[krade]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I have tried 2 remotes that I am running on both my iPhone and iPod Touch to control the ATV2 & XBMC. (Note: I am sure these apps would also work on an iPad too). They are called RemoteHD and HippoRemote. I am told Rowmote (another app) also works (I did not purchase it so no experience here).

RemoteHD now works with the ATV2 as of a few days ago. You have access to the keyboard on the remote if you need it plus it includes all necessary navigation buttons. It runs through your wireless AP and then accesses the ATV2 so line of site is not required. It requires that you install a package on your ATV2 - RemoteHD supplies the instructions on their site. It works great / only 1 issue found so far. They currently have a bug where a long MENU press does not work where the menu closes after you release the menu button. I have emailed them and they are adresssing the issue.

HippoRemote is the better of the two. I emailed the company and they said it should work if the Exposed VNC Package is installed on the ATV2 - eventhough their site says ATV is not supported. For some reason, Exposed VNC was enabled on my ATV2 (perhaps from the RemoteHD installation but I am not sure as I am no expert). At any rate, the great feature that HippoRemote has is the ability to customize the buttons and keypress strokes behind the buttons by way of a template that you can configure and save right on your iPod or iPhone. I tried it briefly this evening on my ATV2 tonight (using an existing template I had) with Exposed VNC running and it worked great! You also have access to a keyboard and it runs via wireless AP like RemoteHD. I also use this remote on an HTPC in my Theater as well because you can customize it so easily. I run a certain skin and wanted only some options on the remote enabled but not others. I highly recommend it because of the flexability to customize your setup. I have not found anything else like it as I have tested other remote setups.

Hope this helps someone out. Please note I am early on in testing these on the ATV2 so I will post back if I find any issues.

[krade]

One other issue that I did forget to mention that I find minor is that the remote does lose connectivity with the ATV when you exit out of XBMC. This happens I believe because lowtide restarts or something when you exit out of XBMC. You just have reconnect the remote with a simple keypress (on both programs above). I don't think there is any way to prevent this from happening.

[dangermoose]

Thanks for the tip! I use Hippo remote on my main HTPC but never thought of trying to get it working with my ATV. New task this evening I think!

[JediKnight2]

I use RowmotePro and it works great. I will have to look at the Hippo one.

[dukevim]

Thanks for this great suggestion, I also already had Hippo remote, but couldn't work out how to use it with ATV2 - however you are completely correct, simply installing the RemoteHD (seemingly a generic VNC server in reality) means it works perfectly (I couldn't find the instructions to install Exposed VNC in English, so RemoteHD was much simpler).

Also this means that I can enter text etc... easily from my iPhone, so if you don't have a bluetooth keyboard, this can really simplify those long API keys and weird file paths.

[jd2157]

Thanks for this great suggestion, I also already had Hippo remote, but couldn't work out how to use it with ATV2 - however you are completely correct, simply installing the RemoteHD (seemingly a generic VNC server in reality) means it works perfectly (I couldn't find the instructions to install Exposed VNC in English, so RemoteHD was much simpler).

Also this means that I can enter text etc... easily from my iPhone, so if you don't have a bluetooth keyboard, this can really simplify those long API keys and weird file paths.

If I'm not mistaken you can enter text using the latest Apple Remote app too, as long as you are using the unofficial nightly builds.

[dreux13]

Hey Guys,

I've been itching to really just get the keyboard functionality working on a remote app so I can easily type the captchas in on the atv2 and do searches. I have the xbmc remote, apple remote app, and hippo lite app. I don't want to buy any more apps unless I know they will work!

Will any of these work and/or will the apps mentioned in the above posts work on a general release of XBMC (2/19 release)? I don't use the nightly builds since we heavily depend on our atv2.

Thanks in advance!

[krade]

Those I noted in the first post work fine on the 2/19 release. See issue in post #2, but it is going to happen on any wireless type remote iphone remote that uses the network / vnc capability for connectivity. Further, the TAB key is not working right now in the official release; but someone pointed it out it was fixed in the unofficial release - not a deal breaker at all. You really cannot go wrong for how inexpensive the remotes are.

Also if you use these remotes, you will need to install additional packages on your ATV2.

[dreux13]

Those I noted in the first post work fine on the 2/19 release. See issue in post #2, but it is going to happen on any wireless type remote iphone remote that uses the network / vnc capability for connectivity. Further, the TAB key is not working right now in the official release; but someone pointed it out it was fixed in the unofficial release - not a deal breaker at all. You really cannot go wrong for how inexpensive the remotes are.

Also if you use these remotes, you will need to install additional packages on your ATV2.

Awesome! I went with the remotehd and it works like a charm. Thanks so much!