Intel NUC, Harmony 650 remote and shutting down WMC

[HBGDawg]

I just built a new WMC:
Intel NUC NUC5i3
8GB Corsair Ram
M.2 128 GB for boot
1TB for shows
Harmony 650 Remote

Everything is going fine except for when I power back on the NUC and I believe I am getting the HDMI handshake issue, ie audio is suppressed sometimes when I power back on. For my old rig I used to force WMC to shutdown via the Harmony 650 Remote Activity features and then start back up when I start WMC. The problem is that when I set this NUC up, I don't see a Harmony 650 command to shut down WMC as I am exiting the Activity. I can start WMC by issuing the Guide command, but there is no Close or Shutdown command. I have no way to send ALT+F4 since all i can send is WMC commands via the remote. Any ideas?

[SilverRubicon]

My solution is to just leave the darn thing on. My WMC has basically been running 24/7 for 10 years. I quickly came to realize that the inconsistency of turning on and off wasn't something worth worrying about. Nothing like missed recordings because a timer didn't trigger correctly. Every other DVR in existence runs 24/7, why make WMC the exception?

[CyberSimian]

I have no way to send ALT+F4 since all i can send is WMC commands via the remote.

It is possible to dedicate a key on the remote to issue ALT_F4. I did this when I was using Vista WMC. There are two parts:

(1) You must choose a button on the remote to use for this function, and then customise the definitions so that this button sends the PRINT function (yes, there really is a PRINT function in the WMC remote definitions, although it is usually not allocated to a button). You will have to work out for yourself how to do this using the Harmony software.

(2) You edit the "mapping table" in the registry for the remote, and add an entry that maps PRINT to ALT_F4. This is the data that you need to add at the end of the mapping table; note: the part following the semicolon is a comment, not part of the definition:

,4e,00,00,00,04,04,3d ; map PRINT button -> ALT_F4

In the registry, look for an entry called "ReportMappingTable" somewhere in the "CurrentControlSet" for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Make sure that you update the entry for your remote control (presumably "Microsoft MCE"). I would advise exporting the existing definition to a file, before you make any changes, so that you can restore the original definition if you make a mess of modifying the registry.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[HBGDawg]

I was able to find a resolution. Setting up my NUC under the Harmony Remote NUC profile lost me the ALT+F4 button, but choosing a different profile restored it. So basically my NUC now thinks it is a MediaCenter SE and the CLOSE function is now restored.

[rcrach]

I was able to find a resolution. Setting up my NUC under the Harmony Remote NUC profile lost me the ALT+F4 button, but choosing a different profile restored it. So basically my NUC now thinks it is a MediaCenter SE and the CLOSE function is now restored.

It's a known issue in windows. The volume can be muted when coming out of sleep. This is bad because a scheduled recording that brings it out of sleep will have no audio. Alt -F4 will fix it but so will just bumping the volume up or down. Because it may be unattended I used Autohotkey to create a macro called VolUp that i put in an appropriate start folder. It bumps up the volume when the PC comes out of sleep. Since i use the TV volume anyway i just keep the PC volume at max.

need to edit this since it was 3 years ago and my memory is gone. My real issue was, since I mapped the volume controls on the 650 Harmony to the TV I had no way to bump the WMC volume and if it was a scheduled recording using Alt-F4 would screw that up. The Autohotkey macro in the start folder fixed that.