AppleTV 2 (black) Interesting find on learning remotes

J_K_M_A_N · 2012-04-24 04:52

I found out that you can program the Apple TV 2 remote to learn another remote. I'm sure most people knew that. The interesting thing I found is that you can use the same remote to learn the same functions but with different buttons. The reason that can be good is because, when you are in a menu or a list of movies or songs, you don't need to rewind or fast forward (unless maybe if you leave something playing). So what you can do is have the Apple TV 2 learn the remote buttons for rewind and fast forward and then have them learn those again with different buttons (like vol up and vol down). That way, you can program XBMC to use rewind to jump up one letter (PrevLetter) and fast forward to just down one letter (NextLetter). Then you can jump one letter at a time using the vol up and vol down instead of (or actually, in addition to) using rewind and fast forward.

So far I reuse some buttons to jump letter by letter (in lists) and other buttons to show codec info (in video playing) and exit XBMC.

Maybe nobody will care or maybe everybody already knows this. Just thought I would post it anyway. I haven't tested a lot but what I have done seems to work so far.

J_K_M_A_N

**Ned Scott** · 2012-04-25 02:24

I think we had mentioned something like this in the iOS FAQ, but not very clearly (it is mixed with Harmony remote stuff, I think). Will have to remember to expand/clarify it, because it is a nice feature.

J_K_M_A_N · 2012-04-25 05:38

I think I found what you were talking about in the Wiki but what I meant was to have the Apple TV learn the same remote twice (two different profiles). On the one profile you can have rewind and fast forward mapped to the rewind and fast forward buttons and then on the second profile you map those to the volume up and volume down. So now the volume up and rewind button both send the rewind command. Same for the other set. Then you can do something like this in the joystick.appleremote.xml

Code:

<MyVideoLibrary>

    <joystick name="AppleRemote">

      <button id="18">NextLetter</button>

      <button id="19">PrevLetter</button>

    </joystick>

  </MyVideoLibrary>

  <MyVideoFiles>

    <joystick name="AppleRemote">

      <button id="18">NextLetter</button>

      <button id="19">PrevLetter</button>

    </joystick>

  </MyVideoFiles>

That way you have a button that is up and down (if you want to use volume up and down) and it is easier to remember how to go up a letter and down a letter. Not that it is that difficult to remember that rewind jumps back and fast forward jumps ahead but it does make it much more wife friendly I think.

I haven't had time to do a lot of testing yet but it did seem to work for me. It didn't seem to send double key presses or anything.

Maybe it wasn't as interesting as I thought. Wink

J_K_M_A_N

**Memphiz** · 2012-04-25 14:18

Damn ... am i to stupid or why don't i get that one? You do what? And stick what into what? And it is driving how fast what?

Could you put a video up to youtube? Wink

J_K_M_A_N · 2012-04-25 15:07

I knew I wouldn't be able to describe that well. I will see if I can get something together to show it better. Smile

J_K_M_A_N

J_K_M_A_N Fan Posts: 443 Joined: Feb 2006 Reputation: 1 Location: Minnesota	2012-04-25 15:07 Post: #5 I knew I wouldn't be able to describe that well. I will see if I can get something together to show it better. J_K_M_A_N
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