Multimedia Keys on Keyboard & MCE Remote interrupt RA

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hi there,

I am using a MCE remote and a keyboard with multimedia buttons (like Mute, Volume Up / Down etc.) for controlling my HTPC living room system.

Basically, they send commands like VK_VOLUME_MUTE, VK_VOLUME_UP etc.

Retroarch however doesn’t like such inteference: Every attempt to control audio by these devices interrupts any emulation and throws me back to the RetroArch menu.

Depending on the core, RetroArch acknowledges such inputs either as “null” or “Eject Virtual Drive”.

How can I force RetroArch to ignore any multimedia buttons and let Windows interpret them?

#2

I’m not an expert with these multimedia keys with RA, but I do know how RA’s keybinding system works. Please post your cfg file and I (or whoever sees it first) can check if these multimedia keys are registered binds there. If so, you can set the relevant binds to “nul”.

#3

All my core configs have that issue, as an example this is my config for the snes9x_next core:

http://pastebin.com/AqeK6Nxh

#4

I don’t see any of those keys bound. I wonder why they are being used by RA in any way. Is there some other program you’re using that translates them to something bound by RA?

#5

Your hunch may be correct. For my HTPC to work properly I indeed had to customize stuff regarding remote control input.

I am currently trying out various Retroarch versions on multiple computers with different Windows versions, and I am getting mixed results. But right now it seems that on a clean unmodified Windows install Retroarch and MCE remotes work just fine together.

As a workaround, I have mapped the offending multimedia buttons to plain simple keyboard presses. That way I have proper keybind control through Retroarch config files, and adjusting all the other HPTC related apps (like KODI etc.) was painless.