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User

30.04.2008 17:30:28

DVD Player randomly quits when using closed captioning

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

I have been experiencing this issue on two different installs of 10.4.11 on a Mac Mini.

The DVD Player normally works fine, disc after disc, unless I turn on closed captions (not subtitles, but similar), then the DVD Player will quit randomly every 1-2 discs. I have done all the permission fixes and usual cache deletions, but nothing seems to work. I have also deleted preferences and plists on both machines.

The DVD Player crash log is usually cryptic, and all I can discern is that thread "one" crashed.

If I quit Remote Buddy, and just use the Apple remote 'normally' I don't get crashes.

Can anyone else reproduce this issue, or have other suggestions?

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

Hardware - Apple® Remote

After uninstalling/quitting Remote Buddy, my Mac® no longer reacts to the Apple® Remote. (FAQ015E0241)
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.
After updating to OS X 10.6.2, my Apple® Remote is no longer available for selection in Remote Buddy. (FAQ015E0236)
Please update your copy of Remote Buddy to version 1.15 or later.

User

30.04.2008 18:21:01

Re: DVD Player randomly quits when using closed captioning

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Thanks for asking.

Remote Buddy just uses AppleScript to control DVD Player. I can't see
how that could make DVD Player crash unless there is a bug in DVD
Player itself.

I haven't had any other reports on such a problem, either.

Please be sure to report the problem to Apple as only they are the
only ones that can debug and fix a problem in DVD Player.

General advice / possible solution:
You may want to check the crash log for InputManagers and other usual
suspects (like APE, SIMBL, ..). These hacks modify system behaviour
and are thus often involved in seemingly random problems. They are
also unsupported by Apple (Apple is known to simply throw away all
crash logs that contain any of these). If you experience any weird
"only-I-have-that-problem" problems, application or system crashes, I
highly recommend to check for and uninstall any such software.

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

User

30.04.2008 20:50:55

Re: DVD Player randomly quits when using closed captioning

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

The Mini has nothing but the basic install of the OS.

It only happens when Remote Buddy is running.

Without Remote Buddy running, I can run the DVD Player all day with closed captioning active, without it crashing.

User

30.04.2008 22:30:02

Re: Re: DVD Player randomly quits when using closed captioning

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Remote Buddy really doesn't do anything unusual. Most basic
AppleScript in the case of DVD Player and that's really it.

Whatever it is that makes DVD Player crash, Remote Buddy is not the
actual cause and thus can't be the fix, either. As you said you don't
have any of the previously mentioned hacks installed, the only
possible conclusion for me is that you have stumbled over a bug in DVD
Player's AppleScript support. Sure, Remote Buddy uses AppleScript, but
what makes DVD Player crash is not Remote Buddy, but the bug in the
AppleScript support of DVD Player. I consider it unlikely that Apple
releases a fix for anything but a security issue in 10.4.11, yet the
only chance to get one is to send the crash reports to Apple - or -
even better - file a bug report at http://bugreport.apple.com.

Anyhow, here's a possible workaround:

To entirely avoid AppleScript-interaction with DVD Player, you can
change the mapping at

Preferences > Mapping > DVD Player

so that the buttons are no longer mapped to the specific actions
offered for DVD Player but rather to those of the Virtual Remote. The
Virtual Remote actions create the absolutely same events as when you'd
use the Apple Remote when Remote Buddy is not running. It's a true
emulation and is able to command all software with Apple Remote
support that I've ever come across.

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

User

01.05.2008 00:56:32

Re: DVD Player randomly quits when using closed captioning

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

Will this allow me to accurately identify, as you say, if the interaction is between AppleScript and DVD Player?

To entirely avoid AppleScript-interaction with DVD Player, you can
change the mapping at

Preferences > Mapping > DVD Player

In this preference location, I am unsure how to do as you suggest. I'm new at understanding Remote Buddy, so pardon my ignorance of this panel.

Also, the crashing is not associated with button clicking, merely that RB is running.

Last edited: 01.05.2008 01:02:51

User

06.05.2008 11:57:01

Re: Re: DVD Player randomly quits when using closed captioning

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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.

1) Go to Prefrences > Mapping
2) Select DVD Player from the left
3) Click on an action entry in the middle table and select the Virtual
Remote action corresponding to the button of your remote from the drop-
down menu. For example for button "Left" use "Virtual Remote > Virtual
button press: Left", for "Left (hold)" use "Virtual Remote > Virtual
button press: Left (hold)" .. and so on ..

Best regards,
Felix Schwarz

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