Adesso ARC-1100
Introduction
The Adesso ARC-1100 has two parts: an IR receiver with USB cable and a remote control that is like many other Media Center remotes. What distinguishes this product from other remote control solutions is it looks like a USB keyboard and mouse to the computer. As a result:
- It can interact with a boot menu.
- It is more responsive than LIRC based remote control solutions. Multiple key presses don’t get lost like they tend to with LIRC solutions, so you can more quickly navigate through lists using cursor and paging (Ch+/-) keys and increase fast forward and rewind speeds, for example.
- If some dialog pops up when you least expect it, like Update Manager or a warning about pressing the eject button on your DVD burner, you can dismiss the dialog using the remote's keys, or you can raise Mythfrontend's window by clicking on it using the remote’s mouse functionality.
- It is affordable. I got it on sale from newegg in October, 2009, along with a 10% off coupon, for less than $25 USD (that includes shipping).
- It can be used to train a learning remote. I use the Sony RM-VL710 and RM-VL600, which replaced the 710. According to Sony’s web site, the 600 was retailing for $24.99 USD in November, 2009.
There are some drawbacks:
- Configuring this remote is a little more complicated than configuring an LIRC based remote. That’s because you need to use two different mechanisms (xmodmap and editing MythTV key bindings) to get full use of the remote, as opposed to editing a single LIRC configuration file.
- Some keys are duplicates of others, like Play and Pause.
- Some keys are effectively duplicates because they generate Ctrl+Shift seqences and because MythTV ignores the Shift state.
- You will lose your xmodmap configured keys if you plugin/unplug the IR receiver or a USB keyboard and will need to execute the xmodmap command to restore those keys.
If the pros outweigh the cons, as they do for me, keep reading.
My Setup
I have a MythTV backend/frontend system running Mythbuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) and a MythTV frontend running Mythbuntu 8.04 (Hardy). Both are running MythTV 0.21-fixes. The frontend only system is a 5 year old Thinkpad R51 with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP. Jaunty doesn’t work with this IGP, but Hardy does. What surprised me was that the remote’s behavior is somewhat different on these two systems. I suspect it has to do with the version of X (xserver-xorg) provided by each distro. Hardy provides 7.3 whereas Jaunty provides 7.4. But the differences may also be due to the fact that one system is running on a Thinkpad and some of the Thinkpad-specific packages that were automatically installed. So you may want to double check how the remote behaves on your system using the X application, xev.
Although I haven’t upgraded to 0.22 yet, I believe MythTV 0.22 with QT4 shouldn’t be too different from MythTV 0.21 with QT3 when it comes to key bindings. So these instructions should still be useful.
The Remote
The following table provides details for each key on the remote. The column headings are:
- Key Function
- The key’s function according to Adesso documentation.
- Sony RM-VL600
- How I have mapped the Adesso remote to my Sony remote.
- Key sequence, keycode (KC), keysym
- The key sequence and/or keycode and/or keysym generated when the remote’s key is pressed. This information was extracted using the X application, xev. Some keys behave as you might expect with MythTV, like the cursor keys, the OK key and the Ch+/Ch- keys. These keys can be used without any configuration, and can also be used to control your computer’s boot menu. Some keys generate key sequences, usueally Control + an alphabetic key. These can be supported by editing MythTV’s key bindings. Other keys generate some atypical keycodes. On Jaunty, these keys are mapped to keysyms defined for multimedia keyboards, like Volume Up/Down and Previous/Next track. On Hardy, they are not. Fortunately, on both Hardy and Jaunty, the multimedia keys can be mapped to keysyms that can be used in MythTV.
- Xmodmap
- Shows which keys are configured using the X utility, xmodmap. Example files for hardy and jaunty are provided later.
- MythTV Context, Action, Key binding
- Shows MythTV key bindings. The three headings correspond to the headings provided in Mythweb’s Keybindings Editor. Only the key bindings shown in bold, or the context/action pairs shown in bold in the Notes column need to be changed if you are using MythTV’s default key bindings.
- Notes
- Should be self explanatory.
| MythTV | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key Function | Sony RM-VL600 | Key sequence, keycode (KC), keysym | Xmodmap | Context | Action | Key binding | Notes |
| WWW | Hardy: KC 178
Jaunty: KC 180, XF86HomePage |
Hardy: XF86HomePage
Jaunty: No change |
|||||
| Sleep | Hardy: KC 223
Jaunty: KC 150. XF86Sleep |
Hardy: XF86Sleep
Jaunty: No change |
|||||
| My TV
(yellow) |
Ctrl-Shift+T | Effectively the same as Live TV since MythTV (QT?) ignores Shift state | |||||
| My Music
(blue) |
Menu | Ctrl+M | Global | MENU | M,Ctrl+M | ||
| My Pictures
(green) |
Info | Ctrl+I | Global
TV Editing |
INFO
INVERTMAP |
I,Ctrl+I | ||
| My Videos
(red) |
Sleep | Ctrl+E | qt
TV Frontend TV Playback Video |
DELETE
DELETE
|
D,Ctrl+E | ||
| Record TV | Recall | Ctrl+O | TV Frontend
TV Playback |
DETAILS
SPEEDINC |
U,Ctrl+O | ||
| Guide | Guide | Ctrl+G | TV Frontend
TV Playback |
GUIDE
GUIDE |
S,Ctrl+G | Must clear TV Playback, TOGGLECHANCONTROLS | |
| Live TV | Tools | Ctrl+T | TV Playback | TOGGLEFILL | W,Ctrl+T | ||
| DVD Menu | Ctrl+Shift+M | Effectively same as My Music since MythTV (QT?) ignores Shift state | |||||
| Play | Play | Hardy: KC 162
Jaunty: KC 172, XF86AudioPlay |
P | TV Playback | PAUSE | P | |
| Pause | Same as Play | ||||||
| Reverse | Ctrl+Shift+B | TV Editing
TV Frontend TV Playback |
BIGJUMPREW
PAGELEFT RWNDSTICKY |
,,<,Ctrl+B | Must clear TV Playback, JUMPSTART | ||
| Forward | Forward | Ctrl+Shift+F | Editing
TV Playback TV Frontend |
BIGJUMPFWD
FFWDSTICKY PAGERIGHT |
>,.,Ctrl+F | ||
| Prev track | Twin View | Hardy: KC 144
Jaunty: KC 173, XF86AudioPrev |
Q | TV Editing
TV Playback |
CLEARMAP
SKIPCOMMBACK |
C,Q,Home
Q,Home |
|
| Next track | Digital/
Analog |
Hardy: KC 153
Jaunty: KC 171, XF86AudioNext |
Z | TV Editing
TV Playback |
LOADCOMMSKIP
SKIPCOMMERCIAL |
Z,End | |
| Stop | Exit | Hardy: KC 164
Jaunty: KC 174, XF86AudioStop |
T | TV Playback | TOGGLECC | T | Since Clear key generates Escape, I use Stop to toggle closed captions, an important function for me. |
| Record | Record | Ctrl+R | TV Frontend
TV Playback |
TOGGLERECORD
TOGGLERECORD |
R,Ctrl+R | ||
| Back | Backspace | TV Playback | CLEAROSD | Backspace | |||
| Information | Same as Mouse Right | ||||||
| OK | OK | Return | Global | SELECT | Return,Enter,
Space |
||
| Up | Up | Up | TV Playback
Teletext Menu Global |
CHANNELUP
PREVPAGE
|
Up | ||
| Down | Down | Down | TV Playback
Global Teletext Menu |
CHANNELDOWN
DOWN
|
Down | ||
| Left | Left | Left | Global
Teletext Menu TV Frontend TV Playback |
LEFT
PREVSUBPAGE RANKDEC SEEKRWND |
Left | ||
| Right | Right | Right | Teletext Menu
TV Frontend Global TV Playback |
NEXTSUBPAGE
RANKINC
|
Right | ||
| Mouse Left | |||||||
| Mouse Right | |||||||
| Mouse Pad | |||||||
| Vol+ | Hardy: KC 164
Jaunty: KC 123, XF86AudioRaiseVolume |
Hardy: XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Jaunty: NC |
TV Frontend
TV Playback |
VOLUMEDOWN
VOLUMEDOWN |
],},F11,Volume Up | X keysym, XF86AudioRaiseVolume, equals MythTV2 key, Volume Up | |
| Vol- | Hardy: KC 164
Jaunty: KC 122, XF86AudioLowerVolume |
Hardy: XF86AudioLowerVolume
Jaunty: NC |
TV Frontend
TV Playback |
VOLUMEUP
VOLUMEUP |
[,{,F10,Volume Down | X keysym, XF86AudioLowerVolume, equals MythTV key, Volume Down | |
| Mute | Hardy: KC 160
Jaunty: KC 121, XF86AudioMute |
Hardy: XF86AudioMute
Jaunty: NC |
TV Frontend
TV Playback |
MUTE
MUTE |
|,\\,F9,Volume Mute | X keysym, XF86AudioMute, equals MythTV key, Volume Mute | |
| Windows Start Key | Pause | Super+Alt+Return | TV Playback | PLAY | Ctrl+P, Alt+Return | X treats the Windows Start key as a type of shift key called Super. MythTV (QT?) ignores its state. | |
| Ch+ | Ch+ | Next | TV Playback
Global TV Editing |
JUMPRWND
PAGEUP PREVCUT |
PgUp | X keysym, Next, equals MythTV key, PgUp | |
| Ch- | Ch- | Prior | TV Playback
TV Editing Global |
JUMPFFWD
NEXTCUT PAGEDOWN |
PgDown | X keysym, Prior, equals MythTV key, PgDown | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Global | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Global | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Global | 2 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Global | 3 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Global | 4 | 4 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Global | 5 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 6 | 6 | Global | 6 | 6 | ||
| 7 | 7 | 7 | Global | 7 | 7 | ||
| 8 | 8 | 8 | Global | 8 | 8 | ||
| 9 | 9 | 9 | Global | 9 | 9 | ||
| Asterisk | Dot | * | TV Playback | ARBSEEK | * | ||
| Number Sign | Ent | Hardy: Alt+3 Alt+5
Jaunty: # |
TV Frontend
TV Playback |
FINDER
FINDER |
#
# |
||
| Close Key | XF86Close? | Closes active window. Myth will prompt:
Do you really want to exit MythTV? | |||||
| Clear Key | Stop | Escape | Global | ESCAPE | Esc | ||
| Enter Key | Return | Same as OK | |||||
