>
> 3: However, I found that you can only use names i irrecord's "namespace"
> (i.e KEY_OK, or KEY_PLAY). any arbitrary key names are not accepted? I
> can't
> get mythtv to work for the life of me using these keywords in my .lircrc
> file. If I rename them to something else (like xOk, xPlay) in both the
> lircd.conf file and .lircrc file it works beautifully.
>
> 4: Can't seem to record all the "keyboard" keys of the MCE remote, only
> the
> non-keyboard keys (like volume, play, etc..). Maybe it's the USB receiver
> simply not passing these on?
>
> So the good news is it works. I've always had a love/hate (prob more hate)
> relationship with LIRC as it just seems to suddenly give up on me without
> notice and it takes me ages to get it up and running again. I was hoping
> using the USB receiver it might be easier.
>
> Ideally, I'd like to have the MCE keyboard my primary keyboard also when
> not
> using myth. So i.e. mucking around in terminal windows, browsing the web,
> etc. I'm not too worried about the mouse functionality. maybe I can get
> that
> to work using irxevent or something but first I need lirc to actually
> recognize the keys. Maybe it's the USB receiver and I should fall back to
> my
> serial one or the one with the Hauppauge cards?
>
> Is there anyone else who has experience with this remote? I'm particularly
> interested to hear anyone who got it to work using the "mceusb" drives
> (previously called mce_usb, or mce_usb2?)
>
> I am running Suse 11.4, and using the out-of-the-box lirc and drivers.
>
> For whoever is interested: I use a Core 2 Duo base, Hauppauge TD-500,
> Hauppauge HRV4000 (both work fine). Nvidia 7600GS (to be replaced with a
> Nvidia Geforce 210).
>
> Apart from the above, I've spent numerous hours underneath and on top of
> the
> house to find and fix the UHF Cabling and masthead amplifier.
>
> Cheers,
> Johan Schuld

Hi Johan

I'm using MCE remotes on 2 frontends and they work just fine with the
mceusb driver. This is the lsmod output on one of the Zotac boards on a
2.6.32 kernel:

# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
nvidia              10264008  38
lirc_mceusb            11405  1
lirc_dev                7889  3 lirc_mceusb

One thing that had me going for ages was that I'd named the lirc config
file incorrectly. I'd called it lirc.conf and it should have been
lircd.conf. This resulted in irrecord working fine but irw gave no output
and nor did mythtv work (not surprisingly!!). Same result if the file is
not where lircd looks for it. Old versions of lircd look in /etc, newer
versions look in /etc/lirc for the config file

I used a 'stock' lircd.conf from the lirc.org website but if you do roll
your own using irrecord then use the -n switch (-disable-namespace) which
disables namespace checks like KEY_PLAY etc


-- 
Robin Gilks