Xion Audio Player

Keyboard media keys with Xion

General Discussion about Xion Audio Player

Postby logokas » March 27th, 2008, 6:02 pm

I'm new around here, although i've been trolling through topics as a guest user a good few months now.

I switched to Xion in 10 minutes after discovering it, which was around build 93. Winamp got the pity sex, she's just too bitchy about things. :/

What i was supposed to say in this topic is actually this:

We all know most new keyboards, mainly produced by Logitech, comes with an array of media keys.

I only have keyboards like that at work, but as such, i've found that there are keyboards that apparently have no idea of Xion's existence, while others do. For example:

Logitech Internet 350 Keyboard PS/2
Image

Notice the special media key on the topleft. It works with Xion. Other keys are obsolete.

Logitech UltraX USB
Image

The media key on this keyboard knows nothing of it.

I have more media-oriented keyboards for tests if i can find them.

Are these even supported in any way by Xion? I noticed build 95 now has Logitech LCD keyboard support. What about the keys?

EDIT: I had a look around in the forums and found some topics regarding this. Thus i add a few notes ontop of the info above:

The internet 350 keyboard was not configured in any way, the button simply worked automatically. as for the UltraX, it's buttons aren't configurable in the Xion hotkey mapper. The play/pause button is intepreted as a G, and the player button renders no output at all.

Discuss.
User avatar
logokas
Xion Addict
 
Posts: 668
Joined: February 25th, 2008, 8:44 am
Location: Estonia

Postby Cliff Cawley » March 28th, 2008, 7:34 am

Hi logokas,

Unfortunately a lot of keyboards don't seem to obey the standard way of sending media keystrokes.

Ideally as documented in the MSDN, keyboards should be sending their media key events to all top level windows. Unfortunately a lot of Logitech keyboards don't always do this.

Another thing that affects this, is if you have the Logitech software installed or not. It works better when you do.

All Microsoft keyboards that I've tried seem to work out of the box and don't require you to install their drivers just to get the media keys to work.

I then tried coding around this problem, by hooking all media keys with a global keyboard hook.

While this worked to a degree, Xion would now receive multiple messages depending on the keyboard installed, as the keyboard would attempt to broadcast the keypress, but some would ignore any results to say 'stop sending this message now'

Anyway, end result, I've come up with a compromise, and on Logitech keyboards you sometimes have to bind the keys manually.

Unfortunately the current hotkey control I'm using (built in Windows control), it displays the media keys as regular keys (i.e. G). Note however that the correct keycode was recorded and if you assign it this 'G' that it will in fact work anyway. It won't be assigned to the G key, its just a display string that the Hotkey control I'm using, displays.

I do plan to fix this in the future by making my own control, however for now its functioning ok, if in a slightly misleading way.

Cliff :)
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
r2 Studios
http://www.r2.com.au
http://xion.r2.com.au
User avatar
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
 
Posts: 1955
Joined: September 3rd, 2006, 11:33 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Postby logokas » March 28th, 2008, 7:42 am

What software does Logitech offer for these things? I may try it out.

Also, how about releasing a list of keyboard that work? Everyone who have such keyboards can give their information on how and if their keys work fine.
User avatar
logokas
Xion Addict
 
Posts: 668
Joined: February 25th, 2008, 8:44 am
Location: Estonia

Postby Cliff Cawley » March 28th, 2008, 2:04 pm

logokas Wrote:What software does Logitech offer for these things? I may try it out.

Also, how about releasing a list of keyboard that work? Everyone who have such keyboards can give their information on how and if their keys work fine.


I code Xion in my spare time, I don't have a large collection of keyboards that I can test Xion on and release a list :)

If you'd like to compile a list of those working/not working then feel free to ask around.

Most often than not, a lot of users just simply haven't installed the drivers that come with their keyboard.

As for the Logitech drivers, you would have gotten them with your keyboard, or else grab them from the Logitech site: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/suppo ... downloads/

You fill in the fields as to which keyboard you have and it will direct you to the correct page for downloading the drivers.

I'm fairly sure all Logitech and Microsoft keyboards work. Microsoft works out of the box, but sometimes needs drivers, Logitech needs drivers and sometimes needs manual key binding as I explained earlier :)

Cliff :)
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
r2 Studios
http://www.r2.com.au
http://xion.r2.com.au
User avatar
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
 
Posts: 1955
Joined: September 3rd, 2006, 11:33 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Postby logokas » March 28th, 2008, 4:29 pm

My UltraX Premium i use here at work requires no drivers. It uses generic HID ones provided by windows and at least the media key does not function as it should, as it opens something else, which is probably a good thing because if i mapped it to Xion aswell, it would make things alot more confusing, opening both WMP and Xion together at the same keystroke.

I may gather myself some time to get more info on this. Shame that the forum appears rather inactive or i'd have more people to ask around about.
User avatar
logokas
Xion Addict
 
Posts: 668
Joined: February 25th, 2008, 8:44 am
Location: Estonia

Postby Cliff Cawley » March 28th, 2008, 5:28 pm

logokas Wrote:My UltraX Premium i use here at work requires no drivers. It uses generic HID ones provided by windows and at least the media key does not function as it should, as it opens something else, which is probably a good thing because if i mapped it to Xion aswell, it would make things alot more confusing, opening both WMP and Xion together at the same keystroke.

I may gather myself some time to get more info on this. Shame that the forum appears rather inactive or i'd have more people to ask around about.


Yeah its become rather stale lately, not sure why, really. I guess people are starting new jobs, uni, etc and don't have time to make skins anymore.

Cliff :)
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
r2 Studios
http://www.r2.com.au
http://xion.r2.com.au
User avatar
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
 
Posts: 1955
Joined: September 3rd, 2006, 11:33 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Postby logokas » March 28th, 2008, 5:40 pm

It really isn't just about skinning though. There's more to this place.
User avatar
logokas
Xion Addict
 
Posts: 668
Joined: February 25th, 2008, 8:44 am
Location: Estonia

Postby SLoB » March 28th, 2008, 7:49 pm

There has always been more to this forum, but it seems that its not on "peoples lists".
There are always plenty of lurkers but relatively few members actually contributing something.

I use logitech kb & mouse but do not use the drivers, its another process which does not need to be run as I use the defaults from the mouse which is plenty fine, media keys work fine without here.
User avatar
SLoB
Xion Junkie
 
Posts: 1340
Joined: September 11th, 2006, 9:21 pm
Location: UK

Postby logokas » March 28th, 2008, 9:21 pm

I switched my mouse and keyboard from my Ubuntu machine. The Logitech cordless keyboard works good without any special drivers, but the media key to start Xion doesn't operate. Maybe i haven't set Xion a default player or something.

EDIT: Fixed! I don't know how, but removing the file associations from WMP made the button default to Xion instead.
Last edited by logokas on March 28th, 2008, 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
logokas
Xion Addict
 
Posts: 668
Joined: February 25th, 2008, 8:44 am
Location: Estonia

Postby Cliff Cawley » March 28th, 2008, 9:30 pm

logokas Wrote:I switched my mouse and keyboard from my Ubuntu machine. The Logitech cordless keyboard works good without any special drivers, but the media key to start Xion doesn't operate. Maybe i haven't set Xion a default player or something.


It all depends on the implementation of the keyboard. The media keys themselves (i.e. play, stop) are standard keys. Any other keys such as the Media key is something that is usually defined by the keyboard manufacturer.

If they've adopted the Microsoft Media key format then they'll most likely be launching whatever application is associated with Audio CDs.

Cliff :)
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
r2 Studios
http://www.r2.com.au
http://xion.r2.com.au
User avatar
Cliff Cawley
Creator of Xion
 
Posts: 1955
Joined: September 3rd, 2006, 11:33 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Postby logokas » March 28th, 2008, 11:29 pm

Well that makes enough sense, Audio CDs was one of the things i changed file association for.

All buttons now work great for me.
User avatar
logokas
Xion Addict
 
Posts: 668
Joined: February 25th, 2008, 8:44 am
Location: Estonia

Postby the_man550 » June 29th, 2008, 10:02 am

guess this thread is quite outdated, but just wanted to tell ya that the logitech G15 works with it.
My old Fujitsu Siemens from 2001 works with it as well...
Hellouuuuuuuu
the_man550
Xion Supporter
 
Posts: 34
Joined: June 26th, 2008, 5:08 am
Location: Sweden

Return to General Xion Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 7 guests

cron