How to edit your SlingPlayer Remote Skin-Part 3-Always Show

There is a lot of things you can do with the remote skins for the SlingPlayer for Windows program. We discussed the basics and how to edit your default looking remote in the first 2 articles How to edit your SlingPlayer Remote Skin-Part 1 and How to edit your SlingPlayer Remote Skin-Part 2.

In this article we are going to show you how you can have any one remote be shown at any time for any device. There may not be a lot of demand for this but this will also show how the player program finds and uses which remote skin.

In this example we will show you how to have a realistic TiVo remote available for any device you are connecting to.

You first need the Zipped compressed skin file for the remote. The specific TiVo one is available here, if looking for a different remote you can find them all here. As shown in our earlier articles you also need to Property.xml file which is available here.

To get the proper coding for all the default remotes available you will also need to download the default skin file located here.

Once you have the files you would UnZip the Tivo file and the  Property XML file into one folder. Let’s call the folder\Tivo.

Then unZip the Default skin file and put that into another folder. Let’s call this one \Default.

Now you are ready to edit the files. Which is actually fairly simple.

Open up the Remote.xml file in the “\Default” folder in a simple text editor like Notepad or an XML file editing program.

At the top of the file you will see this:

<Links>
<Link k=”ANTENNA” remote=”Keypad” keymap=”TUNER” />
<Link k=”CABLEANT” remote=”Keypad” keymap=”TUNER” />
<Link k=”ANTENNA.ATSC” remote=”Keypad.atsc” keymap=”TUNER” />
<Link k=”PVR” remote=”PVR-VCR” keymap=”PVR” />
<Link k=”VCR” remote=”PVR-VCR” keymap=”VCR” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX” remote=”STB” keymap=”CABLEBOX” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE” remote=”STB” keymap=”SATELLITE” />
<Link k=”DVDP” remote=”DVD” keymap=”DVDP” />
<Link k=”DVDR” remote=”DVD” keymap=”DVDP” />
<Link k=”PVR.SMTEST” remote=”SMTEST” keymap=”PVR” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.*.S0775″ keymap=”SATELLITE.S0775″ />
<Link k=”DVDP.Philips” keymap=”DVD.Philips” />
<Link k=”DVDR.Philips” keymap=”DVD.Philips” />
<Link k=”DVDP.CyberHome” keymap=”DVD.Cyberhome” />
<Link k=”DVDP.CyberHome.Y0816″ keymap=”DVD.Cyberhome.Y0816″ />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TVA.C1753″ keymap=”idmap.TVA.1753″ />
<Link k=”PVR.TVA.V1752″ keymap=”idmap.TVA.PVR” />
</Links>

Copy everything between the <Links> and the </Links> code to your clipboard. Then close out this file and open up the Remote.xml file in the “\Tivo” folder.

In that file you will see this:

<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1111″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1111″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1111″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1295″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1295″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1295″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1296″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1296″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1296″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1297″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1297″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1297″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1298″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1298″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1298″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1299″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1299″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1299″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />

What you want to do is paste the code you copied earlier after the first <Links> and before the first Tivo link.  Afterwards it should look like this.

<Links>
<Link k=”ANTENNA” remote=”Keypad” keymap=”TUNER” />
<Link k=”CABLEANT” remote=”Keypad” keymap=”TUNER” />
<Link k=”ANTENNA.ATSC” remote=”Keypad.atsc” keymap=”TUNER” />
<Link k=”PVR” remote=”PVR-VCR” keymap=”PVR” />
<Link k=”VCR” remote=”PVR-VCR” keymap=”VCR” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX” remote=”STB” keymap=”CABLEBOX” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE” remote=”STB” keymap=”SATELLITE” />
<Link k=”DVDP” remote=”DVD” keymap=”DVDP” />
<Link k=”DVDR” remote=”DVD” keymap=”DVDP” />
<Link k=”PVR.SMTEST” remote=”SMTEST” keymap=”PVR” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.*.S0775″ keymap=”SATELLITE.S0775″ />
<Link k=”DVDP.Philips” keymap=”DVD.Philips” />
<Link k=”DVDR.Philips” keymap=”DVD.Philips” />
<Link k=”DVDP.CyberHome” keymap=”DVD.Cyberhome” />
<Link k=”DVDP.CyberHome.Y0816″ keymap=”DVD.Cyberhome.Y0816″ />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TVA.C1753″ keymap=”idmap.TVA.1753″ />
<Link k=”PVR.TVA.V1752″ keymap=”idmap.TVA.PVR” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1111″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1111″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1111″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1295″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1295″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1295″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1296″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1296″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1296″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1297″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1297″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1297″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1298″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1298″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1298″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”PVR.TiVo.V1299″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”CABLEBOX.TiVo.V1299″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
<Link k=”SATELLITE.TiVo.V1299″ remote=”TIVO” keymap=”idmap.tivo” />
</Links>