IRTrans (IR Trans) transforms your PC into a programmable remote control.  It learns the codes of your remote control, stores them in a database and sends them controlled by your applications. You can control your PC with almost any remote control.

MediaPortal supports commands from remote controls via the IRTRans Server. IRTrans modules are found in cases produced by DIGN and Zalman.

You can use any remote supported by IRTRans itself. To add support for a special remote, simply create your own Button Mapping.

Settings

Open the Remote\IRTrans Tab to start configuration.

• Use IRTrans receiver - Enables or disables IRTrans support
• Extended logging - Writes information to the MediaPortal log file, to assist in debugging. This is especially useful, when testing new key mappings.
• Mapping - Opens the ?Input Mapping Editor. Here you can adjust your button mappings to fit your own needs and reset to default mappings if necessary or after a MediaPortal update.
• Server Settings
  • IRTrans Server Port - Enter the Port, where the IRTRans Server is listening for client connections. Usually the default of 21000 is OK.
  • Remote Model - The name of the Remote as known to IRTrans. See below for a detailed discussion
  • Test - This button tests, if a IRTrans Server is listening on the indicated port. the result is shown in the Status box
  • Status - 

How do I get support for a new Remote?

Let's first have a look on how IRTrans works.

IRTrans has all remotes that are supported in directory \Program Files\Irtrans\remotes. Look in the *.rem files. What you find after [NAME] is the remote model. For example for the Microsoft MCE Remote it will be:

{{{[REMOTE]
[NAME]mediacenter}}}

This is what you need to specify for the Remote Model field in MediaPortal Configuration.

MediaPortal comes with support for Microsoft MCE remotes as a default. If you want to use a different one, use the IRTrans Learn to generate a *.rem file.

Make a copy of file IR Trans mediacenter.xml as found in InputDeviceMappings\defaults of the MediaPortal install directory.

The new file needs to be named EXACTLY like this:

IrTrans hauppage

where 'IrTrans' is a fixed constant and 'hauppage' is the name of the remote to be supported, as indicated in the *.rem file of the new remote.

Help!! My remote commands get executed twice!

CAUTION: This is because of a feature of IRTrans in the app.cfg file, found in the \Program Files\Irtrans\remotes directory.
This allows to send remote commands to specific applications.
our problem can be found already on the beginning of this file. Edit the file and remove the following block of lines:

[APP]*
[ACTIVE]
[TYPE]KEY
[REMOTE]mediacenter
[COMMANDS]
1 [KEY]1
2 [KEY]2[KEY]a[KEY]b[KEY]c
3 [KEY]3[KEY]d[KEY]e[KEY]f
4 [KEY]4[KEY]g[KEY]h[KEY]i
5 [KEY]5[KEY]j[KEY]k[KEY]l
6 [KEY]6[KEY]m[KEY]n[KEY]o
7 [KEY]7[KEY]p[KEY]q[KEY]r[KEY]s
8 [KEY]8[KEY]t[KEY]u[KEY]v
9 [KEY]9[KEY]w[KEY]x[KEY]y[KEY]z
0 [KEY]0[KEY]\SPACE
OK [KEY]\ENTER
ENTER [KEY]\ENTER
LEFT [KEY]\LEFT
RIGHT [KEY]\RIGHT
DOWN [KEY]\DOWN
UP [KEY]\UP
CLEAR [KEY]\BACKSPACE
[END-COMMANDS]
[END-APP]

Then restart the IRTrans Server and it'll work as expected. Commands are only executed once.

You might have Microsoft MCE running on the same machine as well, altough i don't understand the reason why. It will happen that when pressing some keys, MCE is started. To prevent that, you need to remove the following lines out of apps.cfg as well:

[APP]MEDIACENTER
[ACTIVE]
[APPNAME]%SystemRoot%\ehome\ehshell.exe
[CLASSNAME]eHome Render Window
[TYPE]MCE
[REMOTE]mediacenter
[COMMANDS]
EHOME [FNC]EHOME
PLAY [FNC]PLAY
STOP [FNC]STOP
REC [FNC]REC
REW [FNC]REW
FWD [FNC]FWD
PAUSE [FNC]PAUSE
NEXT [FNC]NEXT
PREV [FNC]PREV
EPG [FNC]EPG
INFO [FNC]INFO
LIVETV [FNC]LIVETV[RUN]
VIDEO [FNC]VIDEO[RUN]
MUSIC [FNC]MUSIC[RUN]
TV [FNC]TV
RADIO [FNC]RADIO[RUN]
PICTURES [FNC]PICTURES[RUN]
VOL+ [FNC]VOL+
VOL- [FNC]VOL-
MUTE [FNC]MUTE
CH+ [FNC]CH+
CH- [FNC]CH-
BACK [FNC]BACK
DVDMENU [FNC]DVDMENU
RECTV [FNC]RECTV[RUN]
XX1 [FNC]DVDAUDIO
XX2 [FNC]DVDSUBTITLE
MESSENGER [FNC]MESSENGER
TELETEXT [FNC]TELETEXT
[END-COMMANDS]
[END-APP]

Again, you need to restart IRTrans server for the changes to become active.General Information