[Request Rescinded] New external player addition.

[Teddyboy]

Hi Paul,
Would it be possible to add windows media player as a external player? I just want to use it so I can play episodes. I’m having a heck of a time trying to control MPC-BE with a remote. Maybe it might be easier to control it from a traditional MCE remote?

[Pauven]

I'll look into it. I'm not sure what the capabilities are, I've never really played with it outside of music years ago.

MPC allows for extensive control customization, and I agree that the default settings are wretched. By default it seems to like keyboards better, so I highly recommend you spend 15 minutes tweaking the controls to your setup.

For playing episodes, the main things you need are pause, play, rewind, and fast forward. I really hate the rewind/fast forward stock controls, but the others work out of the box. If you are trying to use other buttons, then share what you're trying to do.

Any by the way, the most important button is the close button (did you configure that yet in CMC?). When you're done watching an episode, you hit close and it pops you right back to CMC.

[Teddyboy]

This is the remote that I’m using. A plain old mce remote. I think it’s one of the first one that we’re produced. For closing programs I use the mce record button. I run CMC as administrator so it can adjust the registry. I picked a episode from a series’s that I know is correct. MPC loads and starts to play the correct episode. When I press the record button nothing happens. It does not shut down MPC or J River. With JRiver when I press the record button to stop the player it puts me into theatre view. Appear to be doing things correctly. LOL.

DB6FAB60-9943-48CE-A643-2B99C5C43A68.jpeg (50.39 KiB) Viewed 7264 times

[Teddyboy]

I was able to resolve the remote issue. I had to download Advanced MCE Remote Key mapper to get the change to take. I had to run the tool as a administrator before I could push the change to the registry. Once I did that. The remote functions as intended. It now shuts down either jriver or MPC whichever has focus and returns me back to CMC. I don’t know CMC was being so fussy about the key mapping. I ran CMC as administrator made the change saved then quit CMC. I even rebooted the pc. Go figure. The other issue is I can’t seem to get the green button to accept that I want it to start cmc. I’m not going to set it to run automatically just yet. I have a few more tweaks for MPC to do.

Next up the metadata gremlins are attacking my data.

[Pauven]

What version of Windows?

Did you reboot after updating the registry?

[Jamie]

To start a particular program like CMC, I create a desktop shortcut for CMC, or whatever, and add a key sequence to the shortcut properties. I then use Advanced MCE Remote Key mapper to map the key sequence to a particular key. Don't forget the "starts in" field for the shortcut. That should be the same as the CMC install folder or program install program. Paul has all these instructions on his site somewhere and he did add many remote functions to CMC. I'm just old school. I have 1 shortcut for CMC music, One for Movies, One for shutdown......

Jamie

[Teddyboy]

Well I think I did not follow the directions correctly. What I should have done is load CMC under administrative privileges, make the changes then save and exit. What I did was make the changes and save then run CMC again under administrative privileges thinking that it would apply the changes.

I think my problem is I’m so MyMovies centric that it’s preventing me from moving on. I never had to do very much with MyMovies running under WMC. It just did it all for me. Now I have to think, and I think for a living. I guess I just don’t want to think to much at all this anymore.

The version of windows that I’m running on my htpc is 1809

[Pauven]

The version of windows that I’m running on my htpc is 1809

Okay, good. On Windows 10, all buttons are available for reprogramming. On Windows 7/8.1, Microsoft prevents the reprogramming of WMC and multimedia buttons.

What I should have done is load CMC under administrative privileges, make the changes then save and exit. What I did was make the changes and save then run CMC again under administrative privileges thinking that it would apply the changes.

Either way should work. The import thing is that you have to run as Administrator to update the registry, and then you have to reboot before the changes take effect.

I think my problem is I’m so MyMovies centric that it’s preventing me from moving on. I never had to do very much with MyMovies running under WMC. It just did it all for me. Now I have to think, and I think for a living. I guess I just don’t want to think to much at all this anymore.

I've been working on making CMC less mentally taxing. The journey's begun, but far from done.

[Pauven]

I was able to resolve the remote issue. I had to download Advanced MCE Remote Key mapper to get the change to take. I had to run the tool as a administrator before I could push the change to the registry. Once I did that. The remote functions as intended. It now shuts down either jriver or MPC whichever has focus and returns me back to CMC. I don’t know CMC was being so fussy about the key mapping. I ran CMC as administrator made the change saved then quit CMC. I even rebooted the pc. Go figure. The other issue is I can’t seem to get the green button to accept that I want it to start cmc. I’m not going to set it to run automatically just yet. I have a few more tweaks for MPC to do.

Next up the metadata gremlins are attacking my data.

Hmmm, this seems very odd. The code in CMC that programs the remote was heavily inspired by the Advanced MCE Remote Key Mapper's source code, so they function very similarly. The main difference is that CMC is streamlined to just program a few buttons to work with CMC, while Advanced MCR Remote Key Mapper is fully featured to program any and all buttons to do anything.

Also, in addition to updating the Windows Registry to program the buttons, CMC also creates some special shortcut files with programmed hot-keys. These are required for make a button launch CMC.

Sounds like both of these are failing, which is why programming a green button in Advance MCE Remote Key Mapper wasn't enough to launch CMC.

Please run CMC as Administrator, then enable Debug Logging, then Update the Registry. This should produce a debug log file capturing the output from updating the Registry and creating the Shortcut files. Post the log file here.

[Teddyboy]

I’ll enable debug logging when I when I get home from work, and recreate the steps to get the green button to bring up CMC. At this point I have CMC run at startup which is how I want it to run anyway, but the green button would be nice to have Incase I have to close it then load it again using the green button. At this point I’m happy the the remote is functioning and I can close either player when I need to to get back to cmc.

I remember when I ran MyMovies for WMC and total media theatre I didn’t have to quit like I do now. If I remember correctly I could press the back button and it would go back to where I was. That’s when TMT had their little helper app that started TMT inside WMC.