PS3 IR REMOTE - A solution for DVD remote play control

[roxboxxx]

I just posted this at remote central. It may be of interest to AVS members also.

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As we all know, PS3 uses Bluetooth for remote communication and there is no IR receiver. The upcoming remote will also be Bluetooth, so there does not appear to be an IR learn option here. Until someone makes an IR remote for this (with an IR USB receiver), there is a short term solution. This is for BLURAY DVD playing only.

1. Purchase a PS2 to USB adabter from radioshack (part # 26-729) $11.00. This dongle was originally designed to connect PS controllers to a PC.

2. Purchase a SONY original PS2 DVD remote (model schp-10150)

3. Plug the remotes IR receiver into the radioshack adapter and then plug the USB end of the adapter into any PS3 USB port.

4. If the PS3 is not line of sight, connect an IR blaster to the IR receiver (as you would a normal IR eye on any equipment).

5. Learn the IR codes direct from the PS2 remote for use in custom remote programming. Program custom remote accordingly.

That’s it. Now, this predominantly works when in the BluRay mode. This means that a client still needs to navigate to the blue ray disc and select it with the PS3 controller. However, once the disc is playing, they can have full control from their programmed remote. I said it was primarily for DVD playing, however, the 4 major PS2 buttons (Triangle / Circle / Square / X) do work at all times. Unfortunately, navigation with the 4 way pad outside of the DVD area does not work.

Tested so far:

Triangle / Circle / Square / X = All work @ all times.
L1 / L2 / R1 / R2 = Work in DVD mode only.
Select / Start = Work in DVD mode only
4 way pad = Work in DVD mode only
Enter button in middle of 4 way pad = Does not work at all
All remaining buttons (Approximately 32) = Does not work at all

*DVD mode is when the DVD is in, and the client has already selected it with the PS3 controller.

As you can buy the adapter for $11 at radioshack and a used Ps2 remote for $4.99 at GameStop, the investment is minor. While the functionality is limited, customers will appreciate not having to hold a controller and a remote while watching a movie. The reality is, suggesting a BR player is a better solution. However, the PS3 is somewhat doable, so its worthy of a post (and customers will ask for this !).

[awx]

Cool. I've got one of those Radio Shack PS2 adapters so it's good to know it works with the PS3.

[goenkar]

Awesome news. Could you also post the remotecentral link to your post or PM it to me so I can follow the thread there to ?

Thanks

[DaveFi]

That's not going to be enough once more features like interactivity are added. It already isn't enough for people like me who like to watch a lot of anime who like to occasionally switch between language and subtitle tracks.

[bob13654]

Actually this works pretty well. I'm having a problem programing my Harmony though. For some reason the up, down, left and right buttons will not learn the commands from the PS2 remote. Even if they did, for some reason the PS2 remote is sending multiple commands for these four functions when you are in the triangle menu only. What I mean is if you push one of these buttons it will move 3 to 5 items over for each button push. For some reason it works fine in the on screen menu, but not in the Triangle menu. If anyone figures out the up, down, left and right issue with a Harmony this will be a viable option for the time being.

Edit: I was able to get the directional buttons working by forcing the Harmony to learn the codes as Raw data, but I still cannot get the button repeating for these 4 buttons to stop. I tried to adjust the repeat in the Troubleshooting section of the Harmony software, but all that did was made it so I had to double press every fuction to get them to work and it still did not stop the repeating on the arrow buttons.

[jlohrenz]

This is promising. I just found my old PS2 DVD Remote and IR Sensor. I'm going to have to get the Radio Shack gizmo tonight and do some investigating!

[eXgo]

That is good too know!

[MrSniffer]

I thought this was a solution, but here is the problem:

I went to Gamestop and looked at the PS2 DVD remote controller. Looked to me that it connected to the built-in IR receiver in the PS2, and it did not include an IR receiver which plugged into the controller slots. Did I miss something??????

[jlohrenz]

That is the new style. Old big PS2's didn't have IR, so you had an adaptor that you plugged into one of the controller slots.

[Brian Hampton]

Hey,

Just thought I would let anyone know who's reading this thread I bought the PS2 IR lighted remote for under $5 on sale at FYE. I had a gift card so I stopped in to see if they had it and they had two marked $9.99 and $14.99 but it rang up $4.99 at the register.

-Brian

p.s. FYE goes by a lot of store names too such as Coconuts, Camalot and others.

[PridgNYC]

Originally Posted by Brian Hampton

Hey,

Just thought I would let anyone know who's reading this thread I bought the PS2 IR lighted remote for under $5 on sale at FYE. I had a gift card so I stopped in to see if they had it and they had two marked $9.99 and $14.99 but it rang up $4.99 at the register.

-Brian

p.s. FYE goes by a lot of store names too such as Coconuts, Camalot and others.

Did it include the ir reciever?

[Brian Hampton]

Yes. And a fairly nice looking lighted remote (though, I'll use my Harmony.)


-Brian

[Brian Hampton]

I thought I would put up a pic of the one I found cheap.

(It even looks pretty nice.)

(I hope it's going to work.)

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by bob13654

Actually this works pretty well. I'm having a problem programing my Harmony though. For some reason the up, down, left and right buttons will not learn the commands from the PS2 remote. Even if they did, for some reason the PS2 remote is sending multiple commands for these four functions when you are in the triangle menu only. What I mean is if you push one of these buttons it will move 3 to 5 items over for each button push. For some reason it works fine in the on screen menu, but not in the Triangle menu. If anyone figures out the up, down, left and right issue with a Harmony this will be a viable option for the time being.

Edit: I was able to get the directional buttons working by forcing the Harmony to learn the codes as Raw data, but I still cannot get the button repeating for these 4 buttons to stop. I tried to adjust the repeat in the Troubleshooting section of the Harmony software, but all that did was made it so I had to double press every fuction to get them to work and it still did not stop the repeating on the arrow buttons.

Bob,

You shouldn't need to learn the commands for this -- the PS2 DVD remote commands are already in the Harmony system, so you just need to add a "Game Console (With DVD)" device, and use either "PS2" or "PSTwo" for the model number. ("PS2" is the old, fat console that you've got the remote for, and "PSTwo" is the slimline version with the integrated IR receiver, but the commands should be mostly the same.)

[adam_we]

Bob I had the same problem as you with my Harmony 880 remote. Could only get it to work when sent as raw and then it skipped several times. The solution I found was to re program the data again as raw. The second time I did this the Harmony worked perfectly and moved one space at a time. Hope this helps.

Adam

[bob13654]

Adam, tried it but it still dosen't work. What's wierd is that in the On Screen Menu and Top Menu it moves once per click. It's only when I hit the triangle button to access things like how much time is left/elapsed that the button skips multiple times. What's confusing is that the original PS2 remote is doing this as well, but unlike the Harmony which is skipping 5 spaces the PS2 remote is only skipping 2, if that makes any sense. I don't know what's going on, but if someone has a solution in the Harmony database, I'm all ears.

Dixie, unfortunately it seems that the PS3 will only respond to the commands from the remote that came with the IR adapter. I can program these to my Harmony, but if I try a code that is in the Harmony database nothing works. If tried to set it up as a game console with DVD as a PS2, PlayStation 2 and Playstation 2 nothing worked. These codes work fine on my slimline PS2 but they don't work on the PS3.

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by bob13654

Dixie, unfortunately it seems that the PS3 will only respond to the commands from the remote that came with the IR adapter. I can program these to my Harmony, but if I try a code that is in the Harmony database nothing works. If tried to set it up as a game console with DVD as a PS2, PlayStation 2 and Playstation 2 nothing worked. These codes work fine on my slimline PS2 but they don't work on the PS3.

That's unfortunate -- I just realized that it might work if you had the official Sony PS2 DVD remote and receiver, but if your receiver is for a third-party remote, then it probably has its own unique IR codes used between the remote and receiver. Ah, well.

[tokerblue]

bob13654, did you try changing the number of repeats in the Harmony interface? I would try setting it to 1 or 2 repeats and see if that fixes it.

[bob13654]

Dixie I have the official PS2 remote and IR receiver, but for some reason the original remote is jumping just like the Harmony.

toker. Yeah I tried that, but what happened is that I had to double push Play, Rew etc... to get those commands to go through and the Triangle menu was still jumping multiple times, so that was a no go.

[Quickbeam]

So to boil this down, all one needs to do is get the IR dongle, the adapter from PS2 to USB, plug it into the PS3 and then use the PS2 codes from Harmony. Insteresting, I might actually still have that IR thingy around somehwere from my gen 1 PS2. Either that or wiat for the inevitable PS3 Harmony. I see X Box has one so it's only a matter of time.........

[maximum360]

Hopefully this solution will work for my Harmony. Should get it in a couple of days. The downside is that my 880 may be going bad. Buttons are sticking. I may have to repurchase the 720.

[theswami]

Unfortunately, for those of us with an IR remote without a PS2 remote, I think the best option is to wait for and pay the extra $10 (over the cost of buying the PS2 set-up) for the PS3 remote for full functionality.

Hopefully, Harmony or someone else is working on a Bluetooth and IR universal remote.

[w1ngman]

Interestingly, the following comment from vidgame.net reminded me that my OE Sony PS2 DVD remote w/ IR dongle came with a firmware upgrade disc!... I'm gonna have to dig up that old disc I bet!

The Sony PS2 DVD remote that was released in 2002, came with a disc to update the PS2's DVD drivers. The data must be saved on a PS2 memory card and would allow access to certain functions of the DVDs not previously offered on the PS2 console. This data takes up about 2mB. The data can be erased and redownloaded later.

Could it be that this "missing disc" [for your purposes] is your fly in the ointment...?

pic below from a currently on-going eBay auctioneer. I'm going to look for my disc...but Lord its been years since that one-time install on my ol' PS2...

[w1ngman]

[cautious]...then again...what if the upgrade disc hoses up my purdy PS3.... [/cautious]

[MrSniffer]

I acquired the original PS2 DVD remote and the Radio Shack dongle referred to above. {I spent some time using a third party PS2 DVD remote, but it had too few buttons....and the codes are different IR signals!!} I am using the Harmony 659 remote.

I identified the Sony PS2 remote by supplying several of the button presses, such as Play, but note that this is NOT the "Play" command for the PS3!! Once identified, the Harmony library had many many commands already known, such as circle, triangle, R1, L2, etc. But there were FIVE which didn't seem to work correctly, even when I learned them in "training mode'; I had to use RAW learning for the four directional arrows and the key labeled SELECT.

I then custom mapped Harmony buttons to PS3 SIXAXIS commands as follows:

    Harmony             PS3     
4 directions         4 directions
Play & Pause         Start
Info                 Select
CH+/CH-              R1, L1
Guide & Menu         triangle
Enter & Select       X
Exit & Stop          circle
FF, REW              R2, L2

This managed to make just about all the key commands functional, with the notable exception of getting to the Title Menu. I navigate via the triangle menu to do that, as well as for changing audio and subtitle choices.

[MrSniffer]

Originally Posted by w1ngman

[cautious]...then again...what if the upgrade disc hoses up my purdy PS3.... [/cautious]

Amen! No way would the patch code for the PS2 work on the PS3, except possibly to FuBar the system. I wouldn't try this if I were you.....

[sqlb]

You can get the actual PS3 remote from EB Games for less than $25.

[jlohrenz]

Can you detail exact ally what you did? My Harmony 880 shows up today, and I just found my old PS2 DVD remote and IR sensor. I'm planning to stop at RatShack and get the adapter today as well.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by MrSniffer

I acquired the original PS2 DVD remote and the Radio Shack dongle referred to above. {I spent some time using a third party PS2 DVD remote, but it had too few buttons....and the codes are different IR signals!!} I am using the Harmony 659 remote.

I identified the Sony PS2 remote by supplying several of the button presses, such as Play, but note that this is NOT the "Play" command for the PS3!! Once identified, the Harmony library had many many commands already known, such as circle, triangle, R1, L2, etc. But there were FIVE which didn't seem to work correctly, even when I learned them in "training mode'; I had to use RAW learning for the four directional arrows and the key labeled SELECT.

I then custom mapped Harmony buttons to PS3 SIXAXIS commands as follows:

    Harmony             PS3     
4 directions         4 directions
Play & Pause         Start
Info                 Select
CH+/CH-              R1, L1
Guide & Menu         triangle
Enter & Select       X
Exit & Stop          circle
FF, REW              R2, L2

This managed to make just about all the key commands functional, with the notable exception of getting to the Title Menu. I navigate via the triangle menu to do that, as well as for changing audio and subtitle choices.

[w1ngman]

You'll have setup instructions with your 880 (to set up much more important hardware than our PS3, believe me ). Follow those instructions...first.

With those instructions followed, among other things you will have set up a Harmony web account. When you're ready to 'teach' the 880 your PS2 DVD remote buttons, you'll log back onto that Harmony web account. Select "Home." Then Add New Device. Add Gaming Device. Gaming Device with DVD. Sony Brand. PS2 or PStwo depending on the model number of your PS2 that you insert when prompted.

But again, as outlined in this thread. What the 880 'learns' through this effort is minimalistic, at best (presently...?).

- Dave

PS. The adapter and the IR dongle does not come into play during the 'learning' process. You simply need that inserted into each other & then into a USB port on the front of the PS3 (line of sight remember!) for the 'learned' 880 to actuate its commands during blu-ray playback.

[rocketbeagle]

For some reason the directional buttons don't work at all for me - any one else have this problem??