Thanks for taking the time to go walk me through the problem.
Here are a couple of follow up questions in an attempt to work around the issues you described:
Regarding problem 1:
a ) Can I set up Flirc such that pressing a button runs a script in addition to pressing a keyboard button?
What I'm thinking is that in addition to forwarding "left", "right", as keyboard events, Flirc also runs a script (AutoIt, AutoHotkey, etc.) first to change focus to XBMC if that isn't already the case. The overhead from running the script should be small enough.
b ) If it's not possible for Flirc to associate 2 actions with 1 button press:
--> Can I train Flirc to associate a button press with *just* running a script? Either directly or through Windows global hotkeys?
--> If the above is true, then I see 2 options: 1) Dedicate a single remote button to running the focus-shifting script, or 2) do the focus change *and* the action button press ("left", "right", etc.) in the script, which is triggered by Flirc.
Think any of this is doable?
Regarding problem 2:
Is there a way to associate a button press with enabling/disabling Flirc?
What I'm thinking is using the Netflix button on my remote to tell Flirc "ignore any further button presses", and a second dedicated button on my remote to tell it "resume forwarding remote presses".
If that's not possible then I can get fancier and wrap all the keyboard press actions in scripts, and associate button presses with those scripts through Flirc (if possible, see above). Then use 2 buttons on the remote to tell the scripts (instead of Flirc) to allow/disallow button presses.
Maybe I'm trying too hard and there's an easier single-remote solution (other then CEC-USB adapter, which is $50, or a dedicated CEC-enabled XBMC host), let me know.