VLC HowTo/Use with a Creative remote

This page describes how to to use VLC media player with a Creative brand remote control on Windows XP.

Other "how to" pages

This guide describes the steps required to configure Creative brand remotes that come with Creative sound cards to work with VLC.

This should be compatible with any Creative brand sound card and remote. Creative Remote Center is the application that recieves and passes remote commands to other applications, and it is therefore necessary to install and run. It translates key presses on the remote into application commands through the use of key files. Exact keymap settings are not given because they vary by remote model and how the VLC hotkeys are mapped.

Open (your remote).RCI file

From the installation directory of Creative Remote Center, navigate to /Rc/RCRx.

There will probably be several files with the .rci file extension. Open the one that matches the model number of your remote with any text editor such as Notepad.

Each set of four lines represent one button recognized by the remote. There are two values you will need for each button: MMCDEvent number, and KeyName.

[RCKeyCode########]  A button on the remote control.
MMCDEvent=####       The code sent by the remote when that button is pressed.
KeyName=''String''   Identifies the button pressed.
OneShot=#            Send multiple signals while button is held down (volume, for instance)
                       or just a single button press signal.

Create wxWindowClassNR.key file

Creative Remote Center sends application commands from the remote through key files. If there is a key file with the same name as the window that currently has focus, Remote Center will be able to send commands to it.

VLC uses wxWindowClassNR as the main application window. Create a key file with that name in order to control it with Remote Center.

From the Creative Remote Center install directory, navigate to /Rc/KeyMap and create a file called wxWindowClassNR.key. This file will contain the keymap to control VLC. It will look like a windows registry file, but just open it with a text editor.

Make the file header

The first seven lines of every key file is nearly identical. Only the second line is important. It identifies which window this key file is going to control. It should be identical to the name of the file.

Copy and paste this into the beginning of the wxWindowClassNR.key file:

[RC Key Map Information]
Name=wxWindowClassNR
Version=1.30
By=Creative Technology Ltd.
Company=Creative Technology Ltd.
Copyright=Copyright (C) 2001 Creative Technology Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Comments=

Keymap entries

The next section of the key file will be keymap entries.

Keymap format:

[KeyEvent####]       #### corresponds to an MMCDEvent number in the .RCI file.
KeyName=''String''   ''String'' is displayed via the Remote Center On Screen Display when you press the button.
Notification=#       # can be one of several values, but for our purposes should be -1 or possibly 2. Details later.
KeyEventRemap=##     ## is a value that corresponds to the keyboard key you want the button mapped to.

Notification values:
-1      - Sends the KeyEventRemap value to the window that has focus.  ASCII decimal format.
2       - Sends the KeyEventRemap value to the highlighted window.     non-ASCII format.
{3,4,5} - Used in the Default.key key file. Don't use these!

Use Notification=-1 for simple keyboard keys that have an ASCII representation.
Use Notification=2 for key combinations involving Ctrl, Alt, and Shift. Not all of the non-ASCII codes are known because Creative has not released the information, however some people have worked on discovering the values. A partial list of notification=2 codes.

A full keymap entry will look like this:

[KeyEvent6906]
KeyName=Kill All Humans
Notification=-1
KeyEventRemap=32

This entry maps the 6 button on a remote (MMCDEvent 6906) to the keyboard key Space Bar (ASCII 32) and displays Kill All Humans (key name) when using VLC.

Whether that does anything in VLC depends on if the space bar is configured to do anything in VLC. If fullscreen mode is mapped to the space bar, then pressing the 6 on the remote would toggle fullscreen mode and display Kill All Humans.

Map entries to the key file

From VLC, open the preferences and look at the Hotkey settings. For the commands you want to map to the remote, look up the Hotkey's ASCII representation or (for complex commands) notification=2 representation.

For each button you want to map, follow the keymap format. Not hard, but probably the most tedious step.

VLC DirectX.key file

Create an identical keymap file to wxWindowClassNR.key and name it VLC DirectX.key. Change the second line in the file to Name=VLC DirectX.

This file ensures control of VLC when in fullscreen mode. This second file enables control of the fullscreen window. The fullscreen window has focus instead of the main application window while in fullscreen mode. This prevents control of the main application window with the remote.

Final Note

The method outlined here is useful for control of any application with a Creative brand remote. The only requirement is that you know the internal window name. I used Spy++ to get the window class names for VLC (wxWindowClassNR and VLC DirectX) and it's easy enough to get the names for any others.

See also

Original post on VideoLAN Forum
Creative Labs Soundblaster Forum thread