Number keys issue with XBMC

[amcfarla]

I just received my flirc controllers today, and it seems to be working well but I have an issue and I am not sure how to address this(or it is possible). On the normal XBMC remote the number keys will act like the letters(kind of like a telephone hit 2 key three time will type a letter 'c') I am not sure how to do this with the keyboard, because when you hit the number 2 it doesn't type 'a'. How you type a letter 'a' you need to hit shift 'a' on the keyboard(example music, to navigate a long menu with a lot of artists). To translate letter presses you would need 26 characters on your remote to be able to configure every letter. I am not sure how to configure so the number keys will act like the number keys on the normal xbmc remote. Thank you.

[jason]

Hi. Unfortunately, flirc shows up as a USB keyboard to the computer and in that specification, it doesn't have support for the feature you are suggesting. It's not impossible for me to do this but I don't have this planned at the moment with a full plate. Certainly stay tuned to my blog just in case I do this in the future.

[captain747480]

This might help.

[Chris!]

This might help.

No way!

Thanks captain747480

[captain747480]

Just to say, I haven't tried my suggestion above but it looked like it might do the trick.

Also, looks like it may well do what you want too.

[Chris!]

I'll try this out at some point in the future (read: about a months time) and post back - can't believe I didn't think to look!

[captain747480]

I've tried both methods, can't get Flirc Utilities to work but the JumpSMS suggestion for Keyboard.xml does the trick. When you're in your movie list just use the number pad keys to move to the letter you want.

[captain747480]

One disadvantage of the Keyboard.xml method is that you can no longer enter numbers in order to skip to a particular point in a video file by entering the time ie. to skip to 1hr 20 mins into a video enter 1 2 0 0 0 and press select.

[digitalb0y]

Modifying keyboard.xml also keeps you from being able to enter a numeric passcode, although that probably isn't much of an issue to those without kids and/or lots of users. For me the best combination is to set as many of the things I enter frequently to numbers as possible, and keep a bluetooth keyboard handy for the rare times I'm doing things that require a bunch of typing. I really like the JumpSMS idea but in practice I don't know if it's much more convenient than navigating an onscreen keyboard with the arrow keys from time to time. If something I need to type is really so long that I don't want to do it that way, I think using the number keys with multiple presses (SMS style) is still a bigger pain than just picking up a qwerty keyboard.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally for flexibility and for being able to set your box up the way YOU want it. I'm just saying that for me, the only way I could make things more convenient would be with a qwerty keyboard on the back of my remote, like the Boxee remote has. I don't find myself reaching for the bluetooth keyboard often enough to spend a lot of time making something like JumpSMS work. That's totally just me though.

[jason]

If this is a universal remote, how about setting another device's number pads to do this feature? That way, you can get the best of both and have the option of switching between them?

[digitalb0y]

If this is a universal remote, how about setting another device's number pads to do this feature? That way, you can get the best of both and have the option of switching between them?

That's an awesome idea!

[captain747480]

I've been looking into this a bit more and I haven't experimented with this yet but it looks like it's possible to have keys behave differently when in different parts of XBMC so that the default behaviour is Numbers and only when your in the Video menu does it switch to Jump SMS type behaviour.

More info here, look at the An Example section towards the bottom which shows how to make the Info key display ingo globally but the OSD when in Full Screen Video mode.

As I say, I haven't experimented with this myself.

[digitalb0y]

Yes, if everything you're trying to do is within XBMC, it's actually not difficult to edit keyboard.xml to make the same buttons do different things depending on what you're doing in XBMC. There's also a remote section of that file, and people have posted some great mods for that section so that a remote with few buttons (like say an Apple remote) can have more utility on various XBMC screens.

[captain747480]

More info here, look at the An Example section towards the bottom which shows how to make the Info key display ingo globally but the OSD when in Full Screen Video mode.

Apologies for quoting myself.

I can confirm that this does work. I've added

<two>JumpSMS2</two>

<three>JumpSMS3</three>

<four>JumpSMS4</four>

<five>JumpSMS5</five>

<six>JumpSMS6</six>

<seven>JumpSMS7</seven>

<eight>JumpSMS8</eight>

<nine>JumpSMS9</nine>

Into the following sections of my Keyboard.xml file

<MyMusicFiles>

<MyMusicLibrary>

<MyVideoFiles>

<MyVideoLibrary>

And I can now jump to the relevant letter in my Movie and Music lists whilst still being able to enter numbers when in Full Screen Video mode to skip to a particular location in a video file.