Having used a variety of media center programs, I have found XBMC to be the most ideal program. The only thing that would make it even better would be to have remote control of it. I bought a $10 remote control off of Amazon just to see how plug-n-play a cheap remote could be. Here it is if your interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-USB-Remot...001M56DI0/
It says it's compatible with 2000/XP/Vista. There was no driver to install. Also, I can account for the fact that it's p-n-p in 7. However, I'm now interested in other devices that can control XBMC. Here's some controller's I'm interested in using:
Nintendo
NES
NES-101
SNES
SNS-101
GC
SEGA
SMS
Genesis (3/6 button controllers)
Saturn (although it appears to just be a Genesis with a different body)
Microsoft
XBOX (360 version)
I'm not interested in the Dreamcast or stock XBOX (1st Gen) controller because of how bulky they are. There are additional accessories that I'm interested in. But, I'll post those as I go.
I've thought about how this would work. A smart modder could add a USB cable to one of these controllers, or create/buy a converter cable to connect it to a PC, and create a program that intercepts the commands coming from the chip (I'm guessing there's a chip) inside the controller and translate them to whatever the program that they are using needs, especially since the controller was originally meant to work with something completely different from a PC. Then again, a proper emulator can already be preprogrammed to do all that stuff due to it being configured to work like a console.
Or, you could find a gaming company that specializes in creating alternate controller, cheap controllers, or controllers created with a USB cord. The USB means that it was specifically made to work with a PC/MAC (hopefully). Now, obviously, the controller has to be configured with a game. But, if it's already been designed to work with a PC, then you won't have to worry about a communication problem between the controller circuitry, the USB input, and the OS.
Now once that's dealt with, there's the problem of configuring the controller to work with XBMC. Obviously, the problem here is that XBMC is meant to be used with a keyboard or other device with multiple control options for all the different settings an individual user can adjust as they watch whatever it is they are watching. At the bare minimum, I can see two different settings for a controller:
Using the NES
The Menu screens
The arrow keys to maneuver through the menus, A to select, and B to go back.
Playback
Left and Right keys to FF or RW or skip ahead some seconds, A to play/pause. Now, for those that want to keep playing a video while doing other things, the B and Select buttons have the options of one being a stop button and the other being the back button.
Start can be used to bring up the power options menu.
So, how does this sound? The one tweak I would recommend to XBMC to make this easier to work would be to add a controller configuration menu under system settings. Aside from users being able to manually configure their keyboards, it opens up the possibilities for anyone to program anything to work with their XBMC.
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-USB-Remot...001M56DI0/
It says it's compatible with 2000/XP/Vista. There was no driver to install. Also, I can account for the fact that it's p-n-p in 7. However, I'm now interested in other devices that can control XBMC. Here's some controller's I'm interested in using:
Nintendo
NES
NES-101
SNES
SNS-101
GC
SEGA
SMS
Genesis (3/6 button controllers)
Saturn (although it appears to just be a Genesis with a different body)
Microsoft
XBOX (360 version)
I'm not interested in the Dreamcast or stock XBOX (1st Gen) controller because of how bulky they are. There are additional accessories that I'm interested in. But, I'll post those as I go.
I've thought about how this would work. A smart modder could add a USB cable to one of these controllers, or create/buy a converter cable to connect it to a PC, and create a program that intercepts the commands coming from the chip (I'm guessing there's a chip) inside the controller and translate them to whatever the program that they are using needs, especially since the controller was originally meant to work with something completely different from a PC. Then again, a proper emulator can already be preprogrammed to do all that stuff due to it being configured to work like a console.
Or, you could find a gaming company that specializes in creating alternate controller, cheap controllers, or controllers created with a USB cord. The USB means that it was specifically made to work with a PC/MAC (hopefully). Now, obviously, the controller has to be configured with a game. But, if it's already been designed to work with a PC, then you won't have to worry about a communication problem between the controller circuitry, the USB input, and the OS.
Now once that's dealt with, there's the problem of configuring the controller to work with XBMC. Obviously, the problem here is that XBMC is meant to be used with a keyboard or other device with multiple control options for all the different settings an individual user can adjust as they watch whatever it is they are watching. At the bare minimum, I can see two different settings for a controller:
Using the NES
The Menu screens
The arrow keys to maneuver through the menus, A to select, and B to go back.
Playback
Left and Right keys to FF or RW or skip ahead some seconds, A to play/pause. Now, for those that want to keep playing a video while doing other things, the B and Select buttons have the options of one being a stop button and the other being the back button.
Start can be used to bring up the power options menu.
So, how does this sound? The one tweak I would recommend to XBMC to make this easier to work would be to add a controller configuration menu under system settings. Aside from users being able to manually configure their keyboards, it opens up the possibilities for anyone to program anything to work with their XBMC.