PowerController MCE updates + My installation guide

I previously wrote about Martin Millmore’s PowerController MCE add-in for controlling your ByeBye Standby and Z-Wave Home Automation modules here. Martin is in the process of updating the WHS and Media Center components or PowerController and he has also updated the Android phone app to support the new Z-wave functionality. For iPad / iPhone and iTouch users there is a new Web UI that can be accessed via the Safari browser to control your devices.

Media Center add-in

Android Phone App

This guide will focus on Z-Wave modules as I don’t have any ByeBye Standby devices but I will cover as much as I can.

For the Z-Wave stuff to work you will need a Z-Wave USB Controller dongle, Martin and I are currently using the Aeon Labs Z-Stick “When attached to a host processor, it becomes a Z-Wave communication device, which exposes the Zensys API (SerialAPI) through integrated USB.” This basically allows the PC to be able to send commands and receive status updates from the Z-wave devices around your home.

I am using these HomePro Z-Wave lamp and appliance modules. We have also tested some in-wall dimmer switches.

If you have a WHS machine I would recommend you install the Z-Wave USB Controller dongle and driver software on the WHS, as then all your PowerController client Media Center PC’s will be able to send signal commands to the Z-Wave USB Controller, The PowerController add-in on the WHS will then send the commands to the actual Z-wave module devices. The benifit here is that your WHS is normally running 24/7.

However if you don’t have a WHS you can pick a main Media Center PC to install the USB dongle on and configure that as the “Server” other Media Center client PC’s will still be able to turn on / off and dim the Z-Wave modules etc but the main Media Center PC must be turned on for it to work.

WHS Installation

Download the PowerController MCE WHS add-in from here save the .msi file in to the Software\Add-ins folder on the WHS. Open the WHS Console and click on Settings and then select Add-ins from the left hand side. Select the Available tab and install the PowerController MCE add-in.

WHS Configuration

There’s not much to configure in the WHS add-in, if you use a ByeBye Standby Online Controller enter its IP address. Or if you are setting up Z-Wave like me select the Z-Wave USB Controller.

There is now a new Web Server option for the PowerController Webpage. Tick Enabled and enter a username and password.

You can see the URL is http://WHS-IP:53107

Below is the text from the Millisoft website about the Home Server add-in:

“If you are using Z-wave, install the Z-Wave USB controller software on your home server first. To install the server version of Power Controller, download it and put it in your Software/Add-Ins folder on your home server. Then go to settings on the home server and install the add in. The home server console will close after installation, so open it up again and go to settings and choose PowerController. Either enter the BBSB controller address or pick your Z-Wave device (or both). You are then ready to start pointing your media center installations at this server.”

Media Center Client Installation

Download and install the PowerController MCE component from here on to your Media Center PC’s. Once installed launch the add-in from the Media Center Extras menu.

Local Mode ? In a none WHS installation i.e. you have no WHS you can install the Z-Wave USB dongle on to your main Media Center PC, in this scenario you would leave the X in Local Mode and choose the Com Port of the locally install Z-Wave USB dongle.

WHS Install – Un-tick Local Mode and then enter the IP address of your WHS server.

Power Controller then continues to open and you see one New Device. Select Preferences in the top right hand corner.

Preferences

Click Zones and add your rooms and click Save

Click Devices and edit the first default device that already exists

• Enter a name for the device
  
• Choose an icon
  
• Select which zone the device is in (It says scene should really say zone)
  
• Select the Controller type – BBSB or Z-Wave
  
• Enter Z-Wave Device Number of the Z-Wave module you want to control, under this device in PowerController MCE
  
• Enter keyboard shortcuts (Optional) If you want to program your IR Universal Remote Control to be able to turn devices on and off and dim them up and down.

Add any additional Z-Wave or BBSB device you want to control

Add any Scenes

For example I can add a Watch Movie scene and assign a keyboard shortcut such as Ctrl+Alt+M I then added the two lamps in my Living Room, selected device on and brightness level at 50%

I could then teach my Logitech Harmony remote control the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M and add this new IR command to the Media Center PC device in the Logitech Harmony software. I could then insert the newly learnt IR command in to my Watch Movies activity, so the lamps in the living room would auto dim to 50 % when I used the Watch Movie activity on the Harmony remote control.

Add Scheduled Events

I’ve not used this myself as yet but you can also add Scheduled Events for example to turn a light on at a certain time.

Once you have finished setting up your devices exit the preferences and PowerController MCE should now look something like the below screen shots.

Everything

Living Room (Zone)

Kids Bedroom (Zone)

Scenes

The PowerController MCE user interface also works on Media Center extenders such as the XBOX 360.

Note:- The keyboard shortcuts will only work on the Media Center PC however and do not work on Extenders.

A look at the new Power Controller Web UI

One thing that PowerController MCE was lacking previously was a web UI. If you have an Android smart phone you are covered with the Android application but I don’t own an Android phone and ideally I just wanted to use my Apple iPod Touch. Martin has now added a web UI which means I will now be able to access this webpage which is being hosted on my WHS, from my iPod Touch which is great news. Obviously you can access the web UI from pretty much any device that has a browser.

Previously you could only configure the Zones and Devices in the Media Center user interface as shown above, however now in the new web UI you can configure and setup Zones and Devices from there instead.

Final Thoughts

PowerController MCE is shaping up to be a great MCE and WHS add-in. If you have ByeBye Standby or Z-Wave devices and want a way to control these devices from within Media Center and from mobile devices, PowerController is certainly worth a look. Its relatively easy to setup when compared to some of the other Home Automation add-ins and if you are looking for something basic that works well or you are new to Home Automation like me, then PowerController MCE could be a good place to start.

Updated version of Virtual Clone Drive released

If your anything like me you probably installed Slysoft’s Virtual Clone Drive to be able to mount and play Blu-ray and DVD ISO images and then forgot all about it ever since. I had to install it again today on my laptop and noticed that a new version 5.4.5.0 had been released, it was actually released on 06/03/2011. The previous version 4..4.4.0 was released way back in December 2009!

5.4.5.0 Change Log:

• - New: Improved DVD/HD-DVD/BD emulation
• - New: Added help menu to notification icon
• - New: Notification icon can be changed by the user
• - New: Support for harddisks with very large physical sectors (> 2048 bytes)
• - Some minor changes and improvements
• - Updated languages

I use Virtual Clone Drive with the My Movies MCE add-in and Arcsoft TMT 3 to play my Blu-ray ISO images. You can download the latest version of Virtual Clone Drive from the Slysoft website here

Amulet are to support My Movies users–Join the beta now!

Amulet Devices are currently running a private beta for their Amulet Voice Remote Control and Media Center add-in software, that now supports the popular My Movies add-in.

I was invited on to the beta program by Eddy Carroll of Amulet Devices and I have to say I have been eagerly awaiting this update. I previously wrote about Amulet’s excellent Voice Remote several times on my blog – check back and have a look.

At that time Amulet’s media file scanner out of the box would only find media files that were in the WMP12 / 7MC media libraries. It did not find my movie files stored on the WHS as these were not in the 7MC / WMP12 media library.

It was possible to edit the Amulet.ini config file and manually add in paths to folders on the WHS but this was not ideal. This new Amulet beta is now more tightly integrated with My Movies and actually queries the My Movies SQL database directly rather than just looking at a shared folder path on the network some where.

After I installed the Amulet beta update and forced Amulet to rescan my media files I then found in the new Amulet status page in Media Center, that under Videos the correct number of movie files was now listed.

Once in My Movies in Media Center you can use voice commands such as Show Movie {movie name} and it will jump to the cover of that movie! There is a limitation with My Movies that you can only enter the first 4 characters of a movie name, so if you have movie titles that have a similar name and start with the same first 4 characters, in those cases Amulet doesn’t always jump to the correct movie cover after you have spoken your command. Amulet are hoping to be able to work with the My Movies developers to overcome some of these types of issues and if you are interested in this tighter integration happening with My Movies you can voice your request for it on this forum post on the My Movies site.

But I have to say as it is, on the whole it works really well and generally shows the movie you have asked for. You can also say commands like Play Movie {movie name} and that movie will just start to play! There are also more plans by Amulet to enable voice control over other aspects of the My Movies user interface.

Significant new features we've added include:-

EPG search - you can now say "Search for <name>" to find all programs matching <name> in the program guide

YouTube search - integrated YouTube Leanback player, say "Search YouTube for <name>" to find videos about <name> (freeform dictation) or "Search YouTube for This Music / Song / Movie / Program / Channel" to find YouTube videos relating to what you are currently watching or listening to.

MyMovies support - now recognizes all movies in the MyMovies database and lets you play them directly using MyMovies, including ISOs, Blu-Ray, etc. that require MyMovies' external player support. You can also use the SHOW MOVIE command to move directly to a particular title within the MyMovies gallery view.

New status screen in the Settings page showing what media is available, current speech recognition state, etc.

New customisable options

The new Youtube Search feature is pretty cool, it launches the Youtube leanback UI within Media Center, you can then search for videos by just speaking! I could definitely see myself using this new Youtube integration in Media Center.

Join the beta program

Amulet Devices are looking for My Movies users located in the US only, to join their beta program. Amulet have also dropped the public price of the Amulet Voice Remote to $149, and are offering a further $40 rebate for beta testers who contribute useful feedback during the beta test period. If you would like to join the beta program you can register here.

http://www.phaze1digital.com/

A cheap simple solution for auto turning on/off amps and other devices and peripherals

I am currently planning a budget whole home audio system, Initially I plan on having 4 zones, Lounge, Master-bedroom / Bathroom, Kitchen. This will consist of using Logitech Squeezebox Server software installed on my WHS box and software Squeezeboxes (SqueezeSlave) installed on my HTPC in the lounge and on the WHS box itself which will serve the kitchen. I will be using iPeng’s new iOS device playback which I recently wrote about, for the master-bedroom / bathroom as I will use my Apple iTouch in a dock connected to a local amp.

The problem I wanted to solve was how would I automatically turn on and off the amp serving the kitchen? This amp will be hidden away in the cupboard under the stairs and connected to the WHS boxes audio out, which will be in the same location. Possible options were an audio signal sensing amp that can automatically turn itself on when an audio signal is detected. However these types of amps are more difficult to source and can be more expensive, plus I’ve heard that on some of them if you are listening to music too quietly they can turn off when you don’t want them to.

Another option could have been to use an amp that had IR control, however IR isn’t much good when the amp is in a cupboard, although I do have a Logitech Harmony RF remote control so I could have used this I guess. The other idea I had was to use active powered speakers in the kitchen and not use an amp for this room at all, but even then I’d need to be able to turn on/off the powered speakers, or just leave them turned on all the time? If you are looking for a small pair of active powered speakers by the way, after reading many reviews on the Internet, the Audio Engine A2 and A5 speakers sound great!

I also looked on the Squeezebox forums there are some plug-ins for turning amps on and also some diagrams of circuits you can make to achieve this, but they all sounded like to much effort. I then saw something called the Intelliplug and then searching on eBay I saw the E-On Power Down plug which is based on the Intelliplug. There are 3 types of E-On PowerDown plugs so make sure you purchase the correct one, which in my case was the Desktop Computer PowerDown plug, there is also a TV and Laptop PowerDown plug.

E-ON Desktop Computer PowerDown Plug:

What these plugs do is allow you to turn on and off automatically connected devices and peripherals, such as monitors, printers, scanners, broadband modems, speakers, sub woofers. So if your PC is turned on any connected peripherals are then automatically turned on. If you turn off your PC (S5) the peripherals are automatically turned off.

This is a scan of the instructions on the box:

My WHS sleeps, it is not running 24/7 I use the excellent WHS add-in called Lightouts which allows my WHS to sleep when there are no active clients on the LAN. If a client turns on, for example my HTPC the WHS will then also automatically wake from S3 Sleep.

The E-On PowerDown plug works with S3 Sleep! So when my WHS sleeps it would turn off my amp, if the WHS wakes it would turn on the amp. I bought two of these plugs on eBay for less than five pounds delivered which was a great deal!

 

 

www.phaze1digital.com

iPeng iOS Playback– Sync options

With regards to my last post here, looking in the Squeezebox Server options there are some delay settings in the sync options. I increased one of them to 15ms from 0 which has slightly improved the issue of iPeng on the iTouch being a little out of sync. However its not perfect and when skipping through tracks it can become out of sync again but its better than what it was (I think).

Logitech Squeezebox Server – Settings.

It looks like they have based this new iOS playback feature using SqueezePlay. I did have SqueezePlay installed on my WHS initially and SqueezeSlave running on my other HTPC machine. I did not really notice any major sync issues then.

I then later uninstalled SqueezePlay on the WHS and installed SqueezeSlave instead as I wanted to run it as a service. Again with SqueezeSlave on both the WHS and HTPC boxes I have not noticed any major issues with sync. Only now using iPeng’s new playback feature has this become something of an issue. But for £2.99 to add an extra audio zone you can’t go to far wrong!

I renamed my iTouch here to iTouch – Kitchen

Changing this delay setting here affects if the iTouch is in sync or not with the other two SqueezeSlave players. However getting this value just right is tricky and I found when I thought I had it correct and all the players were pretty much in sync, but then skipping to the next track on the album the iTouch could come out of sync again. Some tracks start with everything in sync other tracks start and the iTouch is way out of sync. It still needs more investigation I think.

Overall I’d highly recommend iPeng if you have real Squeezeboxes or emulated ones like me. Its certainly the best app I have installed on my iTouch to date.

Update: Below is a response from the iPeng developer.

@CW-KID

Syncing is currently not really supported. It can work but it's - as you have found - not reliably keeping sync. We're working on that.

www.phaze1digital.com

(UPDATED) iPeng now has iOS device playback!

I’ve been using iPeng for a while with my Logitech Squeezebox Server and emulated Squeezebox’s (SqueezeSlave running on HTPC and on my WHS). This has given me a two zone audio setup where I can play music in sync in the two rooms! iPeng is a remote control app for Squeezebox on iPhone / iTouch / iPad.

iPeng recently released an in app update (£2.99) to enable playback to the actual iOS device itself. So for £2.99 I now have 3 zones which is my iTouch in an iPod dock in the kitchen. The update works but I think there is some room for improvement, I found that the iOS device lags and is not fully in sync with the other rooms. Also I had to exit the iPeng app a few times as it seemed to lock up. But it does work and I can stream my MP3’s to the iTouch.

You can read more about iPeng’s new update here.

Happy 2011, iPeng Users!

Here’s the first new release in 2011 and it brings you a long-awaited functionality for iPeng: Playback.

How Does it Work?

iPeng Playback will make your iOS device show up on a Squeezebox Server like any other Squeezebox Player and you control it just like that, too. With iPeng Playback your iOS device will have essentially the same music management capabilities as all your other players, so you can queue up tracks for a playlist or just play an album or even use plugins like Dynamic Playlists.

http://www.phaze1digital.com/

Control your Z-WAVE modules in Media Center - Power Controller MCE

I’ve been testing out some Z-Wave kit recently, for those that don’t know Z-Wave is a home automation protocol / standard, think X10 but its much newer and works on RF signals. For more information about Z-Wave see here.

Initially I was thinking about using Martin Millmore’s Power Controller MCE add-in with Byebye standby equipment which is available in the UK. But I really wanted to try Z-Wave rather than Byebye standby. So I contacted Martin and after this a plan formed and thanks to a generous donation from my friend in Hong Kong (Thanks Tom), I was able to purchase enough Z-Wave equipment for myself and for Martin to test and develop with.

We each had an Aeon Labs Z-Stick with is a USB dongle “When attached to a host processor, it becomes a Z-Wave communication device, which exposes the Zensys API (SerialAPI) through integrated USB.” This basically allows the PC to be able to send commands and receive status updates from the Z-wave devices around your home.

If I was to choose again however I would have purchased a Euro version of the ControlThink ThinkStick USB dongle instead, as this is meant to work much better with software such as mControl and the Melloware Z-Wave Commander iPhone / Android apps. As these use the ControlThink SDK.

One important thing to keep in mind is that US Z-Wave and European Z-Wave products work on different RF frequencies so ensure you are buying the right equipment for your locale.

I also purchased a mixture of Z-Wave Lamp dimmer modules and appliance modules and also an in wall dimmer switch. These were purchased from Z-wave-Products a UK website.

Once Martin had received his test equipment he was able to use an Open-Source Z-Wave SDK rather than the ControlThink one and greatly expand and develop the functionality of Power Controller MCE to include control over Z-Wave devices. I did quite allot of testing on the various software versions that he sent to me and came up with a few ideas as well.

 

Development is still on-going and Martin is working on updating his Android phone application, but you can find a released version and more information of Power Controller MCE with Z-Wave support on the Millisoft website here.

You can turn devices on and off, dim lights and lamps if they are connected to dimmer modules, you can create Zones like Living Room, Master Bedroom and then group the devices in to the correct rooms. You can create scenes for example All Lights On / Off or dim lights for a Movie scene. Set scheduled events.

One of the best things that you can do which was my idea! Is you can assign keyboard key combinations to Z-Wave devices. So for example I can assign Ctrl+Alt+A to my lamp and it will turn off Ctrl+Alt+B to turn it on Ctrl+Alt+C to dim down and Ctrl+Alt+D to brighten etc.

I can then teach my Logitech Harmony IR remote control these key combinations using a standard MCE 2005 IR keyboard. I added a dummy Lighting Controller device in the Harmony software and assigned my newly taught key combinations to this device. I can then control the lamp with the Infra-Red Harmony remote control! Event better I can insert these key combinations in to activities. For example on my Harmony remote I have a My Movies activity, I added in an IR command to dim the lights 50% so now whenever I enter the My Movies activity the lamps in the lounge auto dim down and if I exit the activity and enter another activity they go to full brightness again.

There is also a WHS add-in for Power Controller MCE, this allows you to install the Z-Wave USB dongle into the home server and then on each Windows 7 Media Center PC you can install the MCE add-in and each one of these PC’s will then be able to control your Z-Wave devices via the USB dongle on the WHS box, Sweet!

If your a Media Center user and taking your first steps in to Home Automation with Z-wave or Byebye standby? Power Controller MCE might be a good place to start. I think over time you would probably want to move on to something more sophisticated like mControl or HomeSeer but it you want simple control over a few Z-wave lighting and appliance modules and to be able to link it in with Media Center and your existing universal remote control then I’d definitely recommend taking a look at Power Controller MCE.

I’d like to thank Martin for his hard work so far coding and also to Tom for his generous donation which has made this possible.

 

www.phaze1digital.com

My Movies–Missing metadata whilst playing a movie?

This article applies if you are using My Movies for Windows Home Server. If you are using a standalone My Movies Server / Client on Windows XP / Vista / Seven and you do not have a WHS then this does not apply to you.

Do you have missing metadata on the native Media Center overlay screens whilst playing a movie?

Play a movie once it starts press the info button on your remote control to bring up the Program Info.

This is how it currently looks on my laptop, you can only see part of the UNC Path and a Dolby Logo

Click here for larger image – Program Info

Click here for a larger image – Synopsis

Click here for a larger image – No Synopsis

If you see the same as the above screen shots, then you could be missing the My Movies Media Center MetaData Connector. A rather dated and I thought not a completely clear description of the MetaData Connector can be see here on the My Movies website.

To install the Metadata Connector browse to the following folder on your Windows Home Server

\\servername\Software\My Movies\Media Center MetaData Connector

In here you will find an exe called Media Center MetaData Connector.exe, probably best to close your Media Center program down before running the exe.

Note:- If your Windows client does not have the Windows Home Server Connector software already installed you will get this error:

After clicking the Create button you will see this dialog.

If you are using the My Movies client / MCE add-in then I would go for the first option. If you are using the native My DVD’s (MCE 2005) DVD Library (VMC) or Movies Library (7MC) only I think you would go for option two.

So I select Yes on this dialog as I will be using the My Movies client / MCE add-in on my Windows 7 PC’s.

After clicking the Yes button I was presented with this dialog box.

I then clicked OK on the above dialog and I was simply left with the first dialog box showing on the screen this one:

So at this point I was a little confused as to what was going on? Had the installation finished?

I then opened Media Center and opened My Movies Library and nothing had change I still had no metadata whilst playing a movie.  Looking on the My Movies forum it was suggested that selecting Yes does not work (Thanks Tony). So I tried again and this time selected No. I then saw the following dialog boxes.

Click Yes

Click OK

I then went back in to Media Center and My Movies and started playing the same film again, this time I had the metadata showing as you can see in the screen shots below.

Click here for a larger image

Click here for a larger image

Click here for a larger image

Click here for a larger image

Apparently there is also a problem with Windows Service Pack 1 that breaks this functionality, I do not know why of have any further details on this, perhaps Brian can enlighten us.

 

www.phaze1digital.com

New intro videos available on VIPID

Hello just a quick update, there are two new custom intro templates available on VIPID, one is a Warner Brothers one and the other is a Lucas Film one.

Click HERE to see a sample Warner Brothers custom intro clip

Please let me know if you have been using the VIPID service and what you think about it?

http://vipidme.com/

http://www.phaze1digital.com/

Control your Mouse cursor with your Logitech Harmony remote control

I saw an interesting post on The Green Button here that linked to another interesting post on the Logitech Harmony forums here. What was being discussed was two additional Microsoft Media Center devices that are listed in the Logitech Harmony device database, one is called “Special Edition” Windows Media Center which is a Media Center PC device that has an extended command set, the other device is an MCE Keyboard which maps all the keyboard keys and commands.

I wasn’t aware these two additional devices existed and when program Logitech Harmony remote controls for use with Windows Media Center PC’s in the past I’d used the standard Windows Media Center device from the Harmony database.

I recently purchased a second hand Logitech Harmony 555 as I really like this particular discontinued model and I’d used the 550 USA version of the same remote before in the past. The newer Windows Media Center SE device in the Harmony database has support for mouse cursor!

The new device can be added as follows:

Device type: Computer -> Media Center PC

Manufacturer: Microsoft

Model: Windows Media Center SE (Copy and paste in this device name in the Model field)

Add the new Windows Media Center SE device to your device list in the Harmony software

Click for larger image

The below instructions are from the Logitech Harmony forum post, I will go through each number below and add a few things as well.

Below you will find the instructions to create a mouse control activity.

1: Create a Generic activity only using the Windows Media Center device.

Answer Title: Adding an Activity that does not fit into any category in the Logitech Harmony Remote Software

Answer Link:

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logite​ch_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=121...

For the input select the following option

I don't need to set the input on my Microsoft Media Center PC

2: Program the activity to leave on the unused device.

Answer Title: Setting a Harmony remote to not power off devices when switching between Activities

Answer Link:

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logite​ch_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=123...

3: Rename the activity to Mouse Control

Answer Title: Renaming Devices and Activities on a Harmony remote

Answer Link:

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logite​ch_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=378...

4: Change the button mapping

Use the Map the Mouse Up,Down,Left<Right to the direction buttons.

Map the Mouse Left Up and Mouse Left Down to the Volume Up and down buttons.

Map the Mouse Right Up and Mouse Right Down to the Channel Up and down buttons.

Stuart’s instructions -

1. Add custom Activity

In the Harmony software go to the Activities tab and add a new Activity.

Select No - manually add an Activity to my setup and click on the Next button

Select the Activity category Utility and click on the Next button

Select Generic Activity and click on the Next button

Confirm that you would like to add a Generic Activity by clicking on the Next button

Choose the device(s) you would like to add by clicking on the Add button. When you have finished adding all of the devices, click on Save

I just added the Media Center PC device at this stage.

If you would like to have the Harmony remote set the device to an input when you select the Generic Activity, then choose the input for the device, otherwise select I don't need to set the input and click on the Next button.

Here I selected I don’t need to set the input on my Microsoft Media Center PC

Review the settings for the activity. If the settings are correct select Yes, these settings are correct and click the Next button

Complete the setup of the activity by clicking on Done

After adding a Generic Activity, when you select the Activity on your Harmony remote, none of the buttons will be programmed. You will need to customize the buttons in your Generic Activity. For more information on customizing the buttons on your Harmony remote, please search our knowledge base with the term "Customize buttons in an Activity"

Once completed, you will need to update your remote. Click on the Update Remote button and follow the onscreen steps

On this screen click Next and then Done

Your new Generic Activity will now be listed under the Activities tab in the Harmony Software, click the Settings button.

Select Rename Generic Activity and call it Mouse Cursor and save this change.

Go back to the Generic Activity settings and then select Change Options and select Leave On, save this change and click Done.

From here click Customize Buttons

In here you need to assign the mouse cursor commands to the various buttons as shown below.

Change the button mapping

Use the Map the Mouse Up,Down,Left<Right to the direction buttons.

Map the Mouse Left Up and Mouse Left Down to the Volume Up and down buttons.

Map the Mouse Right Up and Mouse Right Down to the Channel Up and down buttons.

Logitech’s instructions mention nothing about left and right mouse buttons! So on my 555 remote I assigned the Mute button as LeftClick and the Prev button as RightClick

That’s it your done!

Now you can select the Activity called Mouse Cursor and use the Harmony remote controls directional / volume / channels buttons to move the mouse cursor around the screen and if you also added left and right mouse buttons as I did you can select items and right click.

I am sure there is much more scope for other new customisations with these Windows Media Center SE and MCE Keyboard extended command sets.

www.phaze1digital.com