Suggestion: Bluetooth multimedia button hotkey intergration to navigate through a slideshow (video or images)

[Ray]

Hi There!

I've been using a lot of Bluetooth devices lately, like headphones, earbuds etc.

And I think it's becoming a more and more common practice among, laptop and desktop users.

Most of these headphones come with some sort media player control navigation integration. Which for smartphone works seemliness, but these buttons do also work on the windows platform for media players like for example "Winamp". Where you can push to pause, or slide across, or hold or tap the left or right side of your earbuds your headphone (depending on the type you have of course) to skip to the next song or previous song in the playlist. Also the Pause function is a media hotkey that is often recognized.

Wouldn't it be a cool to have a separate key configuration or a checkbox that you can check for this, that could enable this Bluetooth Media Navigation Hotkeys automatically. An option called something like "enable Bluetooth multimedia hotkey integration"? Or that it is detected automatically, just the standards like:
- Pause (video, or slideshow)
- Next (video, or slide)
- Previous (video, or slide)

The volume keys are of course controlled on the windows level itself, so there would not be necessarily have to be an integration for this.

This would be great for video playlists, but also for none photo wall Slideshow with just still pictures in it. I of course know you have to "activate the slideshow" window by clicking on it once with your mouse, so the programs knows the commands are registered by the gPhotoShow slideshow.

I think the Bluetooth Multimedia Controls on Headphones are quite universal, as all my headphones work automatically with music media players like Winamp, where I can pause, skip track or go to previous track.

Just a thought that popped up in my head, would be a nice addition, to sit back on the coach, and whilst watching a video playlist with headphones on, you could just use the multimedia button to navigate through the slideshow, instead of having a mouse or keyboard on hand (or even your smartphone these days that can control windows (apps like unified remote FULL), for android do this very well. It would just make it a lot more hands free and hassle free.

Would love to hear if it's possible and would love to hear your feedback on this!

Have a great day!

Thanks for your time, and effort! Keep up the great work!

Kind Regards,
Levien

[gpb]

gPhotoShow Pro version 10 will handle some media keys, Media keys are all the extra keys you can find on keyboards or mice. For example Pause/resume, next track, or browser forward, browser back.
Media keys include keys from bluetooth devices but they are mostly handled by windows. I noticed that next/prev track work only when gPhotoShow is playing audio/video while pause/resume always works. I don't know the reason.

[Levien]

Hi!

I just tried mapping some Bluetooth Hotkeys to the "next, previous" image. It works great for video slideshows (my headset passes the P key for next video, and the Q key for previous video. And the Pause key is registered as G). This works universally, for both my headsets, and a small Bluetooth speakers.

So this functionality already works in Version 9 of gPhotoShow.

Al tough I don't know why these aren't registered as multimedia keys.

The only problem I am running into, is that you can only map 1 shortcut to each function. I would like to have multiple keys mapped to the same shortcut, so for example when I am using a headphones the P, Q, and G key can be mapped to next, previous and pause. But I would also like to map some keyboard shortcuts to the same function for when I am not using a Bluetooth Device.

There is of course the default "Events and Actions" key section, which gets you a long way, where you can map left, right click to navigate the slideshow. But there is no option to map "pause video". I think a Spacebar option addition with the functionality to map the function "pause/resume video" would be great addition to this.

The way I have set the shortcuts in the past is up is by using the mouse click modes, as well as custom keys (up key for previous video, and down key for next video). And space bar to pause the video playback (as well > to speed forward, and < to rewind), but that is irrelevant.

Would love to see a functionality where you can map multiple keys to one shortcut, that would completely solve all the issues, and make it Bluetooth compatible (at least for the video function). I haven't tried on slideshows though (this because I am mainly using photowalls, where you can't skip or go back).

So the Bluetooth Function navigation basically already works in Version 9. But they are not registered as multimedia keys, just keyboard letters (which is OK i guess, as long as it works.

Don't know why I haven't tried this before. But for so far it basically works, but the add multiple keys to a certain function would be a great addition, regardless if Bluetooth Devices are registered as multimedia keys, or just letters on the keyboard.

So my main request would be, to allow for multiple key's to be assigned to a single shortcut. Then the Bluetooth navigation and normal keyboard navigation would be solved entirely, and this way you get the best of both worlds...

[EDIT] It worked for 1 slideshow I made, I tried to configure it for another slideshow as well, now the Bluetooth commands are not recognized (whilst Winamp does) and tried to simply map the P, Q, and G keys as registered by the Bluetooth commands to the, next, previous and pause. But this time the slideshow does not register the shortcuts. I'll try to fiddle some more with this, and see if I can get it to work. I'll keep you posted...!

Update, I managed to map the shortcuts with instead of my headphones through my speaker it then gets recognized, but then they won't work on my headphones, expect for the pause function... Don't know what going on here...

Note, the key presses registered by the Bluetooth Devices "P, Q, G" do not work as keyboard shortcuts as well...

So currently tried this with 3 Bluetooth devices, two of them work, my speaker, cheap ear buds, but not my Sennheiser PXC-550 II (which is my go to headphones, and that does actually get registered by Winamp, so don't know what's going on).

Did a reboot, tried to connecting different Bluetooth Devices, and now the Sennheiser PXC-550 II (Which I initially used to set up the first hotkeys is now working again...) I'll post a pic of all the Bluetooth devices I own, and let you if they are all compatible with the same shortcuts...

Sorry about any confusion, just trying to troubleshoot it with you together!

Thanks!

Have a great day!

Kind regards,
Levien

[Levien]

So here's a little update:

I tried the mapped settings out on all my Bluetooth enabled audio devices (see attached picture).

It turns out, they all have the same mapping scheme: "P for next video, Q for previous Video, and G for Pause".

They all work the same! And they do all support the gPhotoShow navigation method.

Although I am running into another problem.

Whereas, everytime I click Next Video, it sometimes goes back to the previous video, sometimes 3 or 4 times in a row, this is not Bluetooth Device Related, but I don't know, it seems like a glitch (I am pressing the right control buttons to navigate). And never had this problem with Keyboard shortcuts. It jumps back and forth every now and then between video, no matter if you click next video, it will sometimes show you the previous video. Pause however always works!

Other than that the functionality seems to work! But there's two major factors that needs to be addressed for this to work.
1 = Consequent mapping of the hotkey, so next video is always next (and does not go back to previous video)
2 = Multiple key bindings per hotkeys...

Here's an overview of all the Bluetooth devices I've tested it on, from cheap to very expensive.

At least now we know that all the Hotkeys, use the same command and or keyboard shortcut (expect for when pressing P, Q, or G on the Keyboard does not work), that's where the secondary keybinding should come in, in case you do want to navigate by keyboard...

BLUETOOTH DEVICES copy.jpg (792.84 KiB) Viewed 8599 times

[Levien]

Somehow the back and forth glitch just disappeared. Seems to work ok now.

As for the PXC-550 II binding, It's very inconsistent whilst it is being recognized by a particular slideshow as navigation commands it just skips, and goes to previous etc. But whenever I try to map another slideshow with the same buttons after closing the slideshow, and opening the gPhotoShow slideshow maker. The commands are suddenly not detected, whilst they are working in Winamp for example.

It is strange, as this was the first Headphone I tested it out with and mapped the first slideshow with these hotkeys. I tried turning it off and on again, to no avail, however it is detected in the slideshow after the commands are already mapped to the shortcuts...

So i have to use another Bluetooth Device to set up the mapping, and then it works with the PXC-550 II as well, but I don't get it. The PXC-550 II was the first go to headphone that I used to map in the shortcuts to begin with, now all of a sudden it seems to have stopped working.

Don't know whats going on here. I'll keep fiddling with it for a few days, and write you an update...

Hope this helps a bit in terms of development!

Thanks for effort and input!

UPDATE: (I also tried turning off my phones Bluetooth function entirely as to not have double connections). Now I have disabled the Bluetooth function entirely on the Sennheiser PXC 550 II too, then connected it straight with USB-A to USB-Micro, plugged that into my computer (it then becomes it own sounds device/soundcard), yes that's another great feature of this headphone, it can be used over audio jack, USB or Bluetooth, with the USB connection I am able to map the Navigation buttons inside gPhotoShow. I don't get it, mapping with all my other Bluetooth Devices Works just fine.

So it's not really a hardware navigation button failure, it just seems like something is occupying it's controls whilst trying to map over Bluetooth inside the gPhotoShow maker...

Just really confused...

Would be great if there was just a default option to "check" to turn on Bluetooth Navigation. As we now know most if not all Bluetooth devices use the same commands...

Eagerly awaiting the next update !

[gpb]

The problem is quite simple, gPhotoShow Pro version 9 doesn't support media keys, the hotkey control that it uses to grab the key press detects them as normal keys but they won't work. because of the way media keys are handled if you are playing a video the media player may get those keys.
gPhotoShow Pro 10 will handle most common media keys and will allow you to bind 2 different keys for each hotkey, but there will be some limitations.
- Volume keys are always handled by windows
- Next track and Previous track from bluetooth devices work only if gPhotoShow is playing audio or video. This is due to the way device driver or windows implemented keys handling.
It's also quite understandable, those keys are used to change track when playing video or audio and the system tries to send them to the player even if it is not in foreground.