Logitech Mouse and Keyboard Play/Pause Buttons

[SpewHole]

Okay, this has been driving me nuts. Maybe someone knows the answer.

I am using Windows 7x64, with VLC v. 1.1.0. I use a Saitek Eclipse III keyboard, and I also have a wireless Logitech Mouse MX620 and wireless Logitech Wave keyboard K350. I programmed one of my mouse buttons to function as play/pause and both keyboards have dedicated buttons for this. When I updated versions, I didn't know about the global hotkeys yet and was only using local hotkeys up until that point - stuck with focusing on VLC whenever sending a command. Global hotkeys were something I really wanted, but didn't think was available.

So after updating, I noticed that the dedicated play/pause button on my Saitek keyboard was acting funny. Now it was "double-pressing" play/pause so it would either pause and unpause really fast, or upause and repause really fast. The Logitechs on the other hand were functioning regularly. So I cleared out all of the hotkey settings and tested 3 devices. The Saitek Play/Pause button worked but the Logitechs didn't function.

That's when I noticed the global HotKeys. So after some time, I finally got global hotkeys to work by running the program in administrator mode when I applied the changes. But here's what happened when I set Media Play/Pause as the global hotkey play/pause button: The Saitek keyboard worked perfectly, whether focused on the program or not, but now the Logitechs were acting funny . ::Sighs::. The Logitech play/pause buttons would now only work when not focused on the program - when focused on VLC, it would "double-press" the button. My current workaround is to set the local hotkey as spacebar - and then custom configure Logitech through Setpoint to target the play/pause button to spacebar instead when pressed in VLC only. But this works for the Logitech mouse only, the Logitech keyboard I still have to press spacebar or play/pause depending on whether I'm focused on the program or not to get it to function properly. Anyone have any solutions?

[VLC_help]

There really aren't any config options in VLC for that.

[SpewHole]

There really aren't any config options in VLC for that.

I'm not looking for more configuration options for this. I'm looking for VLC to respond in like no matter which manufacturer of peripheral device I am using with it. Why does the Saitek keyboard's media play/pause work when set as the global play/pause hotkey (both when focused and unfocused)? But then the Logitech keyboard and Logitech mouse's media play/pause buttons will only work properly when unfocused on the program? If I press the media play/pause button on the Logitech mouse or keyboard when focused on VLC - it pauses and unpauses really fast, as if I was pressing the button twice.

I am using the same computer and same program with all three devices - so why does VLC react differently to the Logitechs then it does to the Saitek? Something changed in version 1.1.0 that wasn't there before. When I unprogrammed all hotkeys from my VLC and tested with the different devices, the Saitek media play/pause button, without any configuring is somehow working with the program. Some kind of support for my Saitek was added that wasn't there before. In fact, I just realized the only difference is that the Logitechs are using the SetPoint program and the Saitek isn't. I just turned off SetPoint and tested and the Logitech Play/Pause button now functions like the Saitek does.

So I now know what the problem is. When I press Play/Pause on a Logitech while SetPoint is running and VLC is focused, VLC is taking commands from both the device (locally) and from the SetPoint program (globally) - which is why I'm seeing double-responses when pressing media play/pause buttons. Maybe I should move this to 'feature requests' as "Compatability with Logitech SetPoint".

[VLC_help]

Why does the Saitek keyboard's media play/pause work when set as the global play/pause hotkey (both when focused and unfocused)? But then the Logitech keyboard and Logitech mouse's media play/pause buttons will only work properly when unfocused on the program?

Different keyboards are prolly sending out different messages. Specially if they have some config program running in background.

I should move this to 'feature requests' as "Compatability with Logitech SetPoint".

Hacks like that aren't usually accepted to source code.

[SpewHole]

An amazing thing happened tonight. Just for the heck of it, I turned off the application specific button programming for Logitech Setpoint, so that when I press the "Media Play/Pause" button on any of my Logitech devices while focused on VLC (v1.1.11), it is no longer re-mapped to "Spacebar."

I had to turn this setting on over a year ago, around the time of my original post because of a weird problem I was experiencing. When I clicked Media Play/Pause while focused on VLC, the Play or Pause prompt would occur twice. So it was pausing and unpausing really fast. Or unpausing and then pausing again.

I'm not sure what changed between now and then, but as of tonight, that problem is no longer occuring for me. It's weird because after I turned off the setting and tested it, it seemed like it was still doing it for a moment, but then the program flickered and it was like it corrected itself. And it hasn't happened again since. I really appreciate whomever corrected this. Overall, the performance of the Logitech devices are finally becoming more compatible with Windows 7 (took them long enough). I had a Logitech problem (non-VLC related) with the mouse button I programmed as media play/pause repeatedly dropping its setting back to its native "SmartSearch" for more than a year. That finally went away on it's own sometime earlier this year - I can't even remember when and I have no idea how since I don't recall updating that driver and definitely didn't update the Setpoint program. Just glad that stopped and glad that this other problem is now fixes as well. It seems all the kinks have been worked out between Logitech devices and VLC. Thanks again.

[SpewHole]

This issue used to plague me. The whole Logitech Mouse and SetPoint issues were a nightmare when they existed. I even wrote the people at Logitech at one point and told them off royally:

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Mice-and- ... d-p/471607

I was very frustrated. But the issue eventually disappeared. Something changed between Windows 7, VLC, and/or SetPoint that ended this once and for all.


And everything was working fine until earlier today, when trouble arose again with this issue I thought was firmly behind me. I updated Logitech SetPoint from versions 6.32 to version 6.52, and I also have been using VLC 2.0.7 64-bit Experimental for some time now. Any way, I noticed that play/pause was only working for the Logitech devices (MX620 Cordless Laser Mouse & DiNovo Mini Keyboard) when VLC was active and focused upon.

But, thankfully, googled into a solution from another poster: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63160&p=210870
I added all the VLC strings where mentioned to Logitech's player.ini file, removing references to Program Files (x86) since I'm using 64-bit VLC. And perfect. The buttons function better than they ever have before. Logitech's stupid little play/pause splash screen pops up whether the key is pressed locally or globally for VLC now. With the former version of Setpoint and VLC 32-bit, it would only popup for one but not the other. Not that it really matters, as long as the button worked. But it's nice to see full integration. It is something worth appreciating. Please disseminate the solution to other Logitech Setpoint complainees. I'm sure there have been more than a few.

[SpewHole]

Works good, but not perfect.

To sum everything up, I edited players.ini file found in C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPointP, adding the VLC strings mentioned in the aforementioned thread. This provided global hotkey compatibility for Logitech keyboard and mouse media buttons that are being driven by Logitech's Setpoint program.

But, If I use the mouse cursor to jump to a specific position on the seek-bar during playback, then the global compatibility disappears and the buttons only work locally (when VLC is the active window) again until I close and relaunch VLC.

[SpewHole]

*buttons also work locally if the media is stopped and restarted.

But the new solution for me is to roll-back to Logitech Setpoint v6.32, which corrected everything as it had been for the past few years.

Lesson of the day, Windows 7 version of VLC is best compatible with Logitech Setpoint v6.32 and vice versa.

And just for fun, I tried editing the Logitech Setpoint players.ini file after rolling-back and got the same results as above, with the global settings dropping when the seek-bar was adjusted with the mouse.

[savior02]

*buttons also work locally if the media is stopped and restarted.

But the new solution for me is to roll-back to Logitech Setpoint v6.32, which corrected everything as it had been for the past few years.

Lesson of the day, Windows 7 version of VLC is best compatible with Logitech Setpoint v6.32 and vice versa.

And just for fun, I tried editing the Logitech Setpoint players.ini file after rolling-back and got the same results as above, with the global settings dropping when the seek-bar was adjusted with the mouse.

Thanks for this! I downgraded from latest version of setpoint and now I can successfully map my media buttons globally in VLC! What version of VLC is the one your referring to?