| Author | Thread |
User 22.01.2008 02:32:43 | Latest Remote Buddy breaks SageTV's remote control | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. I just checked back with this app after leaving it not working around christmas. That problem has been fixed excellently, and its great to see how good remote buddy could be. I've just installed the mac version of SageTV client (www.freytechnologies.com) a client for the PVR that i have running on a PC, and have had for ages. It all works well though really is asking for better remote support. I was hopeful the inbuilt mac mini remote receiver would somehow (perhaps via remotebuddy!?) be able to work with any remote controller i chose, to give more buttons to the app to make it usable. Sadly that doesn't seem to work but using the apple remote as is is an ok solution if you can do with basic navigation. After installing the latest remote buddy though, and then installing the kernel driver extensions the remote functionality no longer works when SageTV is running. If i unload the driver the remote works again. Is this something i need to point out to Frey Technologies or is it possible you could have a look to see if there is anything remote buddy could do to play nice. One thing i wondered was if somehow when remote buddy detects that SageTV was running it could unload, or temporarily disable to a pass through state the extensions to allow it to work. Thanks again. One last problem, which i fear is going to be down to SageTV not remote buddy and then the mac mini can hopefully rest under the tv. Cheers
| These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic: Driver The Setup Wizard already contains a summary on how the driver does help Remote Buddy to provide additional features and hardware support. If that summary was too short, here's some more info on each of the points:
- fix for Apple® Remote driver problems in OS X
Since OS X 10.4.9 (that includes 10.4.10/10.4.11/10.5.x/..) many users have been experiencing that one button press on their remote does now trigger two reactions - once from any currently running application that supports the Apple® Remote, once the default system action. So, this problem is not specific to Remote Buddy. The driver provides a clean, system conform fix to this problem using only documented APIs.
- enabling of all features of built-in IR receivers
Only with the Remote Buddy driver do you gain support for arbitrary length button presses for the Play and Menu buttons as well as minimized reaction times for all buttons. While this may sound like unimportant technical details, they actually do have a strong practical impact. If, for example, you want to map a function to the Play or Menu button, that you want to see executed for as long as you press that button, this was previously simply impossible to achieve. This limitation still applies to all other applications. It does not for Remote Buddy with the driver loaded.
- the emulation of a virtual Apple® Remote
Control applications that have support for and listen to an Apple® Remote - with any remote control of your choice supported by Remote Buddy. And on any Mac®. This allows you to f.ex. use iAlertU side by side with Remote Buddy or accessing special functions and modes inside applications that would otherwise require these apps to have full control over the built-in IR receiver of your Mac® - and that your Mac® actually came with one.
- support for Bluetooth® remotes and external receivers
It's not possible to reliably operate many Bluetooth® based remotes, like for example the Wii® Remote with a Mac® purely from userspace due to limitations in the operating system. The situation for many external receivers is similiar: some of their features - or the entire device - can only be supported with the help of a driver.
Hardware
- Please make sure you have the latest version of Remote Buddy installed. If in doubt, download the latest version, quit Remote Buddy, delete it, empty your trash, then copy the downloaded version of Remote Buddy to your harddrive and start it from there.
- Please make sure, that you have installed the latest version of the Remote Buddy drivers. You can install the drivers using the Setup Wizard (=> access it via the Remote Buddy pulldown menu).
- Check your Remote Buddy settings in the Hardware category. Your remote control should be listed there and the lamp next to it should be green. If you don't find your remote control there, either the Remote Buddy drivers were not installed or installed in an outdated version - or - there is a general problem with the device. For USB devices, plugging the device to another port or resetting the PMU and/or SMC-unit of your Mac® (=> find guides on how to do this for your Mac® in the support area of apple.com) may help. If you can't find it under "USB" in the System Profiler (=> /Applications/Utilities) either, a hardware defect is as well possible.
- Check the batteries of your remote control.
- If your remote control has an on/off switch: make sure that your remote control is switched on.
- If your remote control requires additional receiver hardware: make sure that it is correctly attached to your computer and that it turns up in System Profiler.
- If you use an Apple® Remote, you should also check your system settings. Quit Remote Buddy, then open System Preferences.app > Security. Please make sure that the option to disable the infrared receiver is NOT active and click on "Unpair" should you have paired your Apple® Remote with your Mac®. After that, start Remote Buddy. If your Apple® Remote still doesn't work with Remote Buddy, please also check its preferences for the Apple® Remote. They can be found at Preferences > Hardware > Built-in IR receiver. If support for multiple remote controls is enabled there, ensure that your remote control is checked in the right table (=> you can find the correct entry for your remote control by pressing a button on it).
- If you are using a Keyspan™ RF Remote for Front Row, re-pair its remote control and receiver by simultaneously pressing the small knob on the back of the remote control and the knob on the receiver stick (the knob looks like the blinking LED, except it does not blink).
Hardware - Apple® Remote
To enable you to use all capabilities of the IR Receiver of your Mac®, Remote Buddy is using its own driver. In contrast, all other applications with integrated Apple® Remote support usually use the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.
As long as you're running Remote Buddy, Remote Buddy and its driver are responsible for turning the received button presses into actions. As soon as you quit Remote Buddy, this task is again handled by the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.
If other applications don't use the interface to the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem correctly, this can lead to the effect that nothing happens when you press a button on your Apple® Remote. For as long as you're running Remote Buddy, issues like this are covered by Remote Buddy and it's driver and are therefore not visible to you. However, as soon as you quit Remote Buddy, the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem is back in control and any issues caused in it by other applications become visible.
Therefore Remote Buddy is neither the cause of the issue nor is it responsible for it. Instead, the cause of the issue exists independently of Remote Buddy. It's located elsewhere and can also only be solved there.
Although our products can't cause any such issues, we're regularly contacted about such issues and asked for help. In order to make locating and fixing the cause of such issues as easy and efficient as possible, we've developed a free diagnostics tool: Remote Control Diagnostics. It can locate issues with a single click and will provide you with information about the issue as well as with instructions on how you can fix it.
Please update your copy of Remote Buddy to version 1.15 or later.
| User 22.01.2008 11:10:02 | Re: Latest Remote Buddy breaks SageTV's remote control | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hello James, Remote Buddy plays extremely nice in the system. So nice in fact, that
Apple's entire set of remote control tools and frameworks does
recognize and address Remote Buddy's driver when it's loaded. Quit
Remote Buddy f.ex., then go to System Preferences > Security and try
pairing and disabling the receiver. You'll see that - even though
Remote Buddy isn't running - the driver will act correctly and behave
exactly like Apple's own driver. That was *a lot* of work to get
working - and not a single bit on the system software is patched or
modified - neither on disk nor in memory. Regarding SageTV:
As SageTV is currently not supported with a Behaviour, you'll not be
able to control it out of the box. If it has built-in support for the
Apple Remote for both Tiger and Leopard (yeah, Apple changed the HID
descriptor for AppleIRController under Leopard which may require code
modifications depending on whether or not the programmer knew the
meaning of HID cookies and values), you can choose the Virtual Remote
in the menu (=> Input devices > Virtual Remote) and control it. You can also create an empty Behaviour with the Behaviour Construction
Kit and assign the globally available Virtual Remote actions to the
respective buttons. It'll then be automagically detected and handled. At any rate, unless SageTV did something totally outside of the HID
system, it will work with Remote Buddy just fine. The OS does, EyeTV
does, all apps I know of supporting the Apple Remote do. The only
class of apps that won't work with the remote under Leopard - no
matter whether or not Remote Buddy's driver is installed - are those
using an old version of the AppleRemoteWrapper by Martin Kahr. Hope that helps. Best regards,
Felix
| User 22.01.2008 23:34:31 | Re: Latest Remote Buddy breaks SageTV's remote control | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Thanks for the detailed reply. Great stuff. I have no idea how they're coding the support of the remote, i just know it stops working whilst the kernel extensions are running/loading regardless of whether remotebuddy is actually running itself. Are you saying that via the virtual remote i can perhaps make the apple remote inputs be picked up by remote buddy and then effectively press keyboard presses when in that app, and then just use those presses to carry on controlling the app? Not ideal, but great to know its an option.. i was a bit lost when i had a quick look trying to fix this last night.. If i can get the two of them working together i'll be happy to use remote buddy all the time, great to see the potential now it works properly in leopard. Do you know of any way that i can just get another type of remote control with more buttons working either via remote buddy, or directly to get a lot more buttons to better control this app? Last edited: 22.01.2008 23:35:43
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