Hi all,
today i got pissed off by the fact that the responsiveness in the full screen mode in media center was terrible that i started to investigate and found the root of this cause: the IR receiver is way too sensitive and pick up IR noise generated by the TV. for some reason the blue color of the menu generates higher IR noise than other colors and therefor disrupts the reception of the remote control signals. in my case this IR noise was generated by my Panasonic TH50PZ80 plasma tv.
to test if this is your case as well (and it probably is) simply switch the media center to high contrast white or black color scheme and you will immediately see the difference in the responsiveness of the remote. you can also use the IRtrans's Display Detected commands window to see what is going on. while look at the desktop the window won't be showing any commands received at all as soon as you switch on MCE to full screen and look at the detected commands you will probably see a lot of activity - in my case these were SS, SS01, SS10 etc.
there are several solutions to this problem:
1) disable 100Hz mode on your TV - not really a solution, but this workaround will reduce the IR noise by 50%
2) reduce the sensitivity of the IR receiver
3) get a different TV
obviously only option 2 makes sense, therefor you need to find a material that would block IR noise but still let the IR commands of your remote to come thru...
i chose a floppy disk - simply break it into pieces to get to the rotating disc inside, use scissors to cut out a piece that will cover the sensor and tape it over the sensor using a transparent tape - preferably inside the case, not on the outside (as that would not be very aesthetical).
voila! the IR noise is blocked and the remote works as a charm
i hope it will make you as happy as it made me... now i can finally control my MCE again.