mControl Driver: Vista Media Center Controller

[Ted Singh]

UPDATE as of May 28, 2010:
We have tested the latest version of the Media Center TCP/IP Controller driver included in the Driver Pack of mControl v2.1 RC5 B3 (Build 3785) with the latest builds of the Media Center TCP/IP Controller.

mControl's Media Center TCP/IP Controller driver is working but there appear to be some changes within the Controller software which prevent proper operation:
- With the Win 7 alpha - no EPG - no TV commands (Oct 13 2009, Alpha) version, the STOP, PAUSE and PLAY buttons do not appear to function.
- With the Win7 64 and 32 bit Alpha - button command fix (May 25 2010, Alpha), status messages from the system do not appear to function.

One other FAQ that we can provide some feedback on:
Q: How do you send a "Green Button" command.
A: Select "Goto Home"

/End of Update

==

We are pleased to provide a beta version of our Vista Media Center Controller driver. This is a "native" mControl driver that can be used to control Vista Media Center PCs and attached extenders.



To use:
1. Ensure that you have mControl v2.1.3043 (or higher) installed.

2. Install the mControl Vista Media Center Controller driver:
(a) Download the following archive file: http://www.embeddedautomation.com/EAWmcController.zip
(b) Extract the contents to C:\Program Files\Embedded Automation\mControl\server\plugins



(c) You'll need to use the mControl Service Controller utility to restart mControl to get mControl to use the new driver. (Don't forget to check to see if this new driver has been enabled - by default it has been enabled.)

• The mControl VMC Controller driver can run on Vista *and* non-Vista Media Center machines (e.g., WHS or XP), but can only control Vista Media Centers.

3. Install the Vista Media Center Controller utility - this is what the mControl communicates with to control and receive information from the Vista Media Center:



(a) The mControl Vista Media Center Controller can be downloaded from here and is available as an installable file: http://www.codeplex.com/VmcControlle...eleaseId=12882.

• The Vista Media Center Controller utility needs to be installed on each Vista Media Center PC that you would like to control. This will also allow you to control extenders (e.g., Xbox 360) associated with the Vista Media Center.
• As the name implies, the Vista Media Center Controller is for Vista Media Center PCs, not MCE 2005 systems.
• Currently, Vista Media Center needs to be running for the Controller to operate

*** We would like to thank bradsjm for writing this utility and making it available to the Windows Media Center community ***

To use:
1. Create a device, specifying the adapter as "EA WMC Controller". Then specify the IP address of the Vista Media Center that you are controlling. Specify the Send IP Port (40500) and Receive IP Port (40400). (If you are controlling an extender associated with this Media Center, then specify 40501/40401 (1st extender), 40502/40402 (2nd extender), etc.


2. Use mControl Editor to send messages or use the device/commands within macros. And if you are a mControl SDK user, this functionality is available to you as well. The following image was generated within a macro - using the MsgBox command:

[bjdraw]

Wow, this is an incredible plug-in!

I'm very excited to try it out.

[TonyG]

Very nice guys!

[bjdraw]

Just thought of a cool idea.

Many people use their AV/R to control the volume instead of VMC, especially because when Toslink is used Windows can't control the volume.

Since some of us already have mControl connected to our AV/R and now we have two way control of VMC, it would be cool if we could keep the very useful volume indicator in Vista synced with the volume of our AV/R. This of course we would require two-way control of our AV/R, but would be really cool.

[jbworks]

We should all be thanking "bradsjm" for opening up the source code and releasing the vmccontroller for everyone to use...

A HUGE THANK YOU GOES OUT TO HIM!!

[Ted Singh]

jbworks,

Agreed. I've added our thanks to him in our original post.

Ted

[bjdraw]

Not sure why, but it isn't working for me. I installed both pieces and added a device but when I try to send command via mControl editor, nothing happens. Here is the log.

2008-05-09 23:44:06.765	00:02:22.2481510	(018)	I0	Automation command [20, "192.168.111.20|40500|40400", "button-ch-plus", -1, "EAWmcControllerAdapter", 1]

So from cmd.exe I run
telnet 192.168.111.20 40500
Then type
button-ch-plus

Which returns "204 Success" and I see what I expect on the VMC.

[Ted Singh]

bjdraw,

We would need to see more than that one line in the log file. The problem could be with the connection - though your telnet session would imply otherwise. Please send the logs to support at embeddedautomation dot com

Ted

[Jeremy]

Ok, I'm excited to use this, however have run into an issue.

"(b) Extract the contents to C:\Program Files\Embedded Automation\mControl\server\plugins"

I don't have this directory because I'm running it on my HomeServer so I installed it into c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mControl\server\plugins.

Then when I goto use the mControl Service Controller utility to restart mControl to get mControl to use the new driver. It doesn't appear at all in the Driver providor list.

Anyone know why this is?

[Ted Singh]

Jeremy,

You may need to restart your console (maybe even the WHS system) - I'm not sure why this is not being picked up. We'll look into this.

Ted