Inteset remote control

[lithium630]

I bought a couple Inteset Media Center remote controls. It has some quirks but I think it's one of the better low cost Media Center remotes. They work fine on my HTPC, DMA2200 and Xbox's but do not work on the Echo. I tried changing the RC6 codes on the Echo but none of them worked. I emailed the company. The guy who responded did not know why it does not work but offered to send one of the remotes to Ceton if they are interested. I can give you his email if you want.

http://shop.inteset.com/Products/38-xbo ... emote.aspx

[Haba]

I bought a couple Inteset Media Center remote controls. It has some quirks but I think it's one of the better low cost Media Center remotes. They work fine on my HTPC, DMA2200 and Xbox's but do not work on the Echo. I tried changing the RC6 codes on the Echo but none of them worked. I emailed the company. The guy who responded did not know why it does not work but offered to send one of the remotes to Ceton if they are interested. I can give you his email if you want.

http://shop.inteset.com/Products/38-xbo ... emote.aspx

You bought a compatible Xbox 360 Media remote, not a compatible Windows Media Center remote. The Echo is setup to use the WMC remote, not the Xbox 360 media remote. Some people have tried to get the Xbox 360 Media remote to work with WMC HTPC and had to do a registry hack to get it to work. Since that is a learning remote, have you tried to teach the remote with the Echo remote? I see the company also sells a USB External Infrared (IR) Receiver that you might want to try using. I have looked at these remotes myself wondering how well they would work. Please report back your findings along with more detailed info on the quirks mentioned above.

[lithium630]

You bought a compatible Xbox 360 Media remote, not a compatible Windows Media Center remote. The Echo is setup to use the WMC remote, not the Xbox 360 media remote. Some people have tried to get the Xbox 360 Media remote to work with WMC HTPC and had to do a registry hack to get it to work. Since that is a learning remote, have you tried to teach the remote with the Echo remote? I see the company also sells a USB External Infrared (IR) Receiver that you might want to try using. I have looked at these remotes myself wondering how well they would work. Please report back your findings along with more detailed info on the quirks mentioned above.

It's a Media Center remote that uses RC6 codes. They just started marketing it as an Xbox remote since the Xbox can use either or. I did not buy the external receiver so I'm not sure if that would work. I'd rather not have to use one. I'll give the pro's and cons for anyone thinking of getting one.

Pros:

Backlit keys
Green Button
TV Power Button!
Ability to copy any IR code
Control up to 3 other devices

Cons:

TV power button cannot learn when in PC mode (This one aggrivates me. What's the point of having a separate power button?)
It is extremely fussy when learning codes
No support for the Echo

Over all I like it. It took a little while to grow on me. If and when the Echo works I'll buy a few more.

[mdavej]

Here's the deal with Xbox vs. Media Center. While it's true both use the RC6 protocol (technicall the MCE protocol which is a form of RC6-6-32), that's not the whole story. There is one byte in the beginning of the signal that differentiates them and makes one incompatible with the other. For Xbox those that byte is 74, and for the Echo it is 34. Like a lock and key, unless every bit matches what the receiving device expects, it will not work. If there is some way to make Echo respond to 74 rather than 34, then you can make it work.

[lithium630]

Here's the deal with Xbox vs. Media Center. While it's true both use the RC6 protocol (technicall the MCE protocol which is a form of RC6-6-32), that's not the whole story. There is one byte in the beginning of the signal that differentiates them and makes one incompatible with the other. For Xbox those that byte is 74, and for the Echo it is 34. Like a lock and key, unless every bit matches what the receiving device expects, it will not work. If there is some way to make Echo respond to 74 rather than 34, then you can make it work.

This remote works on the Linksys extender and the PC without any registry hacks.

[mdavej]

I don't know why that is, but I have a guess. The byte in question (device ID) for Microsoft is 04 (don't know what linksys uses). So I'm starting to see a pattern (04, 34, 74) in all these variations of MCE signals. My guess is that PC and Linksys ignore that leading nybble and Echo does not. So for the same level of compatibility as everybody else, Echo needs to ignore that nybble too. Is there any way we can convince Ceton to do that?

EDIT2: I found confirmation that Echo also responds to at least 04, 34 and 74. So I have no idea why this particular Xbox remote won't work.

[lithium630]

I don't know why that is, but I have a guess. The byte in question (device ID) for Microsoft is 04 (don't know what linksys uses). So I'm starting to see a pattern (04, 34, 74) in all these variations of MCE signals. My guess is that PC and Linksys ignore that leading nybble and Echo does not. So for the same level of compatibility as everybody else, Echo needs to ignore that nybble too. Is there any way we can convince Ceton to do that?

EDIT2: I found confirmation that Echo also responds to at least 04, 34 and 74. So I have no idea why this particular Xbox remote won't work.

I appreciate the detailed explanation. The only problem with having a Media Center setup is nothing "just works". Everything takes effort or work arounds. I don't mind the challenge but it can be hard to explain to the wife.