[BDPNA]

Anyone found any workarounds for the two bugs introduced by Lion, or any developers had a shot at 10.7.3 to see if either were fixed? These two bugs are the most annoying things from Lion and directly affect XBMC:

1) After playing any file that uses DTS or DD5.1 tracks, all sound stops working and you totally have to exit and restart XBMC to get sound each time you play a new video file.

2) The remote control (harmony but I assume any) won't wake the Mac Mini anymore, you need to press a mouse or keyboard button to wake it up from sleep.

[Ned Scott]

Number 2 isn't considered a bug by Apple, and affects all macs with an IR port. I think it's caused by a change in the way power savings is handled. I'm guessing the IR port is completely powered off during sleep to save more power, but that's just a shot in the dark.

Similarly, the trackpad on Mac laptops running Lion will not wake a sleeping display (even if the computer itself is not asleep).

[BDPNA]

Thanks Ned, that would actually make sense. So the fix there would be somehow tricking the IR port to not shut off during sleep or to convince Apple to turn it back on.

Also - I wanted to let the team know I just installed the Lion 10.7.3 developers build and the sound bug has not been fixed by Apple. After playing a video in XBMC that uses DTS or DD I have to totally exit and restart XBMC to get sound back.

Mac Mini connected using Toslink audio. Using 11/14 nightly.

[User 34959]

In my case it wouldn't wake up after doing an upgrade from SL to Lion, but a clean install of Lion fixed it.

[Aonoa]

Here is a bit from my experiences with my Mac Mini, with DTS and DD sound:

Scenario 1:
In XBMC, if I set the sound output device to "default system device" (which is set to HDMI in OSX's settings), then my playback sound disappears after playing DTS or DD content until I quit XBMC. I think this is because OSX at this point has temporarily changed it's default sound output device due to something XBMC does.

Scenario 2:
Setting the XBMC sound output device to "HDMI" specifically kind of fixes the problem from the scenario above. My playback sound/music does not disappear after playing DTS or DD sound, but the XBMC skin sound effects is played using the Mac Mini internal speaker. That is probably because at this point, OSX's default sound output has temporarily changed due to something XBMC does. At the moment I can live with skin sound effects playing on the internal speaker, since I don't have to keep restarting XBMC as long as I have this configuration.

It seems to me that XBMC hogs the sound device after you play DTS/DD content, to the extent that OSX (10.7.2) itself cannot access the device. This is evident by the fact that if I open VLC after this bug happens (keeping XBMC in the background), and try to play something using the same sound output, it will tell me that the output is in use by something else and will not play anything (even if XBMC is not actually playing anything at the moment). The only way to have OSX or VLC access sound over HDMI again in this case, is to quit XBMC.

I wrote about this in a ticket I created: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/12177

[atandon]

Hmm.... #2 "kind of" works for me

I am able to get the mini to wake up with the apple remote. But it goes right back to sleep

[BDPNA]

I'll have to try a clean Lion install. Need a little time for that. Curious to see if it works. I had indeed upgraded from SL to Lion.

I'm not sure if it's the new XBMC build or 10.7.3 but it does seem that I can now play multiple files with sound. The interface sound effects stop working after playing the first DTS/DD file but at least I no longer have to exit and restart XBMC to play another file with sound. So that's progress for sure. I can live with the interface sound effects dying after first video played.

[gatto_mannaro]

I'm guessing the IR port is completely powered off during sleep to save more power, but that's just a shot in the dark.

not really.
the remote starts xbmc for instance, but the screen isn't turned on :-(

[activate]

The macmini is waking for me with the apple remote and functioning normally afterwards. Am using remotebuddy. There is an issue where if you are only playing audio, it will stop (sleep) when the display settings are set to sleep. This is where you have it connected via hdmi.

[gatto_mannaro]

The macmini is waking for me with the apple remote and functioning normally afterwards. Am using remotebuddy. There is an issue where if you are only playing audio, it will stop (sleep) when the display settings are set to sleep. This is where you have it connected via hdmi.

it's a pity to have to use a commercial software to do the same that with 10.6 was present in the OS :-(
I've never used remote buddy... is there a way to use it in a "full transparent" way? I mean... I don't need extra features, I would like to do what the remote was doing in the older OS... so run xbmc pressing play and then its mapped keys

[activate]

This is my first use of a remote with a mac so I am not sure how the functionality was previously. By peoples comments it sounds like that it was pretty good. Anyway, they have a free 30 day complete trial. I haven't configured anything yet but it has a lot of support for apps as well as customisation including mapping. Obviously we need solutions to use the mini as a htpc. This is one of them.

EDIT: It is almost "fully transparent". You won't see it within xbmc and it works like an xbmc remote. You'll see remote buddy's gui, only if you want to access other apps or other mac settings etc. There may be a way to mimize that as well.

[gatto_mannaro]

EDIT: It is almost "fully transparent". You won't see it within xbmc and it works like an xbmc remote. You'll see remote buddy's gui, only if you want to access other apps or other mac settings etc. There may be a way to mimize that as well.

ok thank you a lot!
I'll do a test later... it seems to me not so user friendly but maybe I was wrong :-)
I'd like to have another "click and play" remote :-)
Anyway, first of all I've to fix the digital audio problem :-(
thank you
GM

[activate]

The long press of the menu button is the hot key to bring up rb's GUI which is the context menu button in xbmc, so this would need remapping. Don't know what to do about sleeping/audio issue. Apple said it was a feature request.

[gatto_mannaro]

TO THE DEVELOPERS:
about the wake from sleep... I noticed that when I press play button of the remote, XMBC is launched, but the screen is still off.
So have you ever tried a simple trick, that is to include in xbmc an automatic "key stroke" when it is launched? it should be enough to turn the video on as well.
best regards