thanks PrometheusG, you got me on the right track
to get it working for my pinnacle remote type b I had to add the following to profiles.ini
[VLC (hardware YUV overlay DirectX output)]
; (RED(A))
key1009=KEYBOARD CTRL+q+^q+^CTRL
; (GREEN(B))
key1010=KEYBOARD CTRL+q+^q+^CTRL
; (YELLOW(C))
key1011=KEYBOARD CTRL+q+^q+^CTRL
ETC.....