Specifications

Remote Control and Receiver-Transceiver Specifications and Requirements

for Windows Media Center in Windows Operating Systems

Receiver/Transceiver Specifications

This section provides information about building receivers and transceivers that receive input

from a control and convert them into actions to control Windows Media Center and a set-top box

in the case of a transceiver.

Overview of IR Receiver Options

Deciding what type of infrared receiver to build for Windows Media Center can be confusing.

There are several different options available:

 Options that use Microsoft provided Hardware designs and Microsoft provided software.

 Options that use Microsoft provided software with third-party hardware designs.

 Options that use third-party software and third-party hardware.

Each option has different tradeoffs, including things such as:

 BOM cost

 Hardware design cost

 Software design cost

 Functionality provided

 Risk

Additionally, not all options are suitable for all locales. Finally, many of the options are only

suitable for Windows 7 and may not be distributed with any previous Windows Media Center

products (such as Windows Vista or Windows XP Media Center Edition).

This section discusses these options, tradeoffs, and when specific options are allowable and not

allowable.

Concepts

IR Protocol

The IR protocol defines how a series of infrared light flashes can be used to encode a remote

control keypress, a keyboard event, or a mouse move. Windows Media Center supports several

different protocols, including, but not limited to, Philips RC-6, SMK QP and an internal protocol

called MCIR-2 which is used for the Windows Media Center infrared keyboard.

In designing your hardware, it is important to realize that, although RC-6 and SMK QP are the

most common for an IR receiver, your receiver needs to do more than receive RC-6 and SMK

QP. You also need to:

 Process IR input with any protocol that is supported by Windows Media Center. Software

decoding is necessary.

 Implement IR learning.

 Implement IR emitting.

 Wake on certain IR signatures (power key wake).