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Media center remote issue

I am having an issue with my Windows 7 Media Center and iTunes. First let me give you some background info.


I am using Windows 7 Media Center for my living room TV DVR and I am using a RC6 IR remote to control MCE which basically acts by sending keyboard commands. However I really did not like how it handles music as I got hooked on Genius (WMCE is stuck in the past with hand built playlists, yawn.) So I installed iTunes to have it running in the background and use my iOS devices to control it. This works great and iTunes does not bring it self to the foreground so my MCE stays on the screen. However during one of the last upgrades to iTunes I noticed a new behavior that is causing me grief. Once iTunes plays a song it captures and keeps control of the keyboard shortcuts used to control iTunes (skip, stop, etc) and MCE does not respond to those same commands. So if I have iTunes play a song then stop the song and watch a recorded show I can't skip forward or even stop playback. If I close iTunes or even open the iTunes store then the remote works again with MCE. However it is a pain to have to minimize MCE to fix iTunes so the remote works again. Every time a song is played through iTunes it will go back to this behavior and I have to fix it again.


My question is can I disable any or all of the keyboard shortcuts in iTunes? After all I only use iOS devices to control music playback and not the IR remote or a keyboard so I don't need that feature.


If anybody has another solution I can try (like can I change the keyboard shortcuts for skip and stop in iTunes or MCE) please let me know and I will give it a try.

Windows 7

Posted on Nov 17, 2011 11:53 AM

Reply
12 replies

Nov 20, 2011 8:32 AM in response to choeschen

Same problem here... I have a Windows 7 x64 based computer setup soley for the purpose of media consumption. I use Windows Media Center for HDTV over Digital Cable (via Ceton InfiniTV with a CableCard) and iTunes for music on the PC itself as well as via two AirPort Express devices for whole house music. Every version of iTunes before 10.5 worked great. For reference, I leave iTunes running 24/7 to enable the ability to use the Remote app on my iPhone, this way I can play music from my phone whenever I like and there's no need to go to the media PC to open iTunes first. In any case, as soon as I upgraded to version 10.5 I too had the remote control issue within Media Center and the navigation controls on the remote control ceased to function. I had to close iTunes in order to use the remote control again, which of course defeats the purpose of using it with the Remote app on the iPhone. Thankfully, I was able to locate iTunes version 10.3.1 online for Windows 7 64-bit and after reverting, everything works perfectly again. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Does iTunes 10.5.1 resolve this issue??


Regards,

Karmicscorpio

Nov 20, 2011 11:42 AM in response to karmicscorpio

I tried 10.5.1 and it has the same issue. However thanks to your post I was able to find out what version to go back to (I did not want to start trying version after version until this was working again.) I downgraded to 10.3.1 and it is also working once again. I won't be able to use iTunes Match with this version but at least I am able to control playback in WMC once again.


I did notice one thing between 10.3 and 10.5. In 10.5 when you play a song while iTunes is not in focus (WMC is up and you start a song via the remote app) then the iTunes icon starts to blink (if you minimize WMC you can see it blinking.) This is Windows 7 way to show you that an app wants your attention. With 10.3 iTunes does not do this. I don't know if this is the cause of this issue, just an observation, but it could be due to this. However the most simple fix would be for iTunes to have an option to disable all keyboard controls.

Nov 20, 2011 11:59 AM in response to choeschen

I am going to test out 10.5.1 this afternoon. I did notice in 10.3.1 under Edit\Preferences\General, I did have the option selected for "Enable full keyboard navigation". I unchecked it (and no, 10.3.1 was NOT causing these issues with Media Center navigation while iTunes was open in the background, so it never occured to me to uncheck/deselect it), made a backup of the 10.3.1 iTunes library info and installed version 10.5.1 - in 10.5.1 the "Enable full keyboard navigation" function has moved to Edit\Preferences\Advanced and it remained deselected after the upgrade. I'll post back if this solves the issue.


Regards,

Karmicscorpio

Nov 20, 2011 12:13 PM in response to karmicscorpio

OK confirmed, yes, version 10.5.1 still has the same issue. I had iTunes open in the background while using Media Center, no problem initially. Then, with Media Center open I initiated music playback from the Remote app on my iPhone and sure enough, the iTunes icon on the taskbar began to flash and from that point the Media Center remote control navigation buttons were controlling iTunes (track forward and track back were switching between tracks in the Remote playlist). I verifed in Media Center setting that the "always on top" option was checked and it already was.


The issue with the Media Center remote control in general is this: if Windows Media Center is not running full screen, the remote control (which is technically a keyboard device) will control whichever appliaction is in focus. In this instance, even though Media Center is running full screen and is set to be "always on top", iTunes 10.5 and 10.5.1 are stealing focus and therefore stealing the remote control functions along with it.


At least reverting back to 10.3.1 is easy enough. Hope someone at Apple figures this one out!


Regards,
Karmicscorpio

Nov 21, 2011 8:39 AM in response to karmicscorpio

I'm not sure it is entirly a focus issue as when I am having this issue and I minimize WMC and then bring it back full screen that should give focus back to WMC but remote control functions are still not working. The only way I found to get back remote control is to either close iTunes or open up the iTunes store. Then I will have remote control functionality in WMC until I use the remote app to have iTunes play another song, rinse, repeat.

Nov 21, 2011 4:02 PM in response to turingtest2

Sounded good but no go. I upgraded to iTunes 10.5.1 and let iTunes run in the background. I ran the script and said the current value it TRUE and click yes to change it. I fired up Media Center and started to play back a recorded show. All controls are working. I used the Remote app on my iPhone and started a song and then paused the song. Played the same recorded show as before and the controls are not working. I got out of Media Center and ran the script again and verified it said the current setting is FALSE.

Nov 22, 2011 5:49 PM in response to choeschen

Whoo Hooo!


I found a simple work around. Open iTunes and then goto Edit -> Preferences and leave that open. Open MCE and you can start and stop music using the Remote app and it will not take over the remote control functions from MCE.


Now does anybody have any handy way to script iTunes to open and then open the preferences window? This method will work but only until the next reboot at which point I would have to manually open the preferences window again.

Mar 17, 2012 7:02 AM in response to choeschen

This is not good enough for me. Does anybody have a real solution to this problem?


It's still happening for me too, and I'm running itunes 10.5.1.42.


Symptom for me is when i am in WMC (win 7) I can't press the stop and skip forward, backward buttons on my remote. All i have to do to fix them is minimize WMC and give itunes focus, then restore WMC and the buttons work again for a time. This is very annoying! Please help!

Mar 17, 2012 7:38 AM in response to Maverick530

The preference trick was not 100%. Every now and then I needed to go back and close the preferences window and relaunch it as iTunes would take control of the remote commands.


I ended up removing iTunes from my MCE box and installing it onto a seperate computer. To get the audio from that computer to my MCE speakers I installed Aerodrom from funkyf@ctory (http://funky-factory.blogspot.com/p/versionsinfo.html) on my MCE box which iTunes sees as an AirPlay client. I can still use the Apple Remote app from any of my iOS devices to control iTunes and tell it what AirPlay client to send the audio too. The program is not free but it can also send video from iOS devices to my MCE which is great when I want to watch a video pod cast on my TV so in my view it was worth it.


Another idea I had to get this to work is to install Windows XP Mode on my Windows 7 MCE box and then install and run iTunes from within XP. Windows XP Mode is Microsoft's virtual PC program and is free if you have Windows 7 Pro or higher. You could also try using another virtualization program.

Media center remote issue

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