[MAC] HOW-TO setup Logitech Harmony Remote for use with XBMC for Mac OS X

goon Wrote:Will this work with the apple tv? I setup the logitech remote but the buttons are all screwy. I am running the 9.11 build.

turbinez Wrote:is this the best remote for xbmc on mac? also will this remote work for xbmc running on the appletv?

Have a look at post 41, might be useful.

Hello everyone,
This post is up to date as of version 9.11 of XBMC and I have made no modifications in the commands, everything is Stock.

By popular demand, here is a complete HOW-TO to control your appleTV-XBMC, this is going to be a long post but hopefully it will solve other people's problems as well.

I have answered some questions in the past about this and kept wondering why some people still had trouble.
First , a bit of history, I have had my AppleTV since they came out and I believe I am the one that had the Logitech people add it to the list of devices. I have never since changed that setup but, as some of you may have read, I did modify the commands within XBMC. Also, I have tried to use the Harmony setup found under Settings>System>Input devices>Apple remote > Multi remote (Harmony) but could never get it to work and now I know why. I had sent a ticket to the XBMC staff to make changes to the remote commands and the ticket was accepted but could never see the changes because I had the wrong setup. Yes, me too, and I apologize for silently doubting the excellent XBMC staff.

Originally, back in 2007, my device in the Harmony setup was called Media Device Centre PC, manufacturer was Apple and model number was MA-711LL/A but I discovered today that there exists another entry for the Apple TV and it is aptly called Apple TV, still under Media Centre PC and still under Apple but as you can see it offers quite a bit more control. Here is a list of commands available under both devices.
Original device: Apple TV (Apple MA-711LL/A)

Newer device: Media Centre PC (Apple Apple TV)


So, anyway, I went back to the Harmony setup and saw that in the device section there was a message saying there was an update for the AppleTV device, I answered yes and updated the remote. OUCH, nothing worked anymore so DON'T DO IT.

Simply create a new device, Media Centre PC > Apple > Apple TV and keep your original one as a backup, just in case.

At this point it would be wise to check your original Apple TV Activity setup and copy down the different input/output settings for the devices. And don't bother trying Copy/Paste, it does not work… Thanks Logitech

Now create a new Activity with your TV, Receiver and the new Apple TV device.

Click Add New Activity, choose "No - manually add Activity" and click Next
Choose Utility and click next new choose "Generic Activity ( Create a custom Activity" and click next and next again
In this screen you will add the devices you need to watch the Apple TV and after that you will be asked for the different input/output settings that you jotted down previously for each device but when setting up the Apple TV, don't select Frontrow, select the second option, the one that says something like "No special setup for this device"


Now still in Harmony, under Activities, choose Customize Buttons and set them as follows:




And lastly, Select the Additional Buttons tab and set them as follows:


Now, update the remote.
You may have to use the Pair/Unpair remote buttons on the additional Buttons screen in the remote for the remote to work but it will. Next you have to go to the Settings > System > Input devices > Apple Remote and select Disable, you will be asked to confirm this and then select Harmony. Again, you may have to use the Pair/Unpair remote buttons on the additional Buttons screen. Lastly, you want to check if the original Apple remote still works and if not, move it close to the Apple TV and keep Menu and the Left button pressed for 5 seconds to Pair it.

And that's it, if everything is to your satisfaction, you could delete your original AppleTV Activity.

I hope this helps some people and wish you all a wonderful New Year and to the XBMC team and contributors, THANK YOU

Edit: Obviously, certain button settings apply only to my equipment, i.e: Stereo receiver and TV

This HOW-TO is for the Apple TV only, not for OSX and using this HOW-TO, you won't have to mod the keymap file everytime you wish to change SVN, everything is built in XBMC

Great post jpf55. Everything works great.

It looks like there's no option for the menu button. OM the xbox version it's the "Title" button. Without it, I don't know how you'd access playlist functions or, most importantly, "Update Library" (that one's pretty darn important)

Does the Apple TV version just not support this button, or is there some way to get to it?

my + and - signs do volume for the ATV. How can I get the big skip forward and backwards. Thats my major draw back. Well besides not getting anything beign discussed about the linux stuff. But that is another topic.

I figured it out. By going to another thread on another discussion about this. Thanks jpf55

goon Wrote:my + and - signs do volume for the ATV. How can I get the big skip forward and backwards. Thats my major draw back. Well besides not getting anything beign discussed about the linux stuff. But that is another topic.

I figured it out. By going to another thread on another discussion about this. Thanks jpf55

Care to share what you found?

As it turns out, you were right, I had made this change to joystick.AppleRemote.xml
and I assumed that now that I had selected Harmony as the input device, that the joystick.AppleRemote.xml would not be used but it still is and when I reverted to the original, sure enough + and - controlled the sound. Not good for me but I really am curious how you fixed it.
Thanks

Maybe this apple TV info should be moved to a separate (sticky?) thread so as not to confuse the OS X set-up info and to make apple TV specific info easier to find?

I'm not sure exactly what your asking but I'll try to answer as far as I what I've noticed. It doesnt matter what you put in xbmc for ATV, since it only gets the original ir signals from the apple tv remote. What your fix does is simply eliminate the volume function in xbmc and adds the 10 minute skip. Since I use the tv or stereo for volume I just add that to my logitech remote and I'm good. On a side note Maestrodd has said that the best choice for ATV right now is to use the native remote learning feature that apple has. I hope I answered your question. Your post gave me what I needed o get, so I'm good.

goon Wrote:I hope I answered your question. Your post gave me what I needed to get, so I'm good.

Yes you did, thank you,

I had also come to the same conclusion especially now that the new setup offers FastForward and Rewind, my + and - fix is no longer needed.

yea thats true but I'm so used to the xbox that I want to get everything the same way. Now on to this linux stick