Supported Remote Control Devices

A plugin which supports the USB-UIRT, IRMAN, and 'HID' compatible remote controls such as MCE remotes is included in the Media Center install package.

J. River's Media Center Remote

J. River offers a Media Center Remote.

Other Media Center Edition (MCE) Remote Control and Keyboard

Microsoft offered an IR based Remote Control and Keyboard to be used with XP Media Center Edition, and other manufacturers made variations of it that are sold as MCE remotes or Media Center remotes. They work best with Vista and above.

J. River Media Center supports these devices natively. While the drivers will install automatically in Vista when you plug in the USB IR Controller, on XP you will need to install a particular MS Hot Patch (WindowsXP-KB912024-v2-x86-ENU) first.

NOTE: One trick is the MS Keyboard/RC uses a "debounce" feature that you need to turn off in the registry if you are going to program a third party universal remote control, since each key press on the MCE Remote / K'B sends alternative IR signals to prevent so called IR bounce. You can turn this off inside Windows Media Center on Vista or search in the registry for "debounce" and toggle the value.

USB UIRT

This is an IR receiver similar to the IRMan except it uses a USB connection to your computer instead of serial. You can purchase this device at http://www.usbuirt.com/.

See the Install a Remote-Control Plug-In section for instructions on installing the USB UIRT plugin.

To configure USB UIRT:

1. Go to Tools > Options > Remote Control, check "USB UIRT" if it isn't already enabled.
2. Check the Auto Advance checkbox to cause learning to automatically move to the next command after a command is learned.
3. Press the 'Learn' button to map remote button presses to Media Center functions.
4. The command being learned will say 'Learning...', press the button on the remote to correspond to that command and the text will change to the learned code. The next command in the list will change to 'Learning...'.
5. If you want to skip a command, simply click the mouse on the next command in the list that you want to learn.
6. Press 'Done' when you've trained all the functions you're interested in.
7. Media Center is now ready to respond to button presses on your remote control.

You can use the "Clear" command to clear all learned commands for the remote control. This allows you to start from scratch.

The Add/Delete/Modify button allows you to edit the list of Media Center commands. If you find that a single button press on your remote results in two or more commands getting sent to Media Center, increase the value for "Anti-repeat time". On the other hand, if you find that Media Center has too long a delay before responding to multiple button presses, try decreasing the value. The value is in milliseconds and the default is 250 (1/4 of a second).

Girder

For information on Girder, please visit the Promixis web site. For a configuration file, go to C:\Program Files\ J River\Media Center (version)\Data\Extras\Girder.

IRMan

This remote control receiver is no longer available for purchase, but MC still supports existing IRMAN devices.

This is a universal infrared receiver device that plugs into a serial port on your computer. It is compatible with most infrared remote controls.

Configuration follows the same procedure as for the USB UIRT device.

X10 "MP3 Anywhere" and "MouseRemote"

This remote control receiver is no longer available for purchase, but our software still supports existing X10 devices.

These are radio frequency receivers that plug into a serial port on your computer and come with a multi-function remote control. Configuration is similar to USB-UIRT.

See Install a Remote-Control Plug-In for instructions on downloading an X10 plugin.

Note: the MouseRemote receiver may take up to 20 seconds to start responding after being started. When it's ready you'll see the small red light blink for each button press on the remote.