493: Undecipherable

Bluetooth Remote Control for Windows Media Center

After years of using my Bluetooth mouse to control Windows Media Center (WMC) from my couch - I figured out that I needed a proper remote control (actually I visited a friend who used the IR remote of WMC). After endless time of searching I found the PS3 remote (Sony employs Bluetooth yeah) and it works with WMC using a small program that translates the game controller HID events to actual keystrokes.

It is called PS3BluMote and written by Ben Barron. As Ben’s website was not reachable, I compiled from using VS2012 - took me about 2min. And it works perfectly - I only need to figure out good keymapping (WMC key shortcuts are available here). In fact, I recommend to use for play/pause, skip and volume control the windows events (in PS3BlueMote: Media_) and not the WMC shortcuts - in this way also VLC and other players can be controlled.

Here are some additional startup options for WMC: I created a shortcut to go to the music section directly.

PS: I use it on Windows 8 Pro with WMC