Mac Remote- all in one

**rootxploit** · January 23rd, 2009, 04:56 PM

I'm looking for a remote that can do DVD, TV, etc., but also communicate with my mac-mini running Boxee. I've got remote buddy, so I suppose that I could remap keys.
A nice, affordable preferably <$100 remote that can do this.

or

Alternatively,
I've got a snapstream firefly remote that I could to get working, maybe with LIRC. The problem with LIRC is that documentation on mac isn't too good or simple.

**Septimus** · January 24th, 2009, 08:50 PM

My Logitech Harmony works. I'm controlling my TV, DVR, Receiver, 360, and MacBook with it. (I did have to detect the Mac remote commands manually, but there aren't that many of them.)

**Tom Dibble** · January 27th, 2009, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Septimus

(I did have to detect the Mac remote commands manually, but there aren't that many of them.)

Harmony supports the Apple Remote out of the box. I believe AppleTV is one of the "media center" devices, and the codes it sends to it are Apple Remote codes. Call your Mac an AppleTV and all works as you would expect (FrontRow is essentially AppleTV's Finder, so ...) The only catch is pairing/unpairing; there's only one identifier that Logitech ships with, so you couldn't for instance pair one Harmony remote with your ATV and another with your MacBook and not expect crosstalk. That should be the ONLY time you'll need to worry about manually teaching the Harmony Apple Remote codes.

I had serious reservations about the Harmony for years, wondering how well it would react to the system getting "out of sync" with the remote. Got one about a year ago (a 680 I believe), and absolutely love it. It's a great remote! And, oddly enough, took less than a quarter of the time to configure than my previous clunky uber-remote (primarily thanks to using my Mac to set it up rather than trying to key things in on the arcane remote interface).

**medfordite** · January 28th, 2009, 01:18 PM

I used a Basic $15 radio shack learning remote to control my iMac as a back up just in case the Apple remote should get lost. Really easy to do and the hardest part for me I think was trying to decide what key to use as the up/down etc.. I have it controlling my receiver, TV, Both DVD recorders and the Mac now.

**Zenara25** · February 4th, 2009, 10:35 AM

i'm hoping that boxee will be added to the harmony software program. so that instead of only 6 buttons copied from the apple remote we can use many more. plex did this already

and it's available inside the harmony software program.

getsatisfaction link
http://getsatisfaction.com/boxee/top...ols_on_appletv