Archive:Unbranded MCE remote

Unbranded MCE remote

There is no manufacturer's name on this remote or the manual, though it may be a Chinavasion CVSB-983 or Acowin AURC-001. It can be used with Logitech Harmony Remote Software by picking Computer>>Media Center PC>>Chinavasion>>CVSB-983.

They are available on Ebay for as little as $2 ($10ish after S&H). It's cheap and feels a bit flimsy, but it works well enough. It simulates the MS Media Center keypresses and will work out of the box on Windows, Linux and probably OSX. It also simulates a mouse, although it's no match for a proper mouse or trackpad.

It isn't very configurable and certain buttons don't work as they should. For example, the fast forward and rewind buttons skip forward or backwards instead of moving gradually.

If you want to add mappings for the four coloured keys here are the entries you need in keyboard.xml. The other keys can't be trapped.

<f1 mod="ctrl,alt">Notification(Key, Green, 3)</f1>  <!-- Green -->
<f2 mod="ctrl,alt">Notification(Key, Orange, 3)</f2> <!-- Orange -->
<f3 mod="ctrl,alt">Notification(Key, Blue, 3)</f3>   <!-- Blue -->
<f4 mod="ctrl,alt">Notification(Key, Yellow, 3)</f4> <!-- Yellow -->

Update 16th Jan: the rewind button sends three keypresses, left, then ctrl-left, then ctrl-shift-B. The left press causes the video to jump back 30 seconds. With the later releases of XBMC the ctrl-shift-B then starts the rewind (release v9.11 ignores ctrl-keypresses).

Update 1st Nov 2010: Requires a minor kernel patch to support all buttons in Linux. See patch in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/607062. Once patched, works well with Linux.

Update 12th June 2011: I've bought one recently. They must have changed hardware or whatever because mine works well with XBMC out of the box both on Win7 and Linux Ubuntu. Most keys are functioning correctly and 4 colored keys can be mapped by adding the following entries in keymap.xml:

<keyboard>
   <one mod="ctrl,alt">YourAction1</one> <!-- Green -->
   <two mod="ctrl,alt">YourAction2</two> <!-- Orange -->
   <three mod="ctrl,alt">YourAction3</three> <!-- Blue -->
   <four mod="ctrl,alt">YourAction4</four> <!-- Yellow -->
   ...
</keyboard>