8. Remote Control

If you purchased a PVR 150, you already have a remote. So all you have to do is count the buttons and tell GB-PVR which remote you have. If you have anything else, however, things get a bit more difficult and for MCE remotes, things get even more interesting.

All MCE remotes listed here are directly supported with GB-PVR except for the Hauppauge MCE. Additional customization or just getting a remote to work that's not on this list can be done with a free program called HIP listed here. Most other remotes can be configured using Girder, which is not free, and an IR receiver.

If your remote can be programmed to mimic a keyboard, then it could easily become compatible. The right remote is mostly about what's right for you or what you have laying around. I first chose the SnapStream Firefly remote even though it's designed for Beyond TV. Firefly can not only run GB-PVR, but can do anything normally done with a keyboard or mouse with a little programming.

People often complain about this remote because it uses more RAM than it should (105 MB) and slows down your PC's boot time. But the other reason is that the people who programmed the remote didn't create a profile that enabled it to run Windows MCE. This is logical considering that SnapStream probably prefers you to run its BeyondTV instead of MCE. But if they had created an MCE profile, it might also allow them to sell more FireFlys.

Another annoyance is that programs that FireFly works with out of the box usually cannot perform common desirable functions, such as launching iTunes. Fortunately, you can fix this with a few lines of code, which I'll show you shortly. Finally, this remote has a slight delay, which is irritating when using running a slow program such as iTunes.

The reason I put up with all of this is simple. FireFly is a $50 RF remote that has a range of 35 ft and doesn't need line of sight to the HTPC it's controlling. Comparable products usually cost upwards of $100.

In order to get GB-PVR up and running with the FireFly, you'll need to enable viewing of hidden Windows folders if you haven't already and access:

Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Firefly\ Profiles

Once there, follow the instructions here to edit the Global.xml profile and create a profile for GB-PVR. You can then use the GB-PVR code as an example along with a SnapStream forum post available here to program the remote based on the applications that are open. I use a "window spy" utility from a free program called AutoIt v3 to get the class names of all open windows. (Another free window spy options is Win32Spy.)