[To Stephen Orr] Suggestions for next drivers ...

R

remotew

New member
hello everybody and hello stephen !

Maybe it could be a good idea to post here all our suggestions to help ATI developpers to improve the Remote Wonder SW ??!
The current version 1.2 was a big step in Remote Wonder SW life, but I'm sure the SW could be even better :-)

I begin :

Concerning the programmable buttons :
- why not adding more keyboard events simulation, other than the traditional Enter, Ctrl C.... For example, F1, F2... are welcommed
- what about combining keys (shift, ctrl, alt + any keyboard keys)

General suggestions :
- it could be great to add a basic support for an application, because everybody can't programm a plugin. I mean : if the SW offers to chose an .EXE and then offers to reassign all the buttons to a shortcuts, it could be great !! becoz many SW use keyboard shortcuts. So, without a plugin, it could be possible to control an application.


More ideas ???
 
Re: [To Stephen Orr] Suggestions for next drivers ...

remotew said:
Concerning the programmable buttons :
- why not adding more keyboard events simulation, other than the traditional Enter, Ctrl C.... For example, F1, F2... are welcommed
- what about combining keys (shift, ctrl, alt + any keyboard keys)
Click to expand...

what about instead of that huge list of possible commands, you have something similar to what windows tries to do with shortcut keys. let us select a button on the remote to program (A-F) and then we actually hit the key sequence that we want.

for a quick idea of what i'm talking about, right click on any program shortcut in the start menu and go to properties. look at the box "Shortcut key" click the box and start hitting some keys. the input is captured. this seems like an easier way to do it than trying to come up with every possible key and combination of keys that everyone would want.
 
yeah you're right nidan, I think I was not clear.

I've got an example : TVtool (my brother got an nvidia card :-) uses some keys combinaisons to switch TV. For example, iyou can choose ALT + F2 in the SW to switch to TV, whatever the app in focus (TVtool or not).
My idea was not to launch a SW with new shortcuts, it was more the ability to send extra commands in foreground, beacause somme applications are looking for this keyboards evnts.

Is it clearer :-) ??
 
i understand what you mean, i was just using the shortcut thing from windows as an example of a pretty good way to do it.

Rather than having a huge list and having to go through it to find the exact key combo that you want, just type it in and you're good to go. The button doesn't start an application, it just sends the equivalent of the key presses.
 
I've got Windows XP, and according to the contextual help, the shortcut thing automatically begins by CTRL+ALT and then the key of your choice. In addition, this shortcut is designed to launch the application or to go directly to this application if already launched.
I've tried and it's not really useful....

I tried an application yesterday : nvDVD (nvidia DVD player), and this application is using some shortcuts like CTRL+C, CTRL+V, SPACE..... Thanks to the current keyboard events simulation in Remote Wonder SW, I assigned for example the B button to CTRL+V, and I was able to control this feature in nvDVD.
But It was impossible for me to assign the B button to CTRL+S for example, as the RW SW does not offer this possibility.
Without a plugin, I could have managed to control some features of my programm easily....

But it's not a solution actually, because we are then limited to only one application. So came the second suggestion : to support other applications (in 'Sepcific to the current active feature'). I don't know if it's possible to support any application (through choosing the .EXE for example).
 
you want something like this:

A Button = Ctrl +C keys
B Button = D key
C Button = Shift +Space keys
D Button = 3 key

you're looking for a key combo that will work anywhere, not stuck in 1 application. you almost want a windows plugin. something that will take over whenever a plugin for the application that you're using doesn't have one.

ati has kinda done this but you want more than what they've given you.

i was just using the shortcut stuff as an easier way to assign keyboard events to the buttons, it wouldn't have to follow it exactly, it wouldn't even have to start an application
 
Remote Wonder suggestions

Remote Wonder suggestions

I'm emailing my suggestions to ATI as well but I've listed them below:
1) Make the remote wonder integrate fully with ATIs Teletext so pages numbers can be entered using the numeric keypad (can be fixed in the update of Teletext software). Guide+ functions should also be fully controllable from the remote.
2) Fileplayer and library need to have full support so librarys of MPEG files can be played and controlled using the remote buttons without having to use the mouse control.
3)The mouse control button (on the next version) needs to have better "tactile feedback" as to which way the pointer is going to travel. I've found that with the current remote it's not easy to make the mouse pointer move the way you want it to go on the first press of the button.
4)The buttons should have some luminescence (or light up) for night use.

I'd rather see the above software issues sorted before additional plugins are developed.
 
I cannot comment on future features, but, I can say that there will be a version 1.3 and it will offer additional abilities / improvements.

Addressing the teletext and other features may be possible with Plug-ins so I would avoid saying things like "I would rather see these SW features addressed before more plug-ins are developed".

Anytway the remote is in active development (in case anyone wondered).
 
Re: Remote Wonder suggestions

Re: Remote Wonder suggestions

Flying Kiwi said:
4)The buttons should have some luminescence (or light up) for night use.
Click to expand...

i see 2 ways:
1) opening up the remote and trying to cram an LED into the casing somewhere (which would probably be a huge pain to do never mind trying to splice power from the battery, and it would absolutely kill battery life).

2) try and coat the buttons with a glow-in-the-dark paint. either open the remote and see if the buttons can be easitly removed then paint them, or try and be extra careful and coat them while it's still intact.

Either way you pretty much void your warranty. so you'll either have a kick-ass remote that works nice in the dark... or a remote shaped paperwieght.

i really don't see ati coming out with a backlit remote, but i could be wrong. (maybe for the 9700 AIW)
 
Getting there (under active development)

Getting there (under active development)

Great to see you've taken the time to view these comments and respond Stephen. What I was getting at re plug-ins, is that I would prefer ATI to concentrate on getting ALL of the MMC Applications fully integrated with the Remote Wonder before adding support for any other brands of products. I do understand that this product is also being marketed for customers without ATI Graphics hardware, so I can see why the existing plug-ins are there and I can understand how some marketing people ( :evil: ) might want it to appeal to the general public more.

Of course, it's great if industrious members of the public who are good at that "smoke and mirrors" programming magic can make the Remote Wonder control their vacuum cleaners and other software with the help of the plug-in SDK. Call me old fashioned but I believe plug-ins should be for "3rd party products" and that internal software development should occur through addition/modification to the existing code. I can't see a public plug-in being developed for the current MMC 7.1 style version of Teletext software you provide - people will hold off until the Modern Skin version arrives (assuming it doesn't already contain full Remote Wonder support when it arrives);)

Re the glowing buttons - sorry NiDan I should have been clearer - I'm not that keen that I want to modify my existing remote, I'll just eat more carrots for now. That suggestion was really for future remote handsets - I'm pleased that ATI views this as under active development - exactly the attitude I was hoping for :D
 
Flying Kiwi,

I disagree on one level about how we should implement support for "external" applications.

The plug-in SDK was developed in part because ATI SW didn;t want to spend the time writing plug-ins for 3rd party applications. The PowerPoint plug-in was needed internally (and is heavily used) the WinAmp plug-in was developed as a "good" example plug-in. ATI doesn't intend (at this point) to develop any additional "3rd party" plug-ins.

Controlling Teletext and GemStar's GuidePlus through a plug-in makes a lot of sense (rather than building it in) because both of these applications are "regional" and we can trigger the installation of a plug-in with the installation of that regional piece of code. North American users do not need the Teletext Plug-in so why have that code running at all?

Further, using a plug-in reduces the amount of testing needed as the code changes are localized and modularized. This means the chance of an undesired side-effect elsewhere in the code is reduced. It also allows for better parallel development as each plug-in is its own piece of code and developers don;t need to fight over which piece of source they are currently modifying.

The above is really a philisophical discussion, there is NO implication as to what we are or are not working on. Please remember this when we don;t deliver something that you assumed we were working on...

Stephen
 
Well, about philosophical discussions, i think that ati should thanks the plugins authors one by one [in particular ksnoopy for his great girder plugin]. I don't think that the RW would be in so many desks if the only way to use it was the ugly configuration window of the 1.2 drivers... you can't even map a ctrl-alt-key in the "configurable" buttons, and you can't pretend that end users are able to code a plugin (i can't do it very well, so i have to use plugins made GRATIS for me by others, without support!). Maybe that's the reason why the RW costs only 20€, which is very nice.

Just a philosophical discussion eh, i already bought 3 RW, one for me and two for friends. I'm very happy with the RW and in general with ati hw [i also have an 8500le and i'll buy a notebook with an ati video card]. Even if i rarely use official drivers ^_^
 
My choice for new feature

My choice for new feature

My biggest beef with the remote right now is I can't use it to just turn off my monitor. I like to relax before I go to bed by catching the news or maybe watching a dvd, it'd be great if you could do one of the following:
1) Remap the power button to close the monitor when either no applications are in focus
2) Map a programmable key to turning off the video display

I know most ppl's first reaction to this is "Just turn your power off time to x minutes" where x >= time it takes you to fall asleep. Good in theory, but in practice what if you decide to watch all of the dvd instead of just til you feel tired.

I've grabbed a 3rd party app called "ShutDown Tray 1.2" which provides access to quick power features (including monitor shut down) but i still have to struggle using the mouse with the remote to find the menu, which at 1280x1024 is difficult from 10 feet away.

Anyways, just my $0.02.

CM
 
You can do it with girder... simply map the button you want to "monitor off". Well, you can do wathever you want with girder. My approach was to remove all plugins except the girder one, and make all the apps work through it
 
Yeah, just found out about girder after a bit more reading, very sweet app. My current problem is now all the buttons have to be remapped for MMC, and I can't find any documentation on how to do it. Things like making channel up/down send the signal to the TV window.

Any ideas?

CM

If I can do signals/inputs to the TV window my all time biggest beef will be fixed... BEING ABLE TO ENTER A CHANNEL NUMBER WHEN TV ISN'T IN FOCUS.... oh baby, let the channel surfing begin :)
 
with girder you can, but it's a bit tricky... you have to learn well how to use commands and multigorups. Here is what you have to do: Create 10 commands, one for every number on your remote, and let them do "window exist?", select the tv windows for every command, and make them execute another command if yes. The command that they should do is send the keyboard number key they represent. Then set to only send to the tv window!
 
You know what vould be great to.

Hers a little list let me know what u pople think:

Overlay controls sould be directlya accesible trough a programable button and the +/- vol or cannel keys could control the setting in a manare liek you control volume.

This sould be done with the overlay controls so that u could play with the setting on any video that uses the overlay in any app including TV(like a global command)

The fileplayer controls should allow time input so that u couls jump directly to a certian time in a file like for example you favourite scene start at 30 min. U open the file in fileplayer and typ 30 on the nummeric key of the remote and press ok for conformation and then play!.

And the fast forwarding sould be done like its in PowerDVD 1 press mens 2x forward any aditional click means faster fast forwared up to 32x and the same for rewind but of course in the opposite direction!

A nice thing for internet exporer vould be a virtual keyboard like you get on a tuch tip screen so that u could browse in your livingroom without having to get up and go to the keyboard or andother way of implementing a keyboard could be like its don on CELL phones all over the world!

Well how does that sound!
Comments please!:)
 
Suggestions?

Some context help would be nice.

A list of available plugins to avoid people reinventing the wheel.

Docs on how to replace the ATI application entirely and just use the drivers.

More programmable, ABCDEF is cool, but not enough. Have the defaults visible and modifiable. Right now it's an ATI specific remote with third party support in small print at the bottom. I'm sure the ATI player is fine, but if you don't have an ATI card, it's not going to be the first choice.

Have priority or layers of functions. Relying on windows being in focus is ok, but I'd rather be able to press the TV button and have my plugin be active and no others active at the same time unless I set it up that way. If I want to be able to control the master volume of a sound card, I shouldn't have to fake being in focus all the time and run into conflicts with local mappings of the volume control keys on the remote. There should be a concept of globalness with local mappings having priority or some other way of avoiding collisions. I'd reuse the code I was working on for my infrared remote project, but it would be another girder deal, a crummy hack.
 
And I´ve got another proposition:

Why not mape the DVD menu button in the TV app of MMC as the one that could be used as the TAB KEY is now for brightness and contrast, gamma and reset instead of having to use one of the ABCDEF keys for this?

Ok that s it for today:)
 
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