Thinkpads Forum

I'm wondering if anyone has used this type of remote control for their Thinkpads?? and if so what type of experience did you have???

Remote Control for Thinkpad

Hp remote control

Windows Media Center remote

I hook up my X200 to the flat screen sometimes and honestly get a little lazy after a long day That's when I feel that a remote control for movie watching would come in handy

Just thinking out loud and am interested in thoughts regarding this.

Are you running Windows, and do you use Windows Media Player or Media Center? If yes, get one designed for Media Center. I'd further advise you to find one used, so in small part you will make use of what's already made, and will prolong the life of the item and keep it out of a dump. Windows Media Center has been around since 2002. Like printers and video games and all sorts of devices with a "Designed For Windows" sticker, a Media Center remote should Just Work.

I would not get that "for ThinkPad" one. It looks generic and has nothing to do with Lenovo. No name, no assurance it is not crap.

The HP one in the guise of ExpressCard will only work with certain HP laptops that have the receiver built-in. Do not get it.

If you are using Ubuntu or anything "not Windows", then I have no idea of what will work reliably. But like USB keyboards and mice, those WMC remotes are somewhat standardised, so I can imagine the free software developers have them in mind.

I had an old Cyberlink Remote Control that worked with XP and Linux but there are no drivers for later Windows OS's. There are newer remote controls available that should work with Media Center. Check the specs on any you are considering. Cyberlink has a newer remote than what I have that probably works well, but I have not looked into remote controls for a couple of years.

In my experience you will need the dongle that comes with the remote to control it - unless it (perhaps) has a bluetooth radio. The built in ThinkPad IR receiver does not work well at all with infrared remote controls.

I am planning to use one of my T30's as a music juke-box with all of my vinyl records and CD's copied onto a large HDD in my Ultrabay.

I was thinking of using Video LAN VLC Media Player.

I don't see any red I/R windows on my T30.

Would I need to purchase some sort of I/R reader using my T30's PC Card interface port?

robert213 wrote:I don't see any red I/R windows on my T30.

The port sits on the right hand side, near the rear, to the right of the CD-drive.
The window is almost black.

The ThinkPad IR port barely can work with a remote control. Not worth your time trying to get it to work. You need to get a remote control with a dongle (IR or radio).

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19107

Update:

I went cheap and got the remote in the first link. I'm a student is my excuse It is way cheaper on fleabay and it works OOB

The mouse button could have been done better. It is very hard to navigate the mouse around the screen in an easy and fluid manner. The addition of rubber on the button would have been very helpful.

But for around $6 (with free shipping) it should be expected.

Programming the A, B, C, D multimedia shortcut buttons was explained in customer reviews on a similar type of remote control. All you need to do is go to the icon of the program you want the multimedia hotkey to open and right click it. Choose properties and click the field that is titled "Shortcut key." You do not need to type anything into it but choose either A, B, C, or D on the remote control. It will automatically enter a value into the field for you. Now hit apply and exit the properties box.

Thats it!

I programmed mine to open up VLC and Windows Media Player. Since I use VLC more than WMP I also programmed the play, stop, forward, back, next, and previous in VLC's options. Other keys work out of the box. I haven't had a chance to play with all the keys yet but fullsize worked, cursor arrows worked, the mouse buttons worked, open folders, windows key, and volume worked (computer volume which is acknowledged by the white-on-black OSD).

I didn't expect a lot going into this. I knew that the input for IR commands that correspond with keyboard input was probably all the IR was doing. This is evident when programming the multimedia hotkeys. When you press the key you want to program CTRL+ALT+A will be entered into properties "Shortcut key" open up if you press A.

At the very least I can sit across the room and have some type of control over the media aspect of my X200 which now doubles as a "ThinkPad Media Box" now

Interesting. Does this thing work easily on Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit?)

crashnburn wrote:Interesting. Does this thing work easily on Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit?)

It works fairly easy. Just plug in the IR dongle and W7 will install the drivers. I've used it on both 32 and 64-bit and it works with both. Just very basic commands would be the best setup for this remote as I described earlier in the post. I forgot to mention that there are number/alphabet keys that work like old school texting. They won't take the place of keyboards and would be a pain to try and type any sentence or web address with.

Have to press 7 once for P, twice for Q, and so on.