Windows VLC and Dell ExpressCard Remote

[jwir3]

Hi Everyone.

I use VLC as my primary media player. I *love* it. That said, one of the few problems I am having is that I just purchased a new Dell XPS M1530 laptop, and it came with an infrared remote control that fits in the expresscard slot for travelling. The remote is kind of nice, and I'd actually like to be able to use it with VLC, if possible. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any software that communicates with it correctly. I've tried HIP and EventGhost, and I can't find anything that will just let me map the input signals to different keystrokes. I was just wondering if anyone else has had any luck with this problem, as it seems to be somewhat prevalent in the online community.

Thanks in advance for any advice/help you can give me.

~Scott

[kinglaiho]

I am in the same boat. Anyone know how to work it?

[specter333]

Does EventGhost see the events from your remote? They should show up in the logging window every time you press a key. If it does then you can use it to directly control VLC with the included plug in. If not then try activating some of the other input plug ins such as the HID or try anything that looks similar.

[kinglaiho]

How do i tell if eventghost can see my remote?

[Melloware]

I own one of these remotes also. Unfortunately they work only with the laptops irDA port and don't send HID or other signals. I have not seen anyone successfully implement overriding the control of this remote. Only the Dell or HP driver (in HP it's called quickPlay) responds to this remotes events. if you figure out a way to control it, please post back. I have a lot of my users asking for support for this remote in Intelliremote and would love to figure out how this remote works exactly so I can add support for it.

[jwir3]

Strange. I mean, as a programmer, I would think that the driver would have *some* type of API to control the device. Is it possible to control the device using some type of custom system that translates commands from the dell remote driver to an HID signal? I think I could write something, but I'm not quite sure where to look for the right information. Where did you find out that the quickplay system is the only software that works with the remote?

Thanks -

~Scott

[Melloware]

I agree with you. I AM a programmer and I have torn my hair out to try and figure out how to intercept this remotes commands. It is not a HID based remote and they don't seem to have any Open API as they were not interested in letting us take over this remote. The reason I know is I have an HP Pavilion laptop with the HP ExpressCard remote and the remote only controls MCE and HP Quickplay app. From reading posts on other forums like MediaPortal with users frustrated with this remote it seems to be a custom HP or Dell driver that is responding the the IrDa events from this remote. And I have tried this remote against my desktop machine IR port with no response which leads me to believe there is either a) a custom driver on my laptop listening or b) the irda port on the laptop is custom for this remote so its linked to the hardware.

That is all i know.

[jwir3]

Hmm. Well, thanks. It gives me a bit to go on. I wonder if there's a way to *cough* disassemble *cough* the quickplay driver. As you said, though, it could be that the hardware is linked. One way to eliminate this possibility though could be to test the laptop with another, different type of IR device. If the port responds, it would indicate to me that it must use some type of generic IR device driver. Another possibility would be to see if a different driver were available for the IR port, perhaps one that does have an open API. My thoughts go to a Microsoft generic driver. Of course, if the remote control itself is controlled by a driver, then it might not be possible. I'll have to look into it, and let you know what I find.

~Scott

[dasx]

I'm in the same boat too, and I have this Express Remote Control and a Logitech Harmony.
I can configure the Logitech remote to control my Dell XPS M1530, and the configurator program tells me it's a Media PC. When configured, I can do the same with both remotes controls, so I guess there might be a way to use these remotes controls with any other software.

The question is... how?

[argb444]

Hi,

The .reg file below is one that I used on my m1530 after I moved the Remote's hard-wired install directory from C:\Dell\Utilities\... to C:\Program Files\Dell\Utilities\... I had to first use the Remote's tray applet to stop the WMPControllerService before moving the directory and making the reg updates.

In Control Panel\Services, WMPControllerService has the description "Version 1.48 Provides the interface for the Dell Premium Remote Control Device".

-argb

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{52CA7E0B-F5C4-4290-994F-D028D89DEBAF}\LocalServer32]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerServer.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{C9BB4D75-ABB1-4EC6-BD32-DA93E4EE47E7}\LocalServer32]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerService.exe\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{36EA6C0F-53DF-4CEF-A766-C7FB9592DD2C}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerServer.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{36EA6C0F-53DF-4CEF-A766-C7FB9592DD2C}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{F4A87201-429A-4D3A-AA51-831B5A0857BC}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerService.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{F4A87201-429A-4D3A-AA51-831B5A0857BC}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{36EA6C0F-53DF-4CEF-A766-C7FB9592DD2C}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerServer.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{36EA6C0F-53DF-4CEF-A766-C7FB9592DD2C}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{F4A87201-429A-4D3A-AA51-831B5A0857BC}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerService.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{F4A87201-429A-4D3A-AA51-831B5A0857BC}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPControllerService.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib\{F4A87201-429A-4D3A-AA51-831B5A0857BC}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell\Dell Premium Remote Control\1.0.048]
"InstallDir"="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"DellRemote"="\"C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control\\WMPRemoteTray.exe\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{125EB8DD-8316-4559-9951-E969929381BD}]
"InstallLocation"="C:\\Program Files\\Dell\\Utilities\\Dell Premium Remote Control"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WMPControllerService]
"ImagePath"=hex(2):22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,\
6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,44,00,65,00,6c,00,6c,00,5c,\
00,55,00,74,00,69,00,6c,00,69,00,74,00,69,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,44,00,65,00,\
6c,00,6c,00,20,00,50,00,72,00,65,00,6d,00,69,00,75,00,6d,00,20,00,52,00,65,\
00,6d,00,6f,00,74,00,65,00,20,00,43,00,6f,00,6e,00,74,00,72,00,6f,00,6c,00,\
5c,00,57,00,4d,00,50,00,43,00,6f,00,6e,00,74,00,72,00,6f,00,6c,00,6c,00,65,\
00,72,00,53,00,65,00,72,00,76,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,\
22,00,00,00

[dasx]

Hi, thanks for your information.
But could you please explain the process step by step?

Thanks a lot, again.

[argb444]

The post was mainly for putting out some new info on the Dell Remote. For example, identifying the three exe's that apparantly constitute the driver software: WMPControllerServer.exe, WMPControllerService.exe, and WMPRemoteTray.exe. Might be useful to someone that wants to analyze how the Remote interfaces to WMC/WMP.

In any case, I used the install kit named "R166095.EXE - thompson_media_remote_1.0.048_1.48_A04" which is stupidly hard-wired to install the remote software in C:\Dell. Here are steps you can use to move the software to C:\Program Files, but first you must run regedit and verify that all the registry entries on your box correspond to the ones listed in my post. The only difference should be that your entries will specify the path C:\Dell and not C:\Program Files\Dell.

If there are any other differences, don't go any further in this process.

0. Painful but you must first export and save any registry entries that will be changed---just in case!
1. Right click the Tray Applet for the Remote and select Stop. This stops the service WMPControllerService.exe. This can also be stopped via Control Panel\Services. This is so you can delete the C:\Dell directory when its time to do so.
2. Copy C:\Dell to C:\Program Files\Dell
3. Paste the text from my post that starts with te line "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" and ends with the line "22,00,00,00" into a text file.
4. Rename the text file from .txt to .reg
5. Click on the .reg file and affirm all the dialog boxes that will come up.
6. Run regedit and verify that all the registry entries have indeed been changed.
6. Delete the C:\Dell directory
7. Reboot

Verify that the remote tray applet lights up green and that the remote actually works OK.

-argb

[dasx]

OK, now it's clear. But I have one last question. What will this change in my remote working system? I mean, will this "unlock" the remote driver and let me use my remote with intelliremote, VLC, and so on?

Thanks argb444!


P.S: By the way, I found out that I can control both Windows Media and Zoom Player with my remote (Play, Pause, Stop buttons... etc), even though they have different key shortcuts. For example, Play/Pause in WM is CTRL+P, but this shortcut does nothing in Zoomplayer, meanwhile my remote control works fine.
Aside from that, if I open VLC and click in any of the menu buttons, I can navigate trough them with my remote, like if I were using my keyboard.

[fmustang76]

I was looking for the same info and Google led me to the following page. Worked for me. Just used VLC Hotkeys settings. Hope it's helpful.

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... &sk=t&sd=a