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Remote Buddy Forum

Overview 

AuthorThread
User

10.10.2007 00:02:21
Many problems and suggestions to RB 1.7
View
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
Hi all

Felix, first let me congratulate you for such a wonderful program. I tried it for just a few days and it was enough to made my mind and buy it. Then I had the great surprise to see that you are very active on the forums and actually listen to users, that is really great.

I took note of many things while testing and configuring RB in my environment, and thought I could post them here to get some help and make some suggestions. Here they are:

Hardware: Mac Mini, core 2 Duo, 1.86GHz w/ 1GB RAM 
Controls: Original Apple remote and a PS3 remote 
RB Version: 1.7 (the last one now)

1) I spent a good many hours configuring the extra keys of the PS3 BD remote, since the default config only maps the 6-keys equivalent of the apple control. All the applications now have the behaviour one could expect for each specific key on the PS3 remote. I could share this if you want, to save you time in the next version.

2) I don't now about the wii, but even in RB 1.7 the PS3 still suffers from not being found in the RB wizzard, you must go to the Preferences/Bluetooth, start pairing there, close the application when it asks to type the passcode, and then RB can find the remote.

3) The batteries really last for about one week (new alcaline batt). Will play with disconnection to see if I can increase that.

4) Could you implemente an option to print a chart with the configuration you have for each key? I keep going back on the RB preferences to remember which key I associated with which function, as I just finished configuring and cannot still remember everything. Printing them would be great.

5) Having a place to check the level of batteries of PS3 and wii remotes would be great.

6) There's some bugs in the PS3 picure: first, the blue and yellow buttons are swapped. In my control, at least. The interesting is that someplaces you must configure them thinking about the phisycal position, and other places you must consider the color. Second, the scan right button is not clickable as all the others... and if you select it from the list of buttons, you can see that the blue-blinking-ring appeas much to the right, outside the picture of the control.

7) In 1.7, the double-click in virtual-mouse does not work. I think it worked on 1.1, but not sure. I configure a button for double click, but when I press it, a red circle appears and stays. Maybe it is double-clicking too fast, or maybe it is acting like click-and-hold? Single-clicking makes the red circle go away, but no double clicking. Pressing two times the click button still double-click.

8) iTunes is getting me nervous. It will not go away. Everytime it pops out of the blue. I cannot close it, it re-starts again. I have to ignore it. Then, many times, the iTunes behaviour comes back when I exit other behaviour, and some times it comes to front also. I have seen other people with this problem.

9) The keys that control Quicktime when it is running from inside front-row are different from the keys that control quicktime when it is running stand alone. I think this is expected and programmed behaviour, I just would like to know if you could make front-row use the stand alone keys, as the have more options and are more configurable (custom actions, etc.)

10) In version 1.7, Quicktime is completelly ignoring my configured keys while running stand alone, if I use the original configuration. But, if I change the keys to send apple virtual-remote presses, quicktime reacts OK. It is like if quicktime had support for apple remote itself, and were accepting only that. The specific quicktime control options in the configuration menu have no effect. The problem with changing all the controls to apple virtual remote is that you loose some options (while going fullscreen, etc). I'm pretty sure it was OK in 1.1.

11) Mplayer and VLC will not go fullscreen. They kind of do it, but they leave the menu bar on the top, which is annoying. Does this have a fix?

Sorry for the long list. And, again, thanks for RB.

These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic:

Behaviours
Configuration
Hardware
Hardware - Apple® Remote
Hardware - Harmony® Smart Control
Hardware - Sony® BD Remote Control
Hardware - Wii™ Remote
User

10.10.2007 01:58:01
Re: Many problems and suggestions to RB 1.7
View
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
Hi Andre,

thanks for the extensive feedback. Please find my comments below.

1) I spent a good many hours configuring the extra keys of the PS3 
BD remote, since the default config only maps the 6-keys equivalent 
of the apple control. All the applications now have the behaviour 
one could expect for each specific key on the PS3 remote. I could 
share this if you want, to save you time in the next version.

 
You're right. The default mapping for the BD Remote is not optimal and 
rather scarce outside of a few Behaviours that are prepared for it 
(iTunes, EyeTV, ..). I hope to be able to devote more time adding more 
complete default mappings in the near future.

Thanks for the offer. While I can't make direct use of it (default 
mappings all require actual code), I'd still love to take a look to 
see how you are using it. Please send the respective preference file 
to the info@ address of this domain (as seen in the imprint).

2) I don't now about the wii, but even in RB 1.7 the PS3 still 
suffers from not being found in the RB wizzard, you must go to the 
Preferences/Bluetooth, start pairing there, close the application 
when it asks to type the passcode, and then RB can find the remote.

 
This is a problem with Apple's Bluetooth stack. For reasons unknown to 
me, it will not provide Remote Buddy (or any sample code app from 
Apple that uses the documented Bluetooth API) with the name of the 
device until after you tried to set it up through the system's 
Bluetooth Assistant. This, however, only seems to affect a small 
number of remote/computer combinations. Right now, with the 
information I have at hand, only Apple can address this problem.

3) The batteries really last for about one week (new alcaline batt). 
Will play with disconnection to see if I can increase that.

 
Keep in mind the BD Remote will communicate with your computer even if 
you don't press a button to keep the connection alive. This, of 
course, consumes battery. So, if you don't need the BD Remote, you 
should disconnect it, which will greatly increase the time you can use 
your batteries before replacing/recharging them.

4) Could you implemente an option to print a chart with the 
configuration you have for each key? I keep going back on the RB 
preferences to remember which key I associated with which function, 
as I just finished configuring and cannot still remember everything. 
Printing them would be great.

 
Unless you mean actual printing to paper, it's already there. A press 
on the PS button - with default mapping - will enter the menu and 
display a chart with the current button mapping of the most important 
buttons. Due to space limitations, not all buttons of the BD Remote 
can be displayed there.

5) Having a place to check the level of batteries of PS3 and wii 
remotes would be great.

 
This is already implemented for the Wii™ Remotes. I have an idea of 
where to look for a battery power indicator for the BD Remote for now, 
but I'll have to do some further research before adding support for it.

6) There's some bugs in the PS3 picure: first, the blue and yellow 
buttons are swapped. In my control, at least. The interesting is 
that someplaces you must configure them thinking about the phisycal 
position, and other places you must consider the color. Second, the 
scan right button is not clickable as all the others... and if you 
select it from the list of buttons, you can see that the blue- 
blinking-ring appeas much to the right, outside the picture of the 
control.

 
The picture is based on a scan of the actual remote control. My remote 
has these buttons from left to right: Red, green, yellow, blue. That's 
also printed above the respective buttons.

7) In 1.7, the double-click in virtual-mouse does not work I think 
it worked on 1.1, but not sure. I configure a button for double 
click, but when I press it, a red circle appears and stays. Maybe it 
is double-clicking too fast, or maybe it is acting like click-and- 
hold? Single-clicking makes the red circle go away, but no double 
clicking. Pressing two times the click button still double-click.

 
Did you select "Hold left button" or "Left double click" for the 
button? The red circle is drawn by the Mousespot feature and indicates 
that the left mouse button is currently pressed.

8) iTunes is getting me nervous. It will not go away. Everytime it 
pops out of the blue. I cannot close it, it re-starts again. I have 
to ignore it. Then, many times, the iTunes behaviour comes back when 
I exit other behaviour, and some times it comes to front also. I 
have seen other people with this problem.

Please try the - for now silently - released V1.7.3 available from 
http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/download/

It should fix the problem.

 

9) The keys that control Quicktime when it is running from inside 
front-row are different from the keys that control quicktime when it 
is running stand alone. I think this is expected and programmed 
behaviour, I just would like to know if you could make front-row use 
the stand alone keys, as the have more options and are more 
configurable (custom actions, etc.)

 
There's no way to change what Front Row is doing or how it reacts to 
keys. As far as I know, it does not use QuickTime Player but rather 
uses Quicktime directly.

10) In version 1.7, Quicktime is completelly ignoring my configured 
keys while running stand alone, if I use the original configuration. 
But, if I change the keys to send apple virtual-remote presses, 
quicktime reacts OK. It is like if quicktime had support for apple 
remote itself, and were accepting only that. The specific quicktime 
control options in the configuration menu have no effect. The 
problem with changing all the controls to apple virtual remote is 
that you loose some options (while going fullscreen, etc). I'm 
pretty sure it was OK in 1.1.

 
QuickTime Player has limited support for the Apple Remote itself - and 
since the Virtual Remote provides a *true* Apple Remote emulation - 
it'll react to it.

Which version of Quicktime are you using?

11) Mplayer and VLC will not go fullscreen. They kind of do it, but 
they leave the menu bar on the top, which is annoying. Does this 
have a fix?

 
Are they the active application at the time you want to make them 
fullscreen?

Which way are you trying to have them go fullscreen? (actions, menu 
items, etc.)

Best regards, 
Felix 

User

10.10.2007 19:27:19
Re: Many problems and suggestions to RB 1.7
View
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
 
Hi Felix

4) Could you implemente an option to print a chart with the 
configuration you have for each key? I keep going back on the RB 
preferences to remember which key I associated with which function, 
as I just finished configuring and cannot still remember everything. 
Printing them would be great.

 
Unless you mean actual printing to paper, it's already there. A press 
on the PS button - with default mapping - will enter the menu and 
display a chart with the current button mapping of the most important 
buttons. Due to space limitations, not all buttons of the BD Remote 
can be displayed there.

 
Yeah, I mean in paper. I know this will not be your priority now, no problem, I just wanted to let you know that it could be useful sometimes :-)

6) There's some bugs in the PS3 picure: first, the blue and yellow 
buttons are swapped. In my control, at least. The interesting is 
that someplaces you must configure them thinking about the phisycal 
position, and other places you must consider the color. Second, the 
scan right button is not clickable as all the others... and if you 
select it from the list of buttons, you can see that the blue- 
blinking-ring appeas much to the right, outside the picture of the 
control.

 
The picture is based on a scan of the actual remote control. My remote 
has these buttons from left to right: Red, green, yellow, blue. That's 
also printed above the respective buttons.

 
Ok. First, take a look at this picture:

http://token.no-ip.com:8000/~andre/rb/ps3-bd-remote.jpg

This is my remote. As you can see, I have a different order in the buttons: Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. I am pretty sure this is a original sony product. Maybe there are two versions out there? The funny thing, as I wrote above, is that in some places you can think about the button position and ignore the color, but sometimes it's the color that matters. Please let me know what I can do to help you map what are the exact codes sent by my remote so you can make a config option to choose between both. Please also check if there are any other button in different places.

Have you confirmed the scan-right key problem?

7) In 1.7, the double-click in virtual-mouse does not work I think 
it worked on 1.1, but not sure. I configure a button for double 
click, but when I press it, a red circle appears and stays. Maybe it 
is double-clicking too fast, or maybe it is acting like click-and- 
hold? Single-clicking makes the red circle go away, but no double 
clicking. Pressing two times the click button still double-click.

 
Did you select "Hold left button" or "Left double click" for the 
button? The red circle is drawn by the Mousespot feature and indicates 
that the left mouse button is currently pressed.

 
I'm sure I chose the "Left double click". I mapped the ENTER, X, triangle, box and circle to be each one of (respectively): click, scroll on/off, double-click, click-and-hold and right-click. The only one that does not work as expected is double-click.

8) iTunes is getting me nervous. It will not go away. Everytime it 
pops out of the blue. I cannot close it, it re-starts again. I have 
to ignore it. Then, many times, the iTunes behaviour comes back when 
I exit other behaviour, and some times it comes to front also. I 
have seen other people with this problem.

Please try the - for now silently - released V1.7.3 available from 
http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/download/

It should fix the problem.

 
Will check.

10) In version 1.7, Quicktime is completelly ignoring my configured 
keys while running stand alone, if I use the original configuration. 
But, if I change the keys to send apple virtual-remote presses, 
quicktime reacts OK. It is like if quicktime had support for apple 
remote itself, and were accepting only that. The specific quicktime 
control options in the configuration menu have no effect. The 
problem with changing all the controls to apple virtual remote is 
that you loose some options (while going fullscreen, etc). I'm 
pretty sure it was OK in 1.1.

 
QuickTime Player has limited support for the Apple Remote itself - and 
since the Virtual Remote provides a *true* Apple Remote emulation - 
it'll react to it. 
Which version of Quicktime are you using?

 
Yeah, I'm not surprised it is reacting to the apple remote itself. What I find strange is it is not reacting the specific quicktime functions, while still reacting to apple remote.

I'm not at home now, but I re-installed MacOS X on the week-end (Intel, OS X 10.4.10 original DVDs) and aplied the offered updates. Did not install anything expect players (mplayer/vlc/etc) and remote buddy.

If you still need the version, I can get it later when I'm home.

11) Mplayer and VLC will not go fullscreen. They kind of do it, but 
they leave the menu bar on the top, which is annoying. Does this 
have a fix?

 
Are they the active application at the time you want to make them 
fullscreen?

Which way are you trying to have them go fullscreen? (actions, menu 
items, etc.)

 
I mapped the DISPLAY key in PS3 remote to "Go Fullscreen" in all the applications that have support for it. Mplayer and VLC both have support for fullscreen. I tested each one separately, like this:

- press RB menu 
- go to menu FILES 
- navigate to the movies dir 
- press enter on a movie 
- choose to open it with mplayer 
- mplayer opens and comes to front 
- press the DISPLAY (fullscreen) key on remote 
- it goes fullscreen but the menu bar stays visible

Close mplayer, repeat from start using VLC this time, the result will be the same.

Thanks very much, 
Andre

User

11.10.2007 02:21:38
Re: Many problems and suggestions to RB 1.7
View
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
 
Hi again.

About 6)

I made a screenshot of the right scan key on the PS3 remote. An image is worth a thousand words :-) You can access it on:

http://token.no-ip.com:8000/~andre/rb/ps3-scan-right-button.png

About 7)

I'm sure I chose the "Left double click". I mapped the ENTER, X, triangle, box and circle to be each one of (respectively): click, scroll on/off, double-click, click-and-hold and right-click. The only one that does not work as expected is double-click.

 
Just checked, I'm using "Left Double Click" for sure.

About 8)

Please try the - for now silently - released V1.7.3 available from 
http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/download/ 
It should fix the problem.

 
Will check.

 
Updated to 1.7.3. The iTunes problem is still the same. To reproduce it: Stop iTunes manually (using your mouse). Bring on the RB menu and start iTunes behaviour (that will also start iTunes). Open the menu again, go down to the Quit option, and press enter/play. iTunes will close and open again. Repeat.

About 10)

Which version of Quicktime are you using?

 
7.2 PRO with Perian installed.

And a new one:

12) I had RB on the menu only. After upgrading, it started apearing on the dock + menu, even if the options still indicated it should be only on the menu. I had to change to dock only + restart + menu only + restart to get it back only on menu. That as from 1.7 to 1.7.3 (didn't pay attention on this on the last upgrade).

User

12.10.2007 18:45:13
Re: Re: Many problems and suggestions to RB 1.7
View
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
Hi André,

Yeah, I mean in paper. I know this will not be your priority now, no 
problem, I just wanted to let you know that it could be useful 
sometimes :-)

 
Added this to the ToDo list. Don't expect this feature still this 
year, though ;-)

Ok. First, take a look at this picture:

http://token.no-ip.com:8000/~andre/rb/ps3-bd-remote.jpg

This is my remote. As you can see, I have a different order in the 
buttons: Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. I am pretty sure this is a 
original sony product. Maybe there are two versions out there? The 
funny thing, as I wrote above, is that in some places you can think 
about the button position and ignore the color, but sometimes it's 
the color that matters. Please let me know what I can do to help you 
map what are the exact codes sent by my remote so you can make a 
config option to choose between both. Please also check if there are 
any other button in different places.

 
Now that's funny! ;-)

We definately have two different versions then. Do you have a serial 
number sticker above the batteries in their compartment? If so, would 
you mind to share - I'm just curious whether this change happened 
before or after I bought my BD Remote.

Do actions you mapped to the yellow button in the UI also get executed 
when you press the yellow button on *your* remote (i.e. the rightmost) 
- or does it only get executed when you press the blue button on your 
remote (i.e. the second colored button from right)?

Have you confirmed the scan-right key problem?

 
Sorry if I'm too forgetful and I ask you to repeat yourself, but: what 
do you mean by that?

Did you select "Hold left button" or "Left double click" for the

button? The red circle is drawn by the Mousespot feature and

 
indicates 
that the left mouse button is currently pressed.

 
I'm sure I chose the "Left double click". I mapped the ENTER, X, 
triangle, box and circle to be each one of (respectively): click, 
scroll on/off, double-click, click-and-hold and right-click. The 
only one that does not work as expected is double-click.

 
Ok, I'll look into it.

Yeah, I'm not surprised it is reacting to the apple remote itself. 
What I find strange is it is not reacting the specific quicktime 
functions, while still reacting to apple remote.

I'm not at home now, but I re-installed MacOS X on the week-end 
(Intel, OS X 10.4.10 original DVDs) and aplied the offered updates. 
Did not install anything expect players (mplayer/vlc/etc) and remote 
buddy.

If you still need the version, I can get it later when I'm home.

 
I can't reproduce this on either OS X 10.4.8, 10.4.10 or 10.5. Maybe 
your Launch Services database is not complete. Please try running 
LSRefresh (find it in the blog) on QuickTime Player.app.

I mapped the DISPLAY key in PS3 remote to "Go Fullscreen" in all the 
applications that have support for it. Mplayer and VLC both have 
support for fullscreen. I tested each one separately, like this:

- press RB menu 
- go to menu FILES 
- navigate to the movies dir 
- press enter on a movie 
- choose to open it with mplayer 
- mplayer opens and comes to front 
- press the DISPLAY (fullscreen) key on remote 
- it goes fullscreen but the menu bar stays visible

Close mplayer, repeat from start using VLC this time, the result 
will be the same.

 
I tried with both VLC 0.8.6b and 0.8.6c under 10.4.10 and could not 
reproduce this. When you select the content for playback: does any VLC 
error log window pop up? It might prevent the video window from 
getting the focus within VLC, which can lead to the effect you describe.

Best regards, 
Felix 

User

12.10.2007 21:08:02
Re: Re: Many problems and suggestions to RB 1.7
View
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
 
About 6)

I made a screenshot of the right scan key on the PS3 remote. An 
image is worth a thousand words :-) You can access it on:

http://token.no-ip.com:8000/~andre/rb/ps3-scan-right-button.png

 
Thanks. Fixed it right away now.

About 7)

I'm sure I chose the "Left double click". I mapped the ENTER, X, 
triangle, box and circle to be each one of (respectively): click, 
scroll on/off, double-click, click-and-hold and right-click. The 
only one that does not work as expected is double-click.

 
Just checked, I'm using "Left Double Click" for sure.

 
I couldn't find any problem with it under 10.4.8, 10.4.10 and 10.5. 
The emulated clicks are really short, though (1/100 sec). The next 
version will have clicks with a 1/10 sec length.

Updated to 1.7.3. The iTunes problem is still the same. To reproduce 
it: Stop iTunes manually (using your mouse). Bring on the RB menu 
and start iTunes behaviour (that will also start iTunes). Open the 
menu again, go down to the Quit option, and press enter/play. iTunes 
will close and open again. Repeat.

 
This should finally be fixed in 1.7.4 now.

12) I had RB on the menu only. After upgrading, it started apearing 
on the dock + menu, even if the options still indicated it should be 
only on the menu. I had to change to dock only + restart + menu only 
+ restart to get it back only on menu. That as from 1.7 to 1.73 
(didn't pay attention on this on the last upgrade).

 
Thanks for reporting. This is a known problem.

Best regards, 
Felix 

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