Android Android Soft Keyboard That Supports D-Pad Navigation (and stops

[Pleng]

So I have purchased a cheapy Chinese Android TV box

The built soft keyboard supports navigation via the remote-control's dpad. However, it also expands text boxes to fill the entire screen which looks ugly and is unintuitive.

All the soft keyboards I've tried so far don't cover the entire screen when an input box is selected, but they also don't support navigating around the keyboard buttons with the dpad.

Does anybody know of a soft input method that covers both these needs?

 

[pwsincd]

Sorry no , i havent looked , i replaced my remote with a mini keyboard
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004FSFYG8/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

it is almost perfect , im left handed grrr....

 

[mrtofu]

deleted

 

[Pleng]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard

That doesn't solve the issue I have.
That keyboard *has* a D-Pad but it doesn't support navigation of the keys from a device's built-in keyboard.

Sorry no , i havent looked , i replaced my remote with a mini keyboard
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004FSFYG8/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

it is almost perfect , im left handed grrr....

Well, firstly I don't want to loose the features of the remote control, though I suppose I could use the two together and ditch the on screen keyboard all together. But a bigger issue is that my box doesn't have bluetooth!

I wonder if a USB bluetooth dongle would work...

 

[pwsincd]

mines usb not BT. plus the little mouse bad is really good. I havent yet needed the remote , its mainly used as a media player

which android device did you get , this is mine : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006O8O2ME/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Pleng]

mines usb not BT. plus the little mouse bad is really good. I havent yet needed the remote , its mainly used as a media player

Yea the mouse pad is good. I used to have one, but it was a bluetooth one.

Anyway using one of those isn't an option. I actually *like* the remote and it's not only me who has to operate it. Plus trailing a great long USB cable across the floor to the sofa isn't really on either. (edit: just realized that one is a wireless USB jobbie... I might consider it... I did like the last one I had)

It looks like there are no soft keyboards that support both the features I need... so I'll probably just have to program one myself

which android device did you get , this is mine : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006O8O2ME/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got it. Looks like pretty much the same thing - remote is identical, at least! Slightly different version of Android. Does yours support gamepads?

 

[pwsincd]

im not sure if it does , i havent seen litrature to suggest it , and havent tried any , i have a shitty generic pc gamepad i could try i guess. The one you bought i think is the newer model to mine , that i actually missed when buying from amazon , and only seen a day later.

 

[Pleng]

im not sure if it does , i havent seen litrature to suggest it , and havent tried any , i have a shitty generic pc gamepad i could try i guess. The one you bought i think is the newer model to mine , that i actually missed when buying from amazon , and only seen a day later.

A newer model doesn't mean it supports more features though I saw one with a component output that would have been perfect for me (my TV has one component and one HDMI... the Cable box uses is HDMI only so a component output would have been ideal), but then I noticed that in the description it said that the component output was not supported and would be enabled in a later software update. Decided against paying the 20 quid extra for a feature that would probably never arrive!

If you could try the joypad it would be, well, interesting. I need to find a working (or compile) joydev.ko that's compatible with my kernal. As you're using a different version of Android I guess I couldn't just sneak a copy of yours if it *is* working (although if the Linux kernel version is the same perhaps it might work... hmm), but at least it would give me hope that the manufacturers do actually compile it for some systems, hence hope that I might be able to eventually find one for mine!

I'm working on a TV friendly launcher project at the moment. Fancy testing it out when it gets to a suitable stage?

 

[pwsincd]

sure , ill test it out , does your box come with some launcher , this does although ive set it to just launch regular android. Also my box has composite , is the main reason i bought it as were going on holiday soon an it was intended to have as much functionality possible to cater for whatever TV we find in our villa.
So maybe ill check that composite works , if i think on , when im in from work tonight ill try the gamepad i have.

 

[Pleng]

Thanks it'll be good to know about the joypad.

Yea mine comes with a launcher called TVDLauncher which is pretty poor. I've changed the device's display density to a more sensible value than default so that I can actually download a decent amount of apps from the play store, and the fonts on the TVDLauncher are all messed up as a result. My 'launcher' (it's being designed as an interface for set top boxes and kiosk systems, so doesn't have all the features you'd necessarily expect from an Android launcher) is going to be much better - well even at this early stage, it already is better than TVD

My device also has composite. I haven't tested it out yet but I'm pretty sure it will work.

 

[pwsincd]

My joypad is a super cheap edition , it has a D pad , 4 buttons and four shoulder buttons . The Dpad worked fine allowed my to scroll around Android UI and also had some success in the limited games we have installed. The butons were a different story , none of the shoulder buttons did anything , the other 4 regular buttons worked for clicking as would the mouse buttons , but seemed to struggle in the couple of games we have installed , but i guess thats just the games . So on the face of it , usb gamepad will work.

 

[Pleng]

That's good. Unfortunately they don't on my unit, but it gives me more hope that I will at least SOME day be able to get it fixed up.