how to make Multimedia Keyboard work with Winamp, (almost) no plugins required!

[kidsinister]

I got this idea after working with the Logitech Keyboard plugin to make Winamp work with my Microsoft Wireless Multimedia Keyboard 1.0A. The plugin works fine for sound files, but if I pressed those darn buttons during a video, the plugin would crash! However, in its plugin setup, it lists the keyboard button ID numbers...

Note: using Winamp 5.02 and Intellitype 5.0 here.

Soooo, here's how to do it, at least for my keyboard (try installing the Logitech driver to determine your own button #'s):

1. Start up Winamp, go to Preferences
2. On the left, select Global Hotkeys and turn on Global Hotkeys.
3. Make sure the following 'Action's are listed: "Playback: Play/pause", "Playback: Stop", "Playback: Previous in play list" and "Playback: Next in play list".
4. Bind those four to some non-conflicting keys (it doesn't matter what they are, you're going to change them soon anyway).
5. Close Preferences, close Winamp.
6. Navigate to your Winamp install directory (default: C:\Program Files\Winamp)
7. Open up "Winamp.ini" with some text editor (like Notepad) and search for the following values:

action0=ghkdc play/pause
hotkey0=...
action1=ghkdc stop
hotkey1=...
action2=ghkdc prev
hotkey2=...
action3=ghkdc next
hotkey3=...
(note: the single digit just before the = sign is apparently the order in which these commands are listed in the Hotkeys menu you saw in step 3 and 4, so these may vary depending on the order you added them.)
The periods represent the binded key or keys for that command.
8. Change those values to the ones gained from the Logitech plugin. For my particular keyboard, I changed these to:

action0=ghkdc play/pause
hotkey0=179
action1=ghkdc stop
hotkey1=178
action2=ghkdc prev
hotkey2=177
action3=ghkdc next
hotkey3=176

These numbers for your model of keyboard can probably be gleaned from the same Logitech plugin. (YMMV)
9. Save the file and close it.
10. Open up Winamp and try out those keys!

I admit that I haven't tested it to much extent, but I imagine that this should work perfectly with Winamp since it's using its own plugin after all. Anything failing here would mean a defect in Winamp or its own plugin.

Oh yeah, don't forget to uninstall the old Logitech plugin when you're done!

Hehe, I went back to Preferences, and look what I found:

[kidsinister]

Okay, after a few days of bug testing, here are my results.

So far, my multimedia keyboard buttons work 100%. Every time you press them, the corresponding action in Winamp happens. I ususally run Winamp from the System Tray, and no matter how many/which windows were layered on top of Winamp, the buttons worked.

So 100% is a good thing, right? Notice how above I said no matter what programs are running, the buttons always work. For example: I'm to cheap to buy one of the DVD plugins for Winamp, so I use Windows Media Player (boo, hiss) instead. Now if I use those keyboard buttons to play/pause my movie or to change chapters, Winamp will attempt to do the same actions on whichever file it used last. It doesn't matter if Winamp is closed or not, pushing those buttons will open it up even if it's closed. I have come up with some solutions for this though.

1. buy a DVD plugin (insert smart comment here)
2. Manually tell Winamp to open some file which it doesn't support.

The idea with the second one is that if Winamp receives all those button presses and acts on them, then give it something that will jam it up instead. To unjam it, just give it some file it likes.

[CrashX]

Thanks! Worked perfectly with my Microsoft Wireless Desktop Elite keyboard.

Here are the results that I had:

Winamp closed, push Play/Pause or Media button:
Winamp will launch and all controls work

Winamp open, minimized or not:
all controls work

Winamp closed, another app in use (Windows Media Player):
The keyboard controls the other app, and DOES NOT launch Winamp

Winamp open, minimized or not, another app in use (Windows Media Player):
The keyboard controls both apps

[kidsinister]

Originally posted by CrashX
Winamp closed, another app in use (Windows Media Player):
The keyboard controls the other app, and DOES NOT launch Winamp

Winamp open, minimized or not, another app in use (Windows Media Player):
The keyboard controls both apps

Well I'll be dipped...now I get those same results! It's gremlins, I tell ya!

...or maybe it was me reading email, reading a webpage, (trying) to watch a movie, all while performing tests. I must have skipped the "WMP only, no Winamp" step.

[bravadoca]

well it worked for the most part, except that I can't get it to pause since my play and pause are the same button and in the winamp.ini there are two separate commands for play and pause, and if I set them both to the same number all it does is replay the song from the beginning instead of pausing it.

[CrashX]

Originally posted by bravadoca
well it worked for the most part, except that I can't get it to pause since my play and pause are the same button and in the winamp.ini there are two separate commands for play and pause, and if I set them both to the same number all it does is replay the song from the beginning instead of pausing it.

I had the same problem. Try this to resolve it. Worked fine for me.

Open winamp.ini, remove these two lines:

code:
action1=pause

hotkey1=[your key num here]

And replace this line:

code:
action0=ghkdc play

with this:

code:
action0=ghkdc play/pause

Save the file and reload . Good luck!

[Zippo_Of_Doom]

almost all works, except I can not find the "action0=)" line. All I get is a hotkeys list, and they are:

msg3=273
wparam3=40046
lparam3=40045
hotkey3=600

What do I do?

[kidsinister]

Originally posted by Zippo_Of_Doom
almost all works, except I can not find the "action0=)" line. All I get is a hotkeys list, and they are:

msg3=273
wparam3=40046
lparam3=40045
hotkey3=600

What do I do?

Which version of Winamp are you using?

[Zippo_Of_Doom]

when i go to the nullsoft selection on the menu, the version history says 5.01

[DJ Egg]

Winamp 5.03 whatsnew.txt

* added multimedia keyboard keys in global hotkeys default configuration

[edit]
Underlined "default"

[kidsinister]

My fix required version 5.02. Better yet...

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Winamp 5.03 whatsnew.txt

* added multimedia keyboard keys in global hotkeys default configuration

...this would work too. Get yourself an upgrade!

DJ Egg, I tried out this fix for myself as well, and it seems that the "Hotkey" box in Preferences->Global Hotkeys still doesn't detect keypresses from the multimedia keys. Are you aware of this?

[Zippo_Of_Doom]

well all works, except for my play key.
when winamp is closed, i can't launch it with the shortcut keys.
when it is open, everything works except for the play/pause button. I press it, and the icon (next to the name of the song) shows playing, but it does not play. I press it again and the icon shows pause. If I try and press play again, nothing happens. If a song was playing, the play button does not do anything.

But, the play button on teh winamp skin works fine.

[BeLGaRaTh67]

Originally posted by DJ Egg
Winamp 5.03 whatsnew.txt

* added multimedia keyboard keys in global hotkeys default configuration

[edit]
Underlined "default"

Just got myself a MM keyboard today , and have to say that I cannot find a way of getting the play/pause, stop, next, previous to be recognised with v5.03 without editing the ini file as per kidsinister's first post

Pressing the keys under the hotkey part does diddly squat

Thanks for the info on what to enter by the way kidsinister, it was enormously helpful, would never have known the key-values to enter without your help

[DJ Egg]

The key word was "default"

All I did was click the "restore defaults" button
and the hotkeys for my keyboard magically appeared all on their own

Sure, this will mean that you lose any custom keys,
so make a note of them first,
so you can add them back in afterwards.

If it doesn't work, then all I can say is 'thank god I didn't get an MS keyboard'

[Zippo_Of_Doom]

wtf? it (my play pause button) started working. All I did was remove the play pause shortcut and replace it with a play and a pause, which I put at my volume keys. They both work as play pause now...